“Were they bonded like we are?”
“I don’t know anyone who is.”
“Have you talked with him since?”
“No. A long time ago, he betrayed our parents to Pavlos and joined the Alliance. Or maybe it was the other way around. In any event, all he cared about was himself and getting his hands on more Sweet.”
Mackenzie set his cup on the table behind them and took his hand. “So why do you blame yourself for your parents’ deaths?”
“I knew about the threat, but I left them unprotected anyway.” Her calm energies soothed him and the familiar angry knots that balled up in his shoulders whenever he thought about his family didn’t feel quite so solid.
“You said your father was on the Council. Did he not know about the threat?”
“He actually knew about it before I told him. All Council families were in danger and I urged him to take Mother to London, far away from Madrid, until we got a handle on things there.”
Mackenzie pursed her lips, lost in thought for a moment. “Did you have extra knowledge that you didn’t act on?”
“No.”
“Did your father not believe the threat was real?”
“He knew it was real, but I’m not sure he thought it was imminent. He planned to take my mother to Casa en las Colinas, our family’s estate overlooking the Cantabrian Sea, but Alfonso brought Pavlos the night before they were to leave.”
She gasped. “Your brother?”
“He waited out in the coach while Pavlos, the Darkblood Overlord, slaughtered our parents. The guards only let the coach through the gates because my brother was inside.”
TIRED FROM THE late night, she awoke midmorning, wrapped in the protective cocoon of his arms. During the night, she’d awakened occasionally to find him caressing or lightly kissing her hair. She had hoped to roll over just once and hear the sound of deep, sleep-induced breathing, but she never did.
“What’s bothering you?” Her hand ran absently over his chest.
“Darkblood concerns. Nothing for you to worry about, but we do need to go soon.”
She stiffened. “Didn’t you find that other guy?”
“Lily did. She took care of him.”
Thank God. Her muscles loosened again and she nestled deeper into his arms. “Then what’s wrong?”
“We’ve uncovered a new Darkblood plot.”
She propped herself up on one elbow to find him staring at the ceiling, his thoughts clearly focused elsewhere. “Do we need to get going so you can get back to work?”
“We’re waiting for other Guardian teams to arrive later this afternoon.”
That explained the faraway look, but why was she picking up his reluctance to say more? Did it somehow involve her? Was that it? She couldn’t imagine how things could get any worse than having two vampires hunt and almost kill her. But those two were gone. Dead. So why was he worried?
Like a slap, the realization hit her. The threat wasn’t gone after all.
“Tell me,” she said. “I deserve to know.”
The small muscle at the base of his jaw tensed. “I suppose it’s only fair you know, but I don’t want to frighten you further.”
“Well, if it helps, I’ve never been more unfrightened—is that a word?—than I am when I’m with you.” She felt him relax, sensed some of the tension seep from his shoulders. “Tell me,” she repeated.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “We’ve discovered the Alliance has created a genetic breeding facility and they’re searching for Sangre Dulce humans to be their test subjects.”
“A breeding facility? Why?”
“To harvest sweetblood. They want to create a group of selectively bred Sangre Dulce humans to produce unlimited supplies of the blood. More Sweet means more power.”
Humans as breeding stock? Like animals? The…the babies?
Her legs were rubber bands as she jumped from the bed and ran to the bathroom. Dom was there, his strong arms supporting her as if she were a small, sick child. He held her hair away from her face, gently stroking her back as she retched. When she was finished, he gave her a damp cloth and wrapped his arms around her.
“I’m here, love. You’re safe with me. You’re okay.”
“It’s just…so…awful.” She could barely wrap her mind around it. The cruelty was impossible to comprehend.
His shushing in her ear soothed the gnawing ache in her belly, and she melted into his embrace. She didn’t know how long it took to finally calm down, but he held her the whole time.
“Thank you,” she whispered as she pulled away. “I’m okay now. But you really must get back. Your work is out there—not here with me.”
He wanted to catch the next ferry, so she didn’t have time for a shower. After brushing her teeth and splashing her face with water, she pulled on some of the clothes Shirl had bought for her. Black leggings and a Washington State University Cougars sweatshirt. Great. It killed her to put it on, but her only other set of clothes was damp and caked with sand from clam digging.
When she exited the bathroom, she heard the washing machine running. Dom had pulled the linens off the bed and started the laundry so there’d be less cleanup for Shirl.
When they got to the main house, Shirl stood up from a flower bed where she’d been tending to the rosebushes. Taking one look at Dom, she said, “Chuck’s in the kitchen.”
“Wait here,” Dom told Mackenzie, and he disappeared inside.
“Told you he’d come back. To travel all this way in the bright sun…” Shirl shook her head and whistled. “That man is über-crazy about you.”
Before she could respond, she heard footsteps on the porch behind her.
“Hello, Mackenzie,” Chuck said, giving her a brief nod. Dom was right beside him. This was the closest she’d come to the older man.
“Kenz, walk to the bottom of the steps,” Dom said. “Okay, now turn around a few times.”
“What for?” She felt like a ballerina as she twirled for them.
Dom kept himself between her and Chuck. “Good. Now slowly come up to the top step and stop.” His eyes were glued to the man as she complied. “Chuck?”
“I can tell, but it’s not as distinct,” he said, sniffing the air.
“Hmm. Interesting,” Dom said.
They murmured a few words she couldn’t hear, then Chuck laughed—guffawed, actually. As Dom turned around, he held his chin a bit higher, a cocky grin plastered on his face.
“Okay, what’s going on? Is this some sort of joke?” Both men laughed this time. “Guess so,” she muttered to Shirl.
The woman responded by rolling her eyes. “Men.”
“Thanks for everything,” Dom said to Chuck. “We’ll be in touch.”
Shirl grabbed Mackenzie in a bear hug, then led her to the car. “Everything will work out, honey. Just you wait and see. It’s like you’re the spark that lit Dom’s world on fire.” The woman gave Mackenzie one last squeeze and released her. “Nice sweatshirt, by the way. It looks good on you.”
“Thanks for everything, Shirl. But did you know I’m a Husky?”
“Yes, I did. Rawr.” She clawed the air with her fingernails, and it was her turn to laugh as Mackenzie climbed into the car.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
DOM SHADOWED MACKENZIE the whole time they were at her house, not letting her out of his sight. If he’d had his way, she knew he would have come for her things himself.
“Let’s go.” He barked out the words as if she worked for him.
She glared at him. “Hold on. Just let me grab my phone charger and water my plants. Orchids are delicate and require a lot of care.”
“Bring the damn thing with you then and let’s get going. We don’t have time for all your obsessive chores.”
“Do you have my laptop and camera?”
“Yes.” He paced back and forth in the dining room with such a heavy step the china in her mother’s hutch rattled.
“What about my mail an
d newspaper?”
He let out a sound of frustration. “Can’t your roommate do that for you?”
“She’s hardly ever—”
As if to make a mockery of her words, headlights flashed in the window and a moment later Sam burst through the front door in tears.
“What’s wrong? What happened to you?” Mackenzie took Sam by the shoulders and tried looking into her eyes, but Sam didn’t answer, crying into her hands instead.
“Where is he? Your boyfriend?” Dom asked.
Before Mackenzie had time to wonder why Dom would ask, Sam responded. “He dropped me off. He’s probably down the block by now.”
“Stay here,” he ordered and ran out the door.
Mackenzie had just finished making Sam a cup of tea when Dom returned. “He won’t be pulling that bullshit on you again,” Dom said to Sam. He grabbed one of Mackenzie’s bags and slung it over his shoulder. “You ready?”
“I don’t feel comfortable leaving Sam. Can we stay here and—”
“I’m fine. Really. My mother’s been after me to visit her. I haven’t been as good a daughter as you. It’s been a couple of months since I’ve seen her.”
“And you’re sure she’s home?”
“Yeah, tonight’s a big television night for her. She DVRs her favorite soaps and watches them all at once.”
Dom loaded the Porsche with Mackenzie’s things as they waited for Sam to pack her bags, and when she pulled her car out of the garage, they were right behind her.
“What was that all about?” Mackenzie asked. “With her boyfriend.”
“Sam is a massage therapist, right?”
“Yes. She works for one of the boutique hotels downtown.”
“She doesn’t realize it, but her boyfriend is a vampire. I only had to look at her to realize it. He’s been taking too much of her energies through her massages and other touches, which has made him a little too aggressive. That happens sometimes, but it’s more common in the South.”
That explained why her roommate had been looking so tired lately. “What did you say to him?”
“I didn’t do a lot of talking.”
BACK AT THE loft, after Dom left for the field office, Mackenzie took her mocha, her laptop and her recharged cell phone up to the rooftop terrace.
She had a few voice mail messages, but she decided to call Corey first. Dom wanted to meet him as soon as possible to see if he was Sangre Dulce. If so, he was in danger and they needed to figure out how to get him either here or to another safe house. But what were the odds both of them having this type of blood? Not high, Dom had told her. He’d also said Corey hadn’t been on the list of known Sweetbloods, but still, they couldn’t take any chances. She wouldn’t be able to relax until she knew for certain Corey didn’t have the same blood characteristics she had.
“Hey, Kenzie, what’s happening?”
“Are you free for dinner tonight? I’ve got someone I want to introduce you to.” She didn’t know that she was quite ready to start introducing Dom as her…what…boyfriend? What an inadequate description. But it made for a good excuse to get together with Corey.
“I’ll have to talk to Vanessa first. She hates it when I make plans without consulting her.”
“Talk to her and let me know as soon as possible, all right?”
“Does it have to be tonight? I’ll have a better chance of talking her into it if we schedule something in advance.”
“No,” she said quickly. Realizing she sounded a little desperate, she cleared her throat to give her a moment to collect herself. “It’s just that this guy means a lot to me and I really want you to meet him.”
“Okay, what’s going on? You’re not planning a trip to Vegas anytime soon, are you?”
She didn’t argue. Might as well let him think what he wanted if it got him to agree to dinner this evening.
After she hung up with Corey, she looked out over Elliott Bay and knew she could never tire of this ever-changing yet constant view. Today the sky was completely gray with clouds and the water looked cold and ominous. She hoped Sam was doing better.
Okay. Email or voice mail?
Remembering she hadn’t checked the email for her new business in a few days, she settled back on the canopied lounge, tucked the blankets around her legs and grabbed her laptop. Cool. A friend from college she hadn’t seen in a couple of years had found her website and contacted her. Mackenzie fired back a quick hello and suggested they meet for coffee sometime. Oh, and someone from a small farming town near the Canadian border was interested in having her do a commissioned piece of one of her whimsical landscapes. Wanted to send her a few pictures or drawings—weird—of his childhood home in Europe. Oh well, should be fun.
After finishing her email, she speed-dialed her voice mail. Five new messages had come in while her phone’s battery was dead. Steve needed some pictures of a small marina in the evening. If Corey could meet tonight, maybe she could drag Dom to the one in Des Moines. That way she could take a few pictures while they were down there as she didn’t know when she’d be able to go out again. Dom certainly wasn’t about to let her go out on her own anytime soon.
Three messages from Dom. She listened to them next. Closing her eyes, she pressed replay a few times just to hear the timbre of his voice. He sounded heartbroken. She felt a little guilty that she enjoyed hearing just how torn up he had been about leaving.
When she played the final message, her blood ran cold and she nearly dropped the phone.
“Oh my God. Martin.”
She dialed his number but it went right to voice mail. She checked the call history to see what time he’d left the message. When she rang his condo and he didn’t pick up, she called Dom.
“Everything all right, Kenz? I’m sensing—”
“Martin, they have Martin.” She relayed the contents of the brief message to Dom. “That was the class I was supposed to teach last night.”
“I’ll head over to the art school at dusk to check it out.”
“We can’t wait that long. That’s in six hours. I’m going now.” She rushed down the stairs from the terrace and burst through the door into the hallway of the loft.
“No, you’re not,” Dom yelled at her through the phone. “You’re staying right there. It’s not safe for you to be out alone.”
“I can’t just sit here. You can’t go out and neither can any of your people. That leaves me. Since the Darkbloods won’t be out, either, I’ll be fine.”
“Goddamn it, Kenz. You’re not going anywhere.” The line went dead.
She didn’t know how far away the field office was, but she was determined to be gone before he arrived. She grabbed her purse and hoped she’d be able to quickly find a taxi. After waiting a moment for the slowest elevator in the world to reach her floor, she decided to take the stairs. She’d only made it down one flight when a deep voice boomed from above.
“Where in the hell are you going?”
She let out a little yelp and kept going. “Don’t try to stop me,” she called over her shoulder. “Martin needs—” She smacked into Dom’s chest at the next landing. She would’ve fallen to her knees if he hadn’t caught her. “How the hell—” He grabbed her wrist and started to yank her up the stairs. “Let me go.” She dug her heels in and leaned back with all her weight, struggling to break free. When Dom kept hauling her up the stairs as if she were a naughty child, she kicked at his shins.
Without a word, he hoisted her up and slung her over his shoulder. She tried to kick, but he held her legs tight at the ankles, so she pummeled his back with her fists. “Goddamn it, Dom.” She was sobbing now. “I’ve got to get to Martin.”
He kicked open the steel door of the loft and stomped down the hallway to his bedroom. With another hard kick of his boot, he slammed the door shut behind them and flung her onto the bed.
His eyes narrowed and the muscles in his jaw flexed as he ground his teeth together. She wasn’t surprised to see the tips of his fangs. With the e
xception of that night in the cabin when he’d left, she’d never seen him so angry, but she was determined to stand against him this time.
“I told you to stay put and I meant it.” His words sounded different with that mouthful of teeth.
They probably weren’t conducive to speaking. Well, screw that.
She jumped to her feet on the bed, empowered by the vantage point of looking down on him. Seeing his teeth should’ve frightened her, but all she felt was pissed off and frustrated at being forced into his room like this. Fangs or no fangs—no one ordered her around like this. She poked her forefinger solidly into his chest.
“How dare you tell me what I can and cannot do? Martin is a dear friend. Something happened to him because of me. You sure as hell can’t do a fucking thing about it at this time of day, but I can. So get out of my goddamned way.”
“You don’t go anywhere without me or my approval.” He spun on his heel and strode out the door before she could jump from the bed. When she heard the sound of a deadbolt sliding into place, she grabbed the lamp off the nightstand and swung it at the door like a baseball bat. It shattered into a million pieces and she sank to the floor.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
A THICK, OPPRESSIVE blanket of clouds covered the sun, reducing the UV output dramatically. With a skull cap, long sleeves and his collar pulled up, Dom hoped he’d be able to withstand the daylight for a short while before noticing an energy drain.
He arrived at the art school just as his buddy on the Seattle Police Department, Johnny Sinclair, pulled up in an unmarked vehicle. They’d first met when Johnny was in Special Forces and Dom was an expert they’d brought in to teach knife-fighting skills. The two men had stayed in touch over the years. When Johnny joined the SPD and Dom was transferred here by the Agency, they occasionally helped each other out. Johnny was one of a few select humans who knew about his world.
Bonded by Blood Page 24
