The Blood Trilogy

by K Loraine

  “Yes. Your half-breed brother skipped town as soon as word got out of your little moment of patricide.” I hated that Anne could get inside my head. Hated the itch in my body to take another woman and feed from her as I had on Gigi.

  “And my sisters?”

  She shrugged and strode through the house. “Dealt with.”

  I rushed her, rage pumping through my blood as I pinned the small woman against the wall. “What do you mean by that?”

  A bitter laugh made her seem all at once mad and sinister. “They’re in exile. Those insipid fools seemed to think you’d want them to fight for your crown. But how can you have the woman you love if you take the throne?”

  Confusion twisted in my mind. “What do you mean?”

  “The King must provide a pure-blooded heir. You’ll never be able to do that with a human at your side. Blood of the sun or not. It’s bad enough your mother wasn’t of noble birth, but at least that whore wasn’t human.”

  I held her in place, but she acted as though I was of no consequence. “Don’t ever speak of my mother again.”

  She pressed her palm to my chest and shoved, hard. I’d underestimated her strength or given myself too much credit, because with that one gesture, I flew across the room, crashing into the thick wood paneling lining the walls hard enough to send a crack up to the ceiling.

  “You forget your place, Cashel. Without me, you’d be nothing but a pile of ashes. I could have you killed at any moment.”

  “Why don’t you? What’s the point of keeping me alive? I am one of the only vampires who can challenge your claim.”

  “Because I need you to serve as my protection. The clans won’t accept me until they know you’re behind their new queen.”

  I laughed, standing and brushing the dust off my clothes. “What makes you think I’ll do that?”

  “Because I know where your little bird has run off to, and if you don’t, I’ll kill her and leave her body on a pike outside your window.”

  A chill ran down my spine. “You know where Olivia is?”

  “I have my spies. They’re everywhere. Do you really want to risk her life because of your stupid pride?”

  “Tell me where I can find her.”

  She rolled her eyes and sighed. “You don’t get to know that until after you give me what I want.”

  “Fine. Assemble the clans, I’ll stand at your side in support. Then I’ll leave and you won’t have to deal with me again.”

  “Oh, Cashel, you’re pretty but so very dense. You don’t get to go anywhere. You’re a king killer, a traitor, and I’ll never be able to trust you fully. Your Olivia will not be the target of my anger unless you betray me, but you’ll also spend your nights at my side or in a cage.” She took the stairs and I followed, wishing like hell I could stake her and get away with it. “Perhaps, if you’re well behaved, I’ll put you out to stud and marry you off to a noblewoman. It might benefit us if you bred with the Stockholm clan. That Mattias is quite handsome. It’s such a pity he’s not a born vampire. But there are others. His adoptive sister is pure.”

  “No.” The word was harsh and clipped. “I’ll not be married off to anyone. I can’t.”

  “Why? Because that human is yours? You’re an idiot if you think she’s waiting for you. You’ve been gone weeks. Without your influence, she won’t be craving you anymore.”

  My chest tightened as her words sank in. Maybe she was right. Maybe Olivia never truly wanted me in the first place. Had I been so lost in her I’d forgotten the truth? She had been in love with Logan. She’d left me for him once. Rage boiled under the surface of my skin. “I never influenced her choices.”

  Anne offered me a piteous smile. “Did you give her pleasure when you tasted her?” When I didn’t answer, she continued. “Of course you did. She’d have run screaming from you after one time if you hadn’t.”

  Guilt and pain curled in my gut, a heavy stone of regret. “It was for her own good.”

  “Oh, I understand. Completely, in fact. It was so like your father to bring such a tempting morsel into the house, to taunt you all with her.” She sighed and stared dreamily at the portrait of my father done in oil. He looked every inch the dashing, commanding ruler he’d been before sun sickness had twisted his mind. “So handsome, but so shortsighted.” She snapped her gaze back to me. “Now, do you need me to lock you in the dungeon here, or can I trust you to stay in your rooms?”

  Her eyes blazed as she stared into my mind. Pulling from me everything I didn’t want her to find. My love for Olivia, my need to protect her, to find her, to escape this situation.

  “Hmm, looks doubtful,” she said. “Very well. I didn’t want to do this, but you leave me no choice.” Her gaze was strong enough I couldn’t break it. Panic built in my chest, twisting and clawing at my throat. “Olivia is of no consequence, Cashel. She is prey. She is a betrayal to your kind. All you want from her is the magic in her blood. No more. She ruined your life by coming here and poisoning your heart. She used you. Left you. She betrayed you.”

  I fought the compulsion, not willing to let her take Olivia from me. “You can’t. Vampires can’t compel each other. Our minds are too strong.”

  She laughed and deepened her gaze. “I’ve spent hundreds of years building my strength. How do you think I escaped my prison?”

  Then the floor seemed to vanish under my feet and the world went black and all I saw was the darkness of her irises. Everything I knew bent and shifted as my past with Olivia became something ugly and meaningless. “She ruined it all,” I heard myself utter. Olivia Stewart was nothing to me.

  “Exactly. Now, Cashel, darling, you should head up to your rooms. I’ve had your dinner sent up.” She grinned. “A succulent little treat, ready and willing for…anything you might need.”

  Hunger gnawed at my gut and my fangs elongated in my mouth. I shouldn’t have wanted to feed again so soon, but being deprived of blood for the last few weeks made me ravenous. Dinner in my room sounded like exactly what I needed.

  I had to get used to living here with Anne as queen. Maybe I’d be able to convince her to bring my siblings back to the manor before long and we could overthrow her together. Once they saw the truth about Olivia, about her wickedness and everything that had happened with our father, maybe they’d understand. Maybe they’d help me.

  I walked past the room where Olivia had stayed, the scent of roses still crisp and spicy in the air. It sent a flash of longing through me, memories of Olivia and me together. Anger rolled in my gut at the recollection of my father’s plot to make her nothing more than a breeding bitch. Of the night we spent together in the library. And finally, of the moment I gave up everything for her.

  I reached out and pressed my palm to the heavy wood door. A slash of pain hit me in the chest at the intrusion of the words I’d said to her while we’d made love in the cabin. The feel of her body against mine, the heat of her. My cock hardened on instinct, but I shut it all down. Try as she might, Anne’s compulsion couldn’t take hold. My love for Olivia was too deeply ingrained in my soul. With one returned memory, the power of Anne’s control had been turned to dust and Olivia returned to her rightful place in my heart. I had to play this right. Anne couldn’t know how much Olivia still meant to me.

  “I’ll find you, little bird. Wait for me.”

  4

  Olivia

  I stood on the edge of the jagged cliff, staring down at the crashing waterfall below. It still hurt. Even now, a month after losing him. But did I ever really have Cash to begin with? My stomach churned at the thought of him, of the revelation Logan had given me clear as day.

  Cashel Blackthorne had killed my mother.

  Anger burned through me but it was tinged heavily with loss and heartbreak. I’d been an idiot and let him sway me with all the things he wanted me to think he was.

  “Don’t do anything stupid, Liv.” Logan’s voice caught me off guard, his warm, deep timbre more than welcome.

  I stepped
back, not liking that he felt he needed to be on suicide watch. “I wasn’t going to jump.”

  “Good. He’s not worth it.”

  I bristled at the statement. I was important to the Blackthornes because of my blood. What made me so important to Logan? To the hunters? “Why?”

  He frowned and stepped closer. “What do you mean?”

  “Why do you care so much?”

  Logan wrapped his hand around my wrist and tugged me away from the cliff’s edge, his spicy, woodsy scent comforting and so different from Cashel’s. “Because you deserve a man who’ll love you with no strings attached.”

  “There are always strings.”

  “You are stronger than anyone gives you credit for, you know that? Over the last few weeks I’ve watched you go from scared and fragile to fierce and formidable. You could hold your own against a vampire. I’ve no doubt of that. But he got so far into your head you forget that. You fought your way out of that place. You kept yourself alive while you were there. You even escaped once. Don’t let him take that from you. You are a warrior.”

  I took a long, slow breath and straightened my shoulders. “Where are we now?”

  He frowned. “Colorado.”

  “Do you think we’re far enough away from them? Can we go out? Do something…normal for a change?”

  A smirk turned up the corner of his mouth. “Come with me. I’ve been working on something to help keep you hidden.”

  We ran along the trail, our steps breaking twigs and small branches as we went, but we weren’t trying to be quiet. It was the middle of the day, everything bathed in beautiful sunlight, and there were no vampires lurking, trying to find me. When we reached Logan’s tent, he rifled around in the backpack he always wore when going into town for supplies. Then he took my hands and deposited a silver pendant with an intricately formed sphere hanging from the chain in my palm. It was heavy and cold when I placed it over my head, and the ball sat between my breasts like a warning. “Wear this. It’ll hide your scent and protect you.”

  Roses. The sharp bite of roses curled in my nose coming directly from the charm. “What is this?”

  “It’s like a vampire repellant. It cloaks whatever it is about your blood they want. There’s more to this though. A friend of mine is part of a witch coven. She put a charm inside as well. Said it will keep you off the radar of all vampires.”

  My eyebrows rose. “A witch? Does Hector know?”

  He chuckled and squeezed my hand. “Of course he knows. Hector has been working with this coven for years trying to figure out how to stop the vampires.”

  “You all really hate them, don’t you?”

  “Don’t you? They killed your mom. You saw him on the video, walking away with your mother’s blood all over him.”

  I closed my eyes against the assault of his words. It didn’t help. I relived the moment he showed me that fucking video over again as though for the first time. Cashel, grainy and in black and white, but definitely him, walked away from my house with a shirt soaked in blood. But the worst part, the part I’ll never forget, was when he brought his blood covered fingers to his lips and sucked them clean. Nausea coiled in my belly, and I had to take slow breaths to stop myself from getting sick.

  “Hey, I’m sorry. God. I just…it’s hard for me to understand how you can be sympathetic to them at all. We’ve all lost people we loved to them, but none of us have ever been with any of them.”

  I hated the way he said that. It was like I’d been tainted. Like I was unclean and needed to be purified in the eyes the majority of the camp. And honestly, that seemed to be the case. I didn’t talk to most of them. Instead, I chose to spend my time reading or training with Logan and the few other guys who’d help me. Everyone else steered clear. I couldn’t blame them. I had let Cashel Blackthorne feed from me, fuck me, make me his. And if it hadn’t been for Logan, I’d still be with my vampire. Only now, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be.

  “It’s okay,” I said, brushing off the hurt. “I know it’s hard to understand. Even I struggle with it now that I know the truth.” I forced away the ache of longing that speared my heart. “The only way I’m going to move on is to actually take the steps to move on. Can we go somewhere now? I just want to do something I used to do. Go to a movie, have a drink, anything.”

  “And you want to do that with me?”

  I looked at him and, for the first time, I really saw him. Logan was every inch the handsome, rugged, mountain man I used to read about when I needed an escape from my life. He was devoted and strong. He’d do anything to protect me and the people he loved. Logan was the guy you married. He was the guy who’d stay. Cashel was the one who’d break your heart and then eat it while you watched and begged him to do it all over again.

  “Yes,” I said, not sure if I meant it.

  He nodded and pulled a set of keys out of the pocket of his backpack along with a wallet. “Let’s go. I’ll give you the normal date you want.”

  I took his hand and looked into those deep brown eyes. Possibility stared back at me. No blood donations, no fear of him losing control and killing me, no danger. It was exactly what I needed. So why did part of me scream that it was exactly what I didn’t want?

  The restaurant was small, warmly lit with candles and plastic red and white gingham tablecloths covering each of the two-person tables. Schmaltzy old crooners provided the soundtrack to the evening over an ancient sound system, and garlic and marinara scented the air. I half expected Logan to order us a plate of spaghetti and meatballs for us to share like Lady and the Tramp. Instead we got a margherita pizza and a bottle of red wine.

  “I hope this is okay,” Logan said, his cheeks slightly pink as he served me some wine. “I haven’t had a date in a while.”

  I shrugged. “I haven’t had a real date…ever.”

  Eyes wide, he stared at me. “What? I find that hard to believe.”

  Taking a bite of the hot pizza, I savored the burst of basil on my tongue. “Most of my life was pretty sheltered. And Cashel…well, dating isn’t really a thing he does.”

  “That’s because he was trying not to kill you every second he was with you.”

  Wine glass to my lips, I swallowed some of the cheap house red. “You’re probably right. I was too valuable to kill.” Betrayal sat heavy in my chest. “He had to keep me so he could use my blood and play with my heart all at the same time.”

  “Hey, let’s not talk about him. This is supposed to be normal, remember? That means two humans doing human stuff.”

  I offered him a slight smile and set down my glass. “You’re right. And this is nice. It feels good.”

  He grinned and reached for my hand. “We could have this every day if that’s something you want.”

  His fingers were warm and gentle on mine, holding me as though I’d break. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, if I was ready for this. “Logan,” I started.

  He released my hand and nodded. “It’s okay. I’m sorry. I’m rushing this. We have a connection. Can’t you feel it?”

  I looked into his eyes and couldn’t deny, there was attraction, a pull, the spark of desire. But it was nothing compared to what Cashel could evoke in me with the mere brush of his fingertip over my skin. Was that real? Was that true? Or was it all an illusion he’d put in my mind on the night we first met?

  “I feel it. I’m just so messed up right now. I need time. Need to move slow.”

  He gave me a tender smile and snagged a second slice of pizza. “We have time. You’re free of them. Your life is all yours now. I’ll be here.”

  Something in my chest eased as soon as the pressure to make a choice was removed. The stakes had been lowered, and I could take my time. “Thank you. For being here. For opening my eyes to what was really going on. I’d have…I think I’d have stayed with him forever if you hadn’t come for me.”

  His jaw clenched at my words, and those eyes went from warm and loving to hard as stone. “I’d have burned it all to the ground if yo
u’d have let me.”

  My stomach twisted. No. I didn’t want Cashel hurt. I couldn’t bear it. But was that real? Why was my love for him still there, persistent and strong?

  We stayed silent for the rest of dinner, and after paying, the two of us walked side-by-side down the darkening streets of the small mountain town. The air was crisp and clean, cold but bearable. The longer we walked though, the chillier I became, and before long, Logan wrapped an arm around me, pulling me against his heat. I didn’t hate it. But I hated myself a little for wishing he was Cash.

  I pushed the vampire from my mind and gave myself over to living in the sensation of Logan’s body as he moved. His thickly muscled torso spoke of the hours and hours of training he did. I sighed as I melted into him. His leather jacket smelled delicious, rich and smoky.

  “What?” he asked, a laugh in his question.

  “You smell nice.”

  A low chuckle rumbled in his chest. “Thanks?”

  “Do hunters always live in camps? Are you guys ever going to be able to settle down and have real homes, lives that include walls?”

  He stiffened then relaxed almost immediately. “Is that something you want?”

  I shrugged. “I’m used to moving around a lot. But I always lived in a house or an apartment.”

  “One day we’ll be able to. Not all hunter groups are nomads like us. But, then again, not all hunters have to deal with the Blackthornes. You saw it for yourself, Elias Blackthorne was a terrible man. He led by example, killing humans for sport or taking them as blood slaves. There are vampires in the area who don’t kill their donors, but they are few and far between. As far as I’m concerned, they all need to be exterminated.”

  A shudder ran down my spine at the chill in his voice. “So, we move because…?”