Bloodlines: The Reapers Book Three
Page 1
Bloodlines
The Reapers Book Three
Bo Reid
Edited by
Edits With a Coffee Addict
Copyright © 2020 by Bo Reid
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
A Note to Reiders
Hey beautiful Reider you!
First, thanks for picking up a copy of Bloodlines. You don’t know what it means to me to have your support.
WARNINGS, POSSIBLE SPOILERS & ADDITIONAL NOTES:
Bloodlines (Book Three) and the rest of The Reapers series is considered a new adult, dark, medium burn, reverse harem contemporary romance. So, what does that mean? It means our badass female lead, Morana Valdis, will end up with three or more love interests before the series is completed.
This series is not meant for sensitive readers or readers under the age of 18! The F-word is used, as well as other curse words. There are detailed murder scenes, explicit sex, mentions of depression, and an unconventional suicide attempt. Assaults, both sexual and other, will be found in this series, in varying degrees of detail.
Even though the series starts out when our main characters are in their teens and contains flashback memories, it is a new adult novel.
Our mains will get a happy ending in the fourth and final book — unless I get overly stabby, you just never know.
As always, enjoy your Reapers.
— Bo Reid, The Murder Queen
“Writing Human Monsters with Heart.”
Please visit The Graveyard to become an official Reaper.
Contents
Chapter 1: Familje
Talin
Chapter 2: Bētesebi
Morana
Chaper 3: Eayila
Chapter 4: Yntanik’
Chapter 5: Ailə
Aether
Chapter 6: Paribāra
Chapter 7: Kuṭumba
Chapter 8: Siamja
Chapter 9: Pôribar
Chapter 10: Porodica
Victoria
Chapter 11: Semeĭstvo
Kesden
Chapter 12: Misarrhcu
Chapter 13: Gajog
Kesden
Chapter 14: Família
Talin
Morana
Chapter 15: Pamilya
Hunter
Chapter 16: Banja
Morana
Chapter 17: Parivaar
Chapter 18: Obitelj
Chapter 19: Jiātíng
Chapter 20: Famiglia
Chapter 21: Rodina
Kesden
Chapter 22: Ohana
Chapter 23: Family
Chapter 24: Rodzina
Chapter 25: Pere
Ranger
The End… For Now
Acknowledgments
Cult Reid
About the Author
Dedication
For the FBI guy assigned to monitor my computer.
I promise all those google searches are strictly for fictional murders.
Poem
FIRE
“Remember what you must do
When they undervalue you,
When they think
Your softness is your weakness,
When they treat your kindness
Like it is their advantage.
You awaken
Every dragon,
Every wolf,
Every monster
That sleeps inside you
And you remind them
What hell looks like
When I wear the skin
Of a gentle human.”
Ava DuVernay
Chapter 1: Familje
Morana
“I’m your brother.”
The words set something off in my chest, something I haven’t felt in about two years. My monster thrashes against her cage, begging to be let out. Instinct tells me to rip his throat out — my brother is dead, how dare someone walk into my life, and claim to be someone they clearly cannot be. The last thread of sanity snaps in my brain as fire races under my skin.
Before he can register my movements — or the guys can stop me — I step forward and grip his throat, kick his legs out from under him, and throw him to the ground. Straddling his chest and slamming my knees onto his arms, I cage him in while my hands wrap tightly around his throat.
Leaning in close to his face, I whisper, “my brother is dead, so try again.”
As I squeeze his neck more tightly, his legs kick out behind him, and his body thrashes under mine, attempting to get free. He's searching for the air only I can give him. Searching for the life I want to take from him.
“Morana… Morana… Damn it, Morana.” I vaguely hear Ranger's gruff tone cursing me under his breath.
Large hands peel my fingers away from the man’s throat as arms wrap around my waist, pulling me off of him.
“Come on, Pretty Girl, that’s enough,” Hunter whispers in my ear.
“But I wasn’t done yet,” I pout as he sets me on my feet, keeping his arms wrapped around me.
Looking down at the young man gasping for air on the snow-covered parking lot, I fix him with a glare. He doesn’t deserve any air yet.
“I know, but we talked about this, remember?” Hunter asks as he cups my face, forcing my gaze back to him.
“Yes,” I grumble.
“And what did we decide?”
“Questions first. Torture second. Murder third.” I raise my hand to tick off each item on my fingers like a good little murderess; Hunter smiles.
“Good girl.” He bends down to plant a kiss on my forehead as I hear a scuffle at my back. When I turn around, Ranger has ahold of the man, and he’s pressing him into the side of the Jeep. I stare at him, his emerald eyes meeting mine. A shadow in my mind clouds my view. I see darkness, the fog. But is it mine or his?
“Name?” Talin asks, in his serious FBI tone that he still hasn’t lost. Some things never change.
“Aether Tyler,” he manages to grunt out.
“Birthday.”
“June twentieth, nineteen ninety-nine,” he grits out through clenched teeth. Talin turns and nods to Emma, who starts tapping away on her phone.
When her head snaps up, and her gaze meets mine, I see confirmation in her eyes. At least he isn’t trying to lie. Yet.
“Who is your father?”
I turn toward him, stepping up to the Jeep and pushing Ranger out of the way. Aether dusts his jacket off as if Ranger touching him soiled his clothing somehow, and it makes me want to punch him even more.
“Same as yours: Aeron Valdis.”
“Then why did she give you her maiden name?”
“Our mother didn’t want me to be burdened with his last name,” he spits, and I fight not to roll my eyes. Of course, she didn’t. She distanced herself from us as much as she could — why would she want to give her new child an indication of where he came from, of the kind of bloodshed that made up a family like ours?
“And your name…” I trail off, cocking my head to the side to study him as I think over what I know about mythology. “God of Light.”
“Yes,” he grits.
“She clearly had high hopes for you,” I snort. “I’m Morana, but you already knew that. Know what it means?” I raise an eyebrow at him, and a wicked grin spreads across my lips.
“Goddess of Death.”
“Very good. I guess you at least did your homework. Now, why are you here? She lef
t me over twenty years ago, and I never heard from her again. And now you show up here looking for me? I find it hard to believe it’s to invite me over for Christmas.”
“I need your help.”
“I think you missed the memo on what it is I do here. Spoiler alert; it isn’t helping people.” I turn and walk around the Jeep, wrenching the door open and pulling myself into the passenger seat. I close my eyes and run my palms over my thighs, attempting to calm my rapid heart rate. It doesn’t work. When no one else moves, I lean over and honk the horn, gesturing for them to get their asses inside. I have no desire to deal with Aether, even if he is my blood.
Shared blood doesn’t make a family; being there for someone throughout their life makes a family. Supporting someone through struggles makes a family. Walking out on your three-year-old children to have another child does not make you family.
Talin walks around to my side and opens the door. Leaning inside the vehicle, he grabs my face and plants a kiss on my lips, nipping at my bottom lip and sucking on my tongue.
“Now, Honey, I know this is a lot. But I think maybe you should hear him out,” he says when we break apart.
“Why?” I ask.
“Because he might be able to give you answers you have wanted for twenty years. It could give you some closure if nothing else.” He always has to be the sensible one. I hate that.
“I don’t do help very well. I do murder, mayhem, slaughter, and sarcasm.” I tick each one off on my fingers. “I do sarcasm really well. But help? Yeah, not so much.”
“Then do it for you,” Talin says as Hunter appears next to him.
“What’s it going to be, Pretty Girl?” Hunter asks. I groan, rolling my eyes.
“I guess we should hear him out,” I grumble, conceding.
If nothing else, I want to know what made him brave enough — or stupid enough — to seek me out, knowing what he probably does about who I am. I’m not the person you come looking for: I’m the person you hide from, the person you hope never finds you.
Hunter smiles, knocking his shoulder against Talin’s.
“I really hate having so many of you to be the voice of reason. Why does no one just agree with my murder plans?” I sigh and lean back in the seat.
“We only do it because we love you,” Hunter says as he plants a kiss on my cheek.
I watch as they walk back around the Jeep to talk to the guys and break off into different cars. Talin walks across the parking lot with Aether and gets into the driver’s seat of what is probably Aether's car. Emma and Nash get in their SUV. Ranger and Hunter climb into the Jeep with me.
Ranger starts the vehicle and pulls out of the parking lot. Talin puts Aether’s vehicle in between us and Nash. We make the two-hour drive home in silence.
Talin
“Is she always that way?” Aether asks from the passenger’s seat as we make the drive back to Aspen. Being the one least likely to murder him on the way home, I was voted to drive him. While I’m not the first of the group to jump on the murder train, if anyone were to hurt my girl, nobody would need to convince me to shed some blood for her.
“What way?”
“Intense,” he says. I chuckle softly; Aether must not know much about where he comes from. If I were him, I would have studied up on the Valdis heir that he shares DNA with. If we hadn’t been there to pull Morana off of him, he would be dead in the parking lot right now. Or being tortured, though I wouldn’t put it passed my girl to still torture him a little bit.
“Not always,” I say, pausing before I turn to look at him. “Normally, she’s slightly more homicidal.”
“Guess that explains why my mom didn’t stick around,” he mumbles, almost too quiet to be heard. Almost.
“I’m going to say this once, and it’ll be the only warning you get. Do you understand?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“You do anything that makes Morana unhappy, and I will end you. There won’t be any second chances; she has worked too damn hard to become who she is today for you to step into her world and ruin that.”
“What has she worked hard at? Being a fucking killer?” he scoffs, “look, man, I know all about the Valdis blood I’m cursed with. I know she’s a cold-blooded killer, that if it weren’t for her, my brother, who I never got to meet, would probably still be alive, and my father too. And now she is the only one I can turn to for help? It's fucked up. But as soon as she helps me, I’ll leave. I don’t want anything to do with you guys and your fucked-up lives,” he says, crossing his arms and looking out the passenger window.
It takes everything in me not to pull the car over right here, rip him out and beat the shit out of him. He doesn’t get to show up on our doorstep and pretend he knows us. He doesn’t get to act as if he knows a damn thing about Morana.
Now I’m kicking myself for convincing her to give him a chance. Why do I always have to give people the benefit of the doubt? It’s all the good nature my parents instilled in me; sometimes I wish I was slightly more homicidal, or at least not so damn forgiving.
“They should have let her kill you,” I grumble, unable to keep the thought to myself.
The rest of the car ride passes in silence, both of us stewing in the words we shouldn’t have said. When we pull through the gates to the house, it’s nearly midnight, and the night isn’t close to being over.
“I guess blood money pays well,” Aether says as he takes in the vast mansion.
We get out of the car, and I see that Morana has already disappeared inside with Ranger. Walking over to Hunter and Nash, I note Emma is missing as well.
“I’ll get him set up in one of the guest rooms,” Nash says, nodding towards Aether.
“Morana doesn’t want to talk to him now?” I ask, not believing she would let him sleep under the same roof as her before she talked to him, or at least cut him a little bit.
“We decided she needs to cool off first. He can wait till the morning,” Hunter says.
“Did he say anything?” Nash asks quietly.
“Nothing noteworthy; didn’t say what he needs help with. Thinks he knows all about Morana, all about us. My only concern is…” I trail off.
“Is what?” Nash presses.
I run my hands down my face, frustration coursing through me. “He thinks he knows everything, right?” They nod. “He thinks that Morana is apparently responsible for all the bad shit, including Hades and Aeron’s death. Says if it weren’t for her, they would both still be alive. And that if she weren’t the only option for whatever help he needs; he wouldn’t be here. That once she helps, he’s gone.”
“That little fucker,” Hunter growls.
“Fuck. He cannot say that shit to Morana. She already carries enough misplaced guilt,” Nash groans.
“I know,” I say, nodding.
“Are we going to talk or what?” Aether calls from his place by the car.
“I’ll show you to your room; we’ll talk in the morning,” Nash says, turning towards the house and waving Aether to follow.
He grabs a duffle bag from the back seat and follows Nash inside. I’m sure Emma snuck inside to place cameras in whatever room Nash is going to put him in.
“Come on,” Hunter says, slapping me on the shoulder. “Our girl needs us,” he says, winking.
A smile pulls at the corner of my mouth; I have no issues with giving her whatever she needs.
Chapter 2: Bētesebi
Ranger
I waste no time pulling Morana out of the Jeep, throwing her over my shoulder, slapping her ass, and heading towards the house.
“Ranger!” she yells, but I hear her laughing. “Put me down; we have work to do!”
“Naw, Love, the only thing I have to do is you,” I growl, turning my head and biting her ass that is bouncing perfectly in my face.
Pushing open the double doors to our bedroom, I stride across the floor before tossing Morana onto the custom-made bed in the center of the room. I kick out of my boots, bending down in front
of Morana to take hers off too.
Morana pushes herself up to lean on her elbows as I reach behind my back and pull my shirt over my head. I watch as Morana bites her bottom lip, her eyes roaming across my shoulders, down to my chest, and dipping to my dick straining against my zipper.
I glide my hands up her thighs and around to grip her ass, squeezing her, then pulling her towards the edge of the bed. She lets out a small shriek and falls onto her back, giggling.
Bending down, I bite her pants, undoing the button then gliding the zipper down. Hooking my fingers in the waist of her pants, I pull them down her thighs. She grips the hem of her shirt and pulls it over her head. It’s my turn to bite my lip when I see her breasts almost spilling out of her bra.
“Turn over,” I whisper.
“You going to boss me around now, Ranger?” she sasses, raising one eyebrow in challenge.
I lean in closer to her, nipping at her neck and gripping her hips before sitting up and rolling her over onto her stomach.
“Do you always have to argue?” I growl in her ear before my hand comes down to slap her ass, hard.
“Yes,” she moans.
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, I have to argue. And fuck yes, do that again,” she moans, pushing her ass back into my hand, urging me to deliver another punishing slap.