Virgin Blood Bundle

by Riley, Alexa

  “No, I’ve got plans,” I tell him as I start to pack up my stuff. I kind of miss living here, and it’s why I visit so much. I’m an introvert, but living in a dorm room alone is pretty lonely. I’m not about to ask Grandpa if I can come back home though. He wouldn’t let me because he thinks I need to find myself and not hang out with the dead all the time. If he only knew that I’m pretty sure that’s what I’ve stumbled on out there.

  “Is it a date?” He perks up at the idea, and I fight a smile.

  “Aren’t you supposed to warn me away from boys?” I tease him, but the two I’m thinking about right now are definitely men.

  “You’re old enough to date. Falling in love was one of the greatest joys of my life.” His eyes drift off for a moment and I know he’s thinking about my grandma. I never knew her since she and both my parents died before I was old enough to remember anything about them other than what Grandpa told me. Death seemed to like this family a little too much. Grandpa says I’m the reason he had the will to keep on living after he lost them all.

  “Well, I might have my eye on someone,” I admit, knowing it will make him happy to hear it. I leave out that it’s two somebodies and they could be vampires because I don’t want him to have a heart attack.

  “Have fun, pumpkin.” He gives me a kiss on the top of my head and I finish packing up all my stuff.

  I tell him goodbye again as I leave and get ready for my nightly stakeout. I’ve noticed they are only ever out at night, which obviously makes them vampires. The list of evidence I’ve been compiling is growing and growing. I’ve been looking at everyone, but I always drift back to the twin brothers. I’m used to being sucked into an idea for hours or days, but this is different. I should be scared of following them, but I’m not. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen my old roommate Juliet with her new man, Kane. He looks like a deadly beast that could rip a person in half with his bare hands, but he treats her as if she’s made from spun sugar. I could never imagine a man looking at me that way.

  He’s the reason I started digging around to begin with. Things with Juliet and him went fast and I’ve seen him in action once. Neither of them knew I witnessed him attack a man who tried to hurt Juliet. The way he moved and the way his eyes changed…I knew he was something more and I had to know what it was. That’s when I found the twins, Ezra and Erik, and I was done for. Digging into their lives has been hard, but I’m slowly piecing it all together.

  Maybe I’d have more information by now if I would stop trying to follow them around. Lately they’ve been hanging at Ravana’s house. She lives in one of the four connected houses. I’m going to go there tonight so I can maybe get a peek at the twins. I haven’t seen them in almost two days and a strange ache has started to form in my stomach.

  I toss my bag into my passenger seat before checking to make sure I have a stash of snacks for the night. I reach in, grabbing a bag of cotton candy and eating a few bites. Once I’ve gotten my sugar rush I put my car into drive.

  The moon lights up the graveyard tonight and some people might think it looks eerie. The headstones always made me sad. A few of them are all together, forgotten, and never get even a single flower anymore. It’s always a reminder to me why books are so special. They can carry so much history and tell the stories so that not all things are lost to time.

  It doesn’t take me long to get to Ravana’s home, but I park away from the gate so I won’t be noticed. I see a limo is sitting outside and I watch, unsure how I feel about this. I’ve followed the twins a few times and they go to bars, but I could never get in. I was never dressed to club standards in my black yoga pants and black hoodie—the most inconspicuous clothing to wear while I’m essentially stalking.

  I’d wait outside those nights to see when they left. One time they left alone, but another time I’d fallen asleep in my car waiting. I knew if I’d seen them leave the bar with women it would have killed something inside of me. I don’t even understand that. I don’t know them and for all I do know they are jerks that bang everything that moves. They could be leaving a trail of broken hearts all over the city with how handsome they are. I’m probably not far off the mark, but they could also be vampires who are feeding off people.

  Jealousy always hits me when I think about them drinking someone’s blood, and I’m pretty sure I’m crazy at this point. What do I want them to do, feed off of me or something? The idea should scare the shit out of me, but it doesn’t. When I think about their mouths on me, my whole body tingles. I know I’m going to get caught eventually. I know this and I have no idea what I’ll do if it happens. I could always play dumb and say I’ve been worried about Juliet.

  I break from my thoughts as I watch Ravana leave the house with Ezra and Erik right behind her. They all get into the limo together and take off. It’s a date, I know it.

  All three were dressed for a night out on the town. The twins’ usual jeans and shirts were gone and now they were wearing slacks and button-up shirts. Which one of the brothers is Ravana dating?

  I’d say she’s beautiful, but she’s more than that. She’s got long dark hair and even longer legs. She has a body some women would kill for, so how could they not want her?

  Does it matter which one is dating her? Because I don’t want her touching either of them. An anger I’ve never felt in my life slices through me. I’m not used to such a raw feeling and I swallow, trying to get myself under control. They’re probably picking up another woman or maybe they’re meeting her there. They both can’t be her date. Can they?

  While the idea fills me with jealousy, something else sparks. Could you imagine having them both? One woman belonging to the two of them is just scandalous, yet my body heats up. This time it has nothing to do with the anger, but something like a deep desire.

  I pull away from the curb and follow them. I should turn around and go home right this second. I know I might see something tonight that will break my heart, but I keep on following because I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to stop.

  Chapter 1

  Erik

  The sun finally sets and takes the rest of its light along with it. I’m sitting on the window bench looking out into the trees that surround our house.

  “Did you even go to bed?” Ezra asks as he walks from his bedroom over to me.

  His bare chest glows in the moonlight as he gets closer. We’re identical in every way even down to how we’re dressed. His loose gray shorts hang low on his hips and there’s a trail of dark hair across his chest that leads down his stomach. When he comes over and sits down next to me he pushes his hair out of his face and rubs the sleep out of his eyes.

  “I can’t sleep,” I say, crossing my arms across my chest. I lean back against the side of the window and try to avoid his stare.

  “You could just talk to me about it,” Ezra says, and I hear him sigh.

  There’s a pause between us, but I know exactly what he’s thinking. I can always read him just like he can read my mind.

  “Erik.” He barks my name, and I look at him to see anger in his eyes. “If we don’t talk about this then we’re both going to be in a lot of pain one way or another. If you want to we can go to Bisho—”

  “No!” I spit the word, cutting him off, and it echoes through the house.

  This isn’t like me, but then again none of this is really something we’ve dealt with before. Normally I’m laidback and full of fun, and so is Ezra. We had a rough go in life before Bishop found us and welcomed us to his family. He may have made us into vampires, but he handed us the keys to a new life. We both swore that day to live it to the fullest and not to dwell on the bad things that happened to us. That’s why it makes it so much harder now to go to him and talk to him about this.

  “I don’t want to do this anymore. I can’t stand the pain. She’s out there, and I’m going to find her,” Ezra says, getting up from the window and walking away. I feel the same.

  Even this kind of distance is difficult for us, but we’ve been pretend
ing it’s all okay. Ever since we caught the scent of her, we’ve been on edge. That damn cotton candy is driving me insane and I have to find it. We have to find it.

  Ezra is right that Bishop might have the answers, but what if the answers he has are the ones we don’t want to hear. He never told us if vampire twins can share a mate because he’s never seen a pair before. He only created us because he found us both near death and didn’t know what else to do.

  We always had a bond ever since I can remember, but being made into a vampire somehow heightened that. Now when we’re apart for even a short amount of time it becomes uncomfortable. Since we scented the girl following us we’ve both been on edge with each other. Does this mean we’re about to break in half? I keep thinking in the back of my mind that we’ve just become each other’s competition to claim her as a mate. I know in my soul that I would lie down and die before I’d lay a hand on my brother in anger. But something primal in me has this need to protect, and if he stands between the girl and me, what will I do? Those are the thoughts that kept me from sleeping, and now I watch him storm away in anger. How does any of this make sense?

  Before I can think on it too much I hear the water running in his room. He’s taking a shower and then I have a feeling he’s going to hunt for her. It’s been a week since the theater and when Valen told us about her snooping around. Now suddenly she’s gone and we can’t find her. How was she so close and I didn’t know?

  We live alone in this giant house that Bishop designed for us. Our bedrooms are right beside one another, but there’s a third floor above us that we don’t talk about. The first time we saw it we were confused, but Bishop told us it was just in case. I’ve thought about the room upstairs for years and wondered if it was even a possibility. It’s a master that’s larger than the two of ours combined. There’s a bed bigger than I’ve ever seen and enough space for three.

  Three.

  I get up from the window and go into my room. I turn on the shower and decide to get ready. I won’t let Ezra go out alone just like he wouldn’t let me go out by myself either. There’s so much unspoken between us right now and so much happening within the confines of our family. Not only has Kane found his mate but she’s pregnant and now so is our sister, Ravana. It’s all happening at once and the reality that one of us has found our mate now is almost too much to wrap my head around.

  This could all be in my head that I’m somehow mated to the same person as my twin. It could just be our strong connection, and now that he’s possibly found the one for himself I’m feeling that possessive instinct through him. There are a million different ways to explain what is going on between us right now, but I refuse to dwell on it. I’m afraid of all the negative scenarios, so instead I just stick my head in the sand and hope it all turns out okay. While I’m pretending, I know that Ezra is in pain and that’s the hardest part of all.

  If I was honest with myself and allowed this to go the way I wanted, I would choose to share a mate with my brother. Why wouldn’t we? It seems that children are possible if she’s human, and from what Valen said she most definitely is. We could have eternity together and raise a family. The world could be ours for the taking. But then the thought of him having a family without me takes over and I just push all of it away.

  I take a quick shower and get dressed before I walk out of my room. At the same time Ezra closes the door to his and we look at one another. Of course, we’re both dressed the same; it happens almost every single day. It’s the twin connection, but it’s intensified since we were changed and now it’s odd when we don’t match in some way.

  “You’re nothing like him,” Ezra says as he walks over and stands in front of me.

  That’s always the first thought in my mind when I’m getting down on myself. That I’ve somehow become our father and I’m going to do something to ruin our happiness.

  “I know,” I say as Ezra hugs me.

  I feel better when we’re okay and he knows what I need. Right now, I’m belittling what we have and trying to think of all the ways it can go wrong. Instead I should be focusing on the possibilities of what’s ahead. There is so much potential for what lies in front of us, and action is what’s going to make this come together.

  “Tell me what I can do,” I say as we pull apart and walk down the stairs to the living room.

  “I think we start with surveillance of our own. I don’t know how, but she’s managed to miss the perimeter cameras, so we should be doing our own sweeps around the houses. I can’t imagine if she knows what we are that she hasn’t figured out who the family are as well.” How long has she been following us? My jaw clenches when I think about her following us when we had to go to those bars doing patrols for Bishop in search of the slayer. Not to mention the string of missing people, too.

  I nod as I listen to Ezra’s plan to walk the blocks around us and then try to scent out where she’s been watching us from. I have a feeling she’s in a car or something that keeps her confined because we haven’t found any tracks.

  “Maybe we need to create something worth looking at,” I say as the wheels in my mind begin to turn.

  “Now you’re starting to sound like the idiot I know and love,” Ezra says and slaps me on the shoulder.

  “You mean genius,” I say as we walk through the back door and outside to the shed. “Now, where did we put those fireworks?”

  Chapter 2

  Dove

  “Little girls shouldn't be in basements all alone.”

  I jump and drop the papers in my hand. They fall all over the floor and I stand there for a moment looking at the unknown man. He shouldn’t be down here. It’s after hours and the library is closed. I know because I locked the doors myself. He looks to be in his early forties with gray hair at his temples. He’s in a suit and I wonder if he’s a professor here at the college, but the more I look at his clothes I realize they’re too nice and most professors couldn’t afford them.

  “I work here,” I finally say, pushing my glasses up my nose. He tilts his head and studies me for a moment. “Is there something I can help you with? The library is closed.”

  He takes another step into the room. He’s quite handsome, and the closer he gets the more his blue eyes sparkle. But there’s a nagging feeling of fear pushing down on me, and I don't scare easily. When you grow up in a funeral home, spooky is normal.

  “The door was unlocked.” He gives a small shake of his head as if scolding me.

  He’s lying, because that’s the first thing I do once I get everyone out of here. That way I know I won’t be bothered and no one will see what I’m researching. I’m not sure if I don’t want others to know because they'll think I’m crazy or because I think this is a secret worth protecting. To be honest, but I really need to stay off the forums where people talk about vampires. It’s starting to mess with my head, and you can’t tell who the liars are from the people who are also trying to find the truth. What I do know is what I could find on Bishop. He has a history I tracked back further than a normal man could live. In fact, he’s seems to have lived a few lives and changed his last name from time to time. It took work but I found him. Not the twins though. It was as if they’d been ripped from history. Between Kane and Bishop, I’m pretty much sure they’re vampires or something like that.

  “I’m sorry. I must have missed a door, but you’re free to come back tomorrow. We open at ten.” I force a smile because I’m alone in the basement of the library with a complete stranger. No one would hear me scream and it would take a long time for anyone to even find my body down here. I already assume the worst because at this point in my life I’m not taking anything off the table.

  “No, now is fine. After all, I’ve come all this way just to see you, little bird.”

  It’s not the first time I’ve been called bird with my name being Dove, but the way he says it makes it sound as if I’m some breakable creature. To him, though, I probably am.

  I’m already thinking of ways to get out of
here, but it’s not looking so good. I could try and run past him, but he’s blocking the doorway and he’s so much bigger than I am. There’s no cell service down here, but I didn’t bring my cell phone anyway. I always forget to charge the damn thing and it’s not as if someone is calling me regularly.

  He takes another step close to me and I’m thankful for the table that separates us. He tosses a book onto the table, but it doesn't look like a traditional book that belongs here in the stacks. It’s handmade and looks like a scrapbook.

  “Little birds should be careful about flying where they don’t belong.”

  Unable to help myself, I reach for the book and pick it up. When I open it, I see the inside is filled with newspaper clippings and I look up at the mystery man.

  “How did you know?”

  I’d been looking for these archived newspapers and hadn't been able to find them. They were not in our system and they should have been. I spent hours going over the microfilm trying to find them, but these dates were missing. The reason I came to the basement was to try and find the originals. But so far I’d had absolutely no luck.

  “You’re good at spying and not getting caught,” he says as he runs a finger along the table. “But you’d do well to remember that while you’re watching someone, someone might be watching you.”

  Every hair on my body stands up at his words. He’s been watching me? My stomach feels sick and somehow I feel violated. I know that makes me a hypocrite, but when I was spying on Ezra and Erik I felt as if I had the right to. This doesn't feel the same.

  “I’m only here to warn you.” He points at the book. “Read that and maybe you’ll find out the twins aren't who you think they are,” he says as he begins to walk out. I think to myself that I already know they’re vampires at this point, and he pauses as if he actually heard what was in my head. “I’m not talking about them being vampires. I’m talking about them being murderers.”