Bloodlines: The Reapers Book Three

by Bo Reid

  I feel like a weight is lifted off my chest. Since Aether mentioned dirty cops in Calliope, I’ve had this pain in my chest, thinking my dad could have been one of them; I’m beyond thankful he wasn’t.

  I wrap my arms around Morana, bringing her in for a hug. “Thank you,” I whisper.

  Victoria

  “Someone’s in town asking for you,” he says as he steps through the doorway. Moving towards me and running his knuckles down my cheek, I flinch away from his touch.

  “Now, Victoria, if you would just play nice, I would untie you,” he growls. “You always used to be such a good girl.”

  “Fuck you,” I seethe.

  “Don’t you want to know who’s looking for you?” he asks, standing up from the bed. I refuse to respond, to give him anything.

  If there is anything I learned from my ex-husband, it’s what to do and what not to do. Never give them what they want, it’ll drive them crazy. I don’t know how I didn’t see his obsession sooner, how I didn’t notice how unstable he was until it was already too late. Till we were already here, trapped with no way out.

  “Your daughter,” he says, and I whip my head in his direction, causing a chuckle to break from his chest.

  “Yeah, I was surprised to see her too. I didn’t think she would give a single fuck about you. But don’t worry, Vicky dear, I’ll take care of her,” he says, before turning around and walking out of the room, stopping in the doorway and turning to face me.

  “She’s nothing like you, Vicky dear; she’s a monster, isn’t she?” he smiles, a cold smile filled with malicious intent. “Maybe I can break her too.”

  “Don’t you fucking touch her, you bastard!” I yell.

  But he leaves me alone, chained to a bed. I scream an ear-piercing cry, as I rip at the cuffs on my wrists until they dig into my skin and tear open my flesh and blood drips down my arm.

  My girl is here, and if she is looking for me, that can only mean one thing, Aether found her. Which means he knows about Aeron, about Hades, and Ricky. He would have told Morana about Ricky too, and I hope to God that even if I don’t make it out of this alive that she can forgive him.

  If I can make it out of here, I pray to God; she can someday learn to forgive even me.

  Morana Haven Valdis: my baby, my angel girl, my princess, and my monster.

  Chapter 11: Semeĭstvo

  Morana

  I wake up smashed in-between Talin and Ranger. I wiggle my ass against Ranger’s morning wood pressed into my backside.

  He grips my hips and lets out a growl in my ear. “Didn’t get enough last night?” he asks in a low gravelly tone, his sexy as fuck morning voice making me wet in all the right places.

  “You know I always want more,” I moan.

  Talin opens his eyes and looks at me with a sleepy smile. “Morning, Honey,” he says, reaching up to brush the hair off my face.

  Hunter opens the motel room door, and light pours in, temporarily blinding me. I raise my hand to block the light from my eyes. When Hunter closes the door, I see he isn’t alone.

  Aether is next to him, and they brought coffee. It’s a good thing we got dressed last night before going to bed. Well, mostly anyways. Also, a good thing they didn’t walk in two minutes later because I have a feeling Ranger and Talin would have been balls deep inside me, and I’d be way too fucking turned on to care.

  “This is a thing, isn’t it?” Aether says, motioning to the bed.

  I roll my eyes. “Didn’t we already establish that this is, in fact, a ‘thing’,” I state sarcastically, making air quotes with my fingers.

  Then it’s his turn to roll his eyes. I wish he would stop acting so much like me; it’s hard to ignore our relationship when he does. That’s the frustrating thing about him; he acts so damn much like me it’s hard to ignore our relation, where Nash acts much more like Hades; making me wonder why it took so damn long to put our connection together.

  “Whatever. What’s our plan?” he asks, taking a seat at the small table while Hunter hands me a cup of coffee from the to-go container.

  Coffee is necessary to curb my homicidal nature, but I wish my mornings would stop getting interrupted. Morning sex is pretty much the best way to start the day. Plus, I’m less likely to kill someone if I’ve already had a few orgasms; I swear the sex is for the greater good of humanity, not just my pussy.

  “Matthew Shay has your mom or knows where she is. So, we have to figure out where he is keeping her,” I shrug, “and why he took her, I guess. Or we kill everyone, and then we don’t have to worry about the why.”

  “And that’s it? We figure that out, go in and get her back?” he asks, “and also keep you from slaughtering everyone,” he deadpans, and I try not to roll my eyes.

  “I mean, I’m not going to say no to a little murder along the way; you can’t take away all my fun.”

  “Is she really this crazy, or does she just like fucking with me?” he turns to the guys, asking them, and they all shrug.

  “Both?” Talin asks.

  “Definitely both,” Ranger agrees, and I take a sip of my coffee. It’s definitely both.

  “I’m going to go grab us some breakfast from the diner; you guys get Emma on the phone and track down all the Shay properties. We’ll start hitting them looking for her,” I say as I hop off the bed and go to my bag for pants.

  “I’ll go with you,” Talin says.

  “That’s okay; I’m going to walk and get a little fresh air.”

  “It’s snowing,” Aether says, pulling back the curtain and peeking out at the snow lightly falling and coating the road.

  “So…”

  “Uhh… you know what, never mind,” he grumbles, dropping the curtain to cross his arms over his chest like a petulant child; this time, I don’t hold back my eye roll.

  I walk to the small diner down the street from our motel to pick up breakfast, also known as the only place to get take-out food here. When Talin said he was from a small town, I was like, “yeah, okay, man me too;” Sanorah might not be a major city, but it sure as fuck isn’t this goddamn small either. I’m positive I’ve killed more people than this entire town's population — times two.

  After placing an order of our usuals, plus an extra order of French toast for Aether — let’s see just how related we are — I sit on one of the bar stools scrolling through the unread messages from Nash, Emma, and Marcus. Word travels fast around here, and Marcus is wondering why I’m in bum-fuck-nowhere Montana — same bruh, mother-fucking same.

  “Is that ass on the menu?” a deep voice asks from behind me.

  When I swivel around on my stool, I see Kesden Shay standing behind me, biting his bottom lip. “Not for you,” I quip and cock my head to the side.

  He takes a step forward, bracing his hands on the counter behind me, caging me in. I reach one hand up and trace the small cut I made across his throat. Then use the other to pull out my blade slowly; the click it makes when it pops open causes Kesden to smirk, but he doesn’t take his eyes away from mine.

  “You sure about that? Because I could show you a real good time,” he says in a low husky voice, far too sexy for this early in the morning and the middle of a shitty diner. New rule: Only Ranger gets to be extra sexy in the morning. It’s only fair; my hormones cannot handle all the men being sexy as sin before seven in the morning.

  I make a move to eye him up and down openly, and there is no denying I like what I see, but I don’t tell him that. Regular guys have big enough egos when they start to think a woman likes them; guys like Kesden — used to having the world thrown at their feet, and all the pussy they could dream of — don’t need the extra ego boost.

  “Hmm, I guess that’s possible, but I like my sex with at least three sides of man meat,” I say as my order is placed on the counter behind me, “of course, you’re welcome to come over and join the fun,” I wink at him before turning around and picking up my bag.

  He drops his arms from the counter as I slide off my s
tool and walk towards the door, and he follows after me and out into the cold.

  “Three, huh? So, you’re fucking all of them?” he asks, with genuine curiosity in his tone.

  “Yup,” I say, popping the p.

  “For how long?” he asks, walking next to me.

  “Two years,” I shrug. He stops, gripping my arm and halting my steps, and I turn to look at him, glaring at his hand, which he drops from my arm.

  “How the fuck does that work? They come in and pound you one after another? Or is it a whole group activity?”

  “Depends on what I’m in the mood for.”

  “Then what, you all go to your own houses, or rooms and call it a night?”

  “No, dumbass, we stay together,” I say, rolling my eyes.

  “And what, you’re just fucking them all or dating them all?”

  “Damn, you’re a nosey fucker. It’s called sharing; you should try it sometime,” I say.

  “Call it only child syndrome, but I don’t share, Little,” he says, leaning in close to me, his hot breath causing goosebumps to rise on my skin.

  “Too bad, all the best toys get passed around,” I say before winking and continuing my walk down the sidewalk. Kesden doesn’t make any move to follow me, but I feel him watching the way my hips sway as I leave him out in the cold.

  Kesden

  I watch Morana Valdis walk down the sidewalk. The way her hips sway with each step has me seriously reconsidering my policy on sharing.

  My phone rings in my pocket, and I fish it out, checking the screen. “Yeah?” I ask as Morana disappears around a corner towards the only motel in town.

  “Where are you? I thought we were getting breakfast?” My best friend Ty says on the other line.

  “Yeah, I’ll be right there,” I hang up the phone, shaking my head clear of thoughts of Morana, and what I would like to do to her given a chance; eating her for breakfast is at the top of that list.

  I turn around, walking back towards the small diner in the middle of Main Street. Pushing the doors open, I spot Ty at our regular back booth. The one I was sitting in earlier before I spotted Little Miss Murder when she walked in looking fine as fuck sporting a black hoodie and matching leggings — let me just tell you, leggings and a fucking hoodie never looked so good.

  Yeah, my dad filled me in on her last night. Valdis blood is like poison, or so he says. Honestly, I can see why. I mean, her ass alone could make just about any man bow down. Throw in her smart mouth, the fact that she’s fearless, and murder is a hobby of hers, that’s straight wifey material right there.

  “Hey, man,” Ty says, reaching his fist out for a bump as I slide into the booth across from him.

  “Hey.”

  Ty has been my best friend since the first day of kindergarten. He has stuck by my side every day for the last twenty-plus years, no matter what my father does. Trust me, my father has done a lot of shit — the least of which is kidnapping Victoria Tyler. I don’t know why he did it, and if there were anything I could do about it, I would; but crossing him is just about the best way to end up dead, even if you’re his flesh and blood.

  “You good?” Ty asks.

  “Yeah, man. Just tired, stressed. You know how it goes.”

  “Yeah, that stress got anything to do with the storm that blew into town yesterday?” he asks, and I cock my head to the side.

  He raises an eyebrow at me in question. “Don’t tell me you haven’t heard about the crew that rolled into town with Talin Marks and Aether Tyler,” he says in disbelief, “word is the chick is Aether’s sister.”

  “Oh, them. Yeah, we’ve met.”

  “I know that look,” he says as a smirk pulls at his face.

  “What look?” I shake my head, and he chuckles.

  “The one that says you have plans for the hot little piece of ass that is part of that crew. Careful, she seems to be surrounded by an arsenal of muscle,” he laughs, knowing good and well that won’t stop me.

  I smirk. “Yeah, well, something tells me the muscle is the least of my issues when it comes to her,” I open my menu and browse through the options that haven’t changed in thirty years.

  “Dad?” I call out through the house. When I hear a rustling upstairs, I make my way towards the noise.

  “Dad, are you up here?” I call again, pushing open the door at the end of the hallway, and I take in the scene.

  Victoria Tyler went missing from her home late last night, only she isn’t missing because she is right here. In my father’s house, and cuffed to a bed.

  “Dad, what the fuck are you doing?” I ask in disbelief.

  He looks over his shoulder at me, and a sinister smile spreads across his face.

  “Dad…” I start to move towards the bed, but he is on me in an instant.

  He wraps a large hand around my throat, shoving me out of the room. Closing the door behind him to the screams and protests of Victoria, he pushes me against the hallway wall.

  “Don’t you even think about saying a fucking word about this to anyone,” he seethes, getting close enough to my face that I can smell the whiskey on his breath.

  “What is she doing here?” I grit out, while still trying to bring air into my lungs.

  “She has a lesson to learn,” he growls, dropping hold of my throat.

  I cough as I try to fill my lungs with air. “What lesson?” I ask between hacks.

  “Who she belongs to,” he growls, before turning around and walking down the hallway.

  “Women aren’t fucking property!” I yell at him.

  He turns around, and I swear there is nothing but evil in his eyes; the devil, darkness, and hate beyond measure.

  “That’s where you’re wrong, boy. Most women are worth less than a good steer. A good one, on the other hand, well, she’s worth as much as a prized stallion. That one in there,” he points towards the door, “I broke her spirit years ago just like a wild horse trained to know who it belongs to, seems she got it back recently, and just like a horse, I’m going to break her in again.”

  I look back at the door, and as much as I want to help her, I’m no hero.

  And her life isn’t worth mine.

  There are a lot of things I have done in my lifetime, a lot of horrible things that most people couldn’t even stomach to watch in a horror film. But this? Walking away from someone who needs me, it’s hands down the worst thing I have ever done, and if I’m being honest, I don’t know how I’m going to live with myself for turning my back on her.

  “Yo, Earth to Kesden,” Ty says and waves his hand in front of my face.

  I bat his hand away as the waitress comes over to refill our coffee.

  “Knock it off,” I tell him.

  “No, where did you go just now, ’cause you sure as fuck weren’t here,” he says, leaning back and crossing his arms. “You didn’t hear a damn word I said just now.”

  “Nowhere. I was thinking.”

  “About?” he presses.

  I can’t keep anything from him; first, he is a nosey and demanding fucker. Second, he is my best friend, and we have always shared everything. I do mean everything, from our toys in the sandbox, to lunch at school, to pussy. I guess when I told Morana that I don’t share, that wasn’t true. I’ve almost always shared girls; I’ve just only ever shared them with Ty.

  When we would share girls, I always seemed to get pushed to the side; they want to date Ty; they want to fuck me. There’s only so much of being the second-best that a guy can take.

  “Dude, what’s up?” he presses.

  “Nothing, man, just my dad. You know how he is.”

  “I do. But that’s not the only thing on your mind, and I’m guessing whatever has you mixed up is tiny, has brown hair, a great ass, and goes by Valdis.”

  I smirk. “So, you do know more than you made it seem.”

  He shrugs one shoulder. “Yeah, well, I have my ways, so spill it.”

  “She’s, fuck, I don’t know, man. There is something abou
t her. Something that makes me want her.”

  “Maybe that something is just the fact that you don’t think you can have her. There are at least three obstacles in your way to getting to her,” he points out as the waitress brings our usual breakfast order over to our table. She throws a wink at Ty, and he smirks at her while I fight my eye roll. Ty is the typical Montana-born-and-bred country boy, and chicks eat that shit right up.

  “You always liked a challenge, the ones that make you work for it do it because their pussy is worth it. So, what happens if she doesn’t want you?” Ty asks as he shovels a bite of scrambled eggs into his mouth.

  “She does, I can tell, but…”

  “But…”

  “But I don’t want to share her,” I state plainly.

  “We’ve always shared.” He points out.

  “Yeah but that’s you. I don’t know, man, I... maybe I want someone that wants to be with just me. Someone I won’t have to worry about losing out to someone else.”

  “Is that what you think happens with us?” he asks, confused. We’ve never really had this talk before, and it’s weird as fuck to have it right now.

  “Yeah dude, don’t get me wrong, it’s all fun and games, but none of these chicks wanna be with me how they want to be with you, maybe I just want someone I don’t have to share for once.”

  “I don’t think this chick is the one that you’re not going to have to share,” he deadpans.

  I take a bite of my toast and mull over thoughts about Morana Valdis. She seems pretty set on being shared, sharing I can work with but who knows how that works with them. Even if I am right, and she does want me, that doesn’t mean her guys will be so willing to let me step in and fill a place in her bed. Two years though, two years of sharing and they all seem pretty content in their arrangement. Ty and I could never share for more than four months; one chick made it to six before she was over it. Is it really possible to be with someone, to share someone for that long and for no one to get left out? Pushed aside? Forgotten?