by Melody Raven
by
Melody Raven
Copyright
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Fonts used with permission from Microsoft.
Copyright © 2019 by Melody Raven
Melody Raven (5/27/2019). Blood Bond (New Breed Series Book Two)
Cover Design by Cover Couture
www.bookcovercouture.com
Want to get more FREE from Melody?
Click here to get started: MelodyRavenBooks.com/free-stuff
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright
Want more free from Melody?
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Epilogue
Look inside Blood Cure!
“A portal?”
“A portal,” confirmed Joshua Park in a serious voice she never expected to spout such crazy notions.
Alyssa looked between the men standing around her in the room and didn’t see any sign of sarcasm. Not that Seattle mayor Holden Barrons or General Paul Wesley—a five-star general, at least according to the fancy decorations on his suit—would be sarcastic.
She leaned forward and looked at the shimmery surface. It looked like water. Like a puddle in the middle of the floor. That was a good thing. At least if someone took a picture, it wouldn’t look like some otherworldly portal.
And that was her job, apparently. To make sure that the public only knew what she wanted them to know. Usually she was called in to cover up a simple affair or secret baby. Nothing like this conspiracy.
“And how many people know about this portal?” she asked, trying to sound cool and collected. Not as if her entire worldview was collapsing around her.
“Unknown,” said General Wesley.
Figured. “All right. At least the truth sounds crazier than any fiction we’re going to come up with. And what fiction do you have in mind?”
“We’d rather shoulder the blame on this than induce a mass panic. A government experiment gone wrong. In an effort to give our soldiers the advantages they’d need on the field, they went crazy and started to crave blood.”
Oh goodness. They really did need her. “We can’t say you accidentally made vampires. You made soldiers who thought they were vampires. A delusion that went too far.”
Joshua Park clapped and pointed at her. “Did you hear that? I told you this girl knows what she’s talking about.”
“So you can make up a good story,” said the general, not looking at all won over. “Until the public actually starts believing it, I’m not convinced.”
He was right. She could talk a good talk all she wanted, but she was going to have to actually prove herself here. “We’re going to have to be careful about this. Any good cover-up never looks like a cover-up. I’d play it cool with the press for another day. Keep on saying ‘No comment’ while I get some of the conspiracy theory boards fired up, and then we’ll leak a video. On Monday, we can go forward with our planned story.”
“That’s it?” asked Wesley skeptically.
Alyssa snorted. “My job is to make this easy for you, but, believe me, there’s nothing easy about it. I’m going to have a few hundred accounts all supporting this theory. Besides, right now, people would much rather hate the government than some supernatural entity.”
The general snorted. “You’re smarter than I first thought,” he grumbled.
She wondered whether he’d underestimated her because she was a woman or because she was in sweatpants and sneakers. But it wasn’t as if her army escort had given her a chance to change. She’d been picked up outside the grocery store with her pint of ice cream that was surely ruined and a gossip magazine, which was now probably covered by the melting ice cream, and ushered unceremoniously into a black windowless van that had driven her right into the heart of Seattle. But they’d assured her they’d already been to her house and packed her a bag, which, shockingly, didn’t give her any comfort.
News of the Siege of Seattle had spread quickly, but very little information had been leaked to the public. Everyone had been buzzing about which terrorist organization had been responsible, but as the weeks stretched on, it became more and more apparent that none of the usual suspects had taken credit for it.
But with all the speculation going on during the twenty-four-hour news cycle, no one had thought vampires were responsible. No wonder the government had cut off internet so soon in the city. This would go down as one of the biggest cover-ups of all time.
Though she supposed no one could know that. If a cover-up was good enough, it went unnoticed. That was kind of the point.
Suddenly, the monumental task ahead of her sunk in. Holy shit, how was she going to pull this off? She was going to need a team. A whole team. Some sort of support. She was just one person and—
“We’ve arranged a house for you,” said Joshua, as though that would help her in any way.
“Why can’t I go back to my apartment?”
“Because we want you where we can keep an eye on you. You’re a civilian who we’re trusting with this. If word gets out, you’re the first one we’re going to come looking for.”
Alyssa pursed her mouth and stopped herself from saying what she really wanted to say. If it were up to her, she’d turn this job down. She didn’t need the money and she sure as hell didn’t need the hassle.
But when Joshua had met her in the car and asked her whether she wanted to be brought in on a top-clearance job, she’d impulsively said yes. She thought there was a pregnancy or a scandal that had to be covered up. Not this. She’d give anything for a dead hooker right now.
Okay, maybe this was better than helping a murderer. But not much better.
And she was well aware why they were bringing in a civilian for this and not using their vast resources. It was because General Wesley wanted her to fail. She’d be the scapegoat and he could shrug his shoulders and say he tried his best.
She was officially being set up to fail.
She stared into the otherworldly portal. She might as well step through it now. Her world was never going to be the same.
“Would you like me to drive you to your safe house?” asked Joshua after all the other more important men were gone. Not that Joshua wasn’t important in his own right. But they might as well be on the same level considering the giants they were dealing with.
She had to hold back a laugh at the word “safe.” She had a feeling that word didn’t mean what Joshua thought it did. “How far away is this place?”
“What does it matter?”
What a soldier. He lived his entire life on a need-to-know basis. “It matters because I’ve had to pee since you kidnapped me a few hours ago.”
“Fair enough,” he said, smartly ignoring the kidnapping dig. “The
closest bathroom is down the hall and to the right.”
She raised a brow. “You’re not going to follow me?”
Joshua snorted. “This building is crawling with army. There’s nowhere you could go you’re not allowed. Besides, you never know if there are any vampires we missed.”
Her skin crawled at the notion. She liked her blood. She’d prefer it stay right where it was. “So down the hall on the right?”
“Yep.”
“I’ll be right back then.”
She made her way carefully through the basement corridor of the Sorenson Building. A building she’d never heard about before tonight. Apparently the rich and powerful used to live here. Until that portal was closed, she was betting even those rich and powerful dollars couldn’t get the building reopened.
Even the basement was nice. The hallways were decorated with light, airy paintings, as though to combat the fact that there was no natural light. The corridors were untouched, unlike the wreckage above her. It was a war zone out there. The rest of the country was untouched, but this city was a whole new world.
She turned right at the end of the hall but realized there were a bunch of doors and none of them were labeled as a restroom. Funny, Joshua had described the place as crawling with soldiers, but there was no one around now.
She pushed the doors open one by one, but it was proving to be an exercise in futility.
She was about to give up and go back to Joshua, but she tried one more door. Except this one wasn’t like the others. This room wasn’t empty. When she saw the man standing in the middle of the apparent bedroom, her heart leapt in her chest. She opened her mouth to scream, but a second later, that large silhouette was in front of her and a hand covered her lips.
Vampire. Holy shit. Even after being told the truth, she wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes. He’d moved so fast. Definitely inhumanly fast.
And this beast was right in front of her. He was huge and towering over her, with large black eyes looking mercilessly down at her. She clawed at him and tried to wiggle away, but he stood there as though he didn’t have a care in the world. And considering that the door had shut behind her as she’d been pulled inside, he wouldn’t even have to rush as he killed her. As though he could do this all day. Fuck. She was better than this. She could figure this out. If struggling wasn’t going to work, she’d have to use the only asset she had. Her wit.
Forcing herself to stop struggling, she allowed her arms to go limp at her sides and blinked the fear out of her eyes. There was nothing she could do about her jackhammering heartbeat. Then, slowly and calmly, she brought one hand up to his and gently tapped.
She half expected the monster in front of her to ignore her, but shockingly, he removed his hand from her mouth.
But that didn’t mean he stepped away from her. Still, this was progress. She could work wonders with her mouth. “I’m so sorry to disturb you. I was looking for the little girls’ room. You wouldn’t happen to know where it is?”
“You’re looking for a little girl?” he asked harshly. His voice was deep, his accent somewhere between Russian and German.
“Bathroom. I’m looking for a bathroom. I said little girls’ room as a way to make myself seem smaller and less threatening. Because I am small and not threatening to you. I won’t scream or anything, I promise.”
He frowned, and for the first time, her fear abated slightly. Very slightly. Enough for her to realize that this guy was hot. Very hot. Like, cover of a magazine hot. Maybe a bodybuilder magazine because the dude was built.
Priorities, Alyssa! “I’m so sorry to have gotten in your way, and if you’ll just let me leave now that would be great.”
But he didn’t move. He just kept on staring at her with that damn quizzical look. “You’re not one of them.”
Well hell, she had no idea what he meant by that. But she wasn’t going to disagree. “Not at all. And I promise I won’t tell them about you either.”
His eyes glanced down, and if it were possible, she felt even smaller. He opened his mouth, but before he said anything, he stiffened and turned to the door. She was about to ask what he heard, but a fraction of a second later, he was across the room from her. That’s when she heard the footsteps.
Of course he heard them first. Vampire. Duh.
Alyssa wrapped her arms around herself. Now that he was across the room, she was so much colder. So vampires were real and they were warm. If only there was a way to cover this up from herself.
The door to the room opened and she could tell the second Joshua saw the vampire because he pulled out his handgun and pointed it at the creature, who didn’t seem all that intimidated.
“I didn’t hurt the girl,” he said simply, staring at Alyssa as though waiting for her to confirm what he said.
She swallowed tightly. “I’m fine. Just got lost on the way to the bathroom.” Come to think of it, she was damn lucky she didn’t pee herself in fear. Was that a genetic thing or did she just have really good self-control? What a stupid thing to think of. Adrenaline was odd.
“You’re supposed to be upstairs,” Joshua told the vampire warily.
“You know him?” asked Alyssa. “I thought the vampires were all being killed.”
The vampire raised a brow at her. “So small, yet so violent.”
For a moment, she was insulted. How dare he think she was violent. Then she realized that violence was a perfectly reasonable reaction to have to this situation. “I don’t answer to you,” she snapped.
Now both Joshua and the vampire were looking at her as if she were crazy. Oh, for the love of— “Are we good to go?”
Joshua looked between her and the vampire. “Yeah. Let me just radio the team that he’s here—”
“Don’t bother,” said the vampire. “I’ll be back there before they realize I’m gone.” He then moved slowly, menacingly past Alyssa and then Joshua before disappearing into the hallway.
She didn’t hear any footsteps, so she had a feeling that slow walk was just for their benefit.
She let out a deep breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. “You were right. There really were vampires hiding in the shadows.” A tremor snaked through her hand, and she clenched her fingers into fists to stop the shaking.
“He’s one of ours.”
What the hell did that mean? “I didn’t realize we had vampires on our side.”
“He was working with us as we took back the city. In exchange, he’s getting some leniency.”
She hadn’t realized how formidable the invasion had been if the government was cutting deals with the devil. “So... vampires. What are we talking here? How do they even exist? Are they really dead? Like zombies?”
“That’s not need-to-know.”
“No, I think it really is need-to-know. Come on, Joshua. I’m not asking as some contractor. I’m asking as your friend.”
“You dated my brother. That doesn’t mean we’re friends.”
True, friends wasn’t the best way to describe their relationship. After Joshua’s brother had cheated on her and dumped her, leaving her unexpectedly homeless, Joshua had funneled her pity jobs for scandals in the military.
If he was truly her friend, he never would’ve roped her into this current crisis, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t use their past relationship as leverage for more information. “Come on, man. If anyone is good at keeping secrets, it’s me. Just give me a quick rundown.”
“All right.” He sighed. “We have no idea what they really are. We have scientists working around the clock on this shit, but there are some things that we can just boil down to magic.”
“Magic?”
“You saw the portal. We sure as hell can’t find an explanation for the wall that was set up around the city. Magic is all I’ve got right now. Shit’s weird, Lys.”
“What about the vampires? Are they actually dead guys?”
“Not dead. They have heartbeats and body temps. But t
hey’re damn hard to kill. I’m telling you, Lys, I’ve seen them heal. It’s not right.”
She thought about how fast she’d seen the vampire move and she was fully a believer. “And the whole blood thing?”
“Oh, they’re blood suckers. I hear the women in the city had to sell their blood during the siege.”
She frowned. “Only women?”
“Mostly women. There are a few vamps who like to tangle swords, but for the most part, hetero.”
She frowned. “There weren’t any girl vampires?”
He snorted. “Oh no. Just dudes from what I can tell. I suppose if I came from a planet full of dick, I’d be ready to invade no matter the odds too, right?”
Goose bumps broke out over her flesh, and Alyssa really hoped Joshua couldn’t tell.
“Do you still need to use the bathroom?” he asked.
“No,” she lied. “Just get me out of here.”
Dante looked out the window as the pink-haired woman he’d encountered was escorted into a vehicle. He knew he hadn’t played that situation the best, but he couldn’t bring himself to care much at the moment. He didn’t need any screaming human drawing attention. It had taken all of his convincing to stop the humans from killing him in the first place.
“Where did you go?” asked Samuel Ocasio as he leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest.
“I was looking for something.”
“Did you find it?”
“No.” He watched the car and the woman drive away. Who was she? He supposed it didn’t matter. This regime wasn’t going to tell him anything. No matter what he said or did, they’d still consider him the enemy. And he was okay with that as long as they didn’t get in his way. “I’ve told you everything I know. Can I leave now?”
“Leave? Where the hell are you gonna go?” The human actually had a note of concern to his voice. Odd.
Samuel was probably imposing among his own kind. He was large for a human and carried himself in the self-assured way of a man without a healthy dose of fear. Even if the unkempt straw-colored hair gave his face an innocent look.
