Cursed By Her Blood

by C. J. Brookes

  One thin arm snaked free of the blanket and wrapped around his neck.

  She rested her head on his shoulder. Some of the trembling subsided. Barlaam just tightened his hold on her. He looked at Kindara. “Find her father as well. She’ll need him.”

  18

  This was not how she’d intended to meet her vampire. Jade held on to him as the world swirled around her. As she just knew that the world had changed for Rebecca completely. Barlaam carried her down a long hallway to a back set of stairs. Mickey stayed at his side. Kindara went to find Theo and Jade’s father.

  She wanted her dad. He’d go out and find Rebecca. Get the answers she needed.

  “Take deep breaths. It will pass. You will speak with Theo about how to handle these visions. As you age, they will most likely deepen.” She felt his chest rumble beneath her ear. It comforted her. Jade nuzzled a little closer.

  He drew in a deep breath. The look he shot her told her what she needed to know.

  He was aware of her, too.

  But that didn’t matter. What mattered was finding Rebecca before it was too late. “Tomorrow will be too late. We have to find her. Fast.”

  “We will.”

  But in what condition would her cousin be in when they did?

  He carried her to a room in an opulently decorated wing that he’d opened with a code entered into a security panel. “The code is 85-73-49. It allows entry into my family wing.”

  “What does that mean?” she asked, near his ear.

  “It means that all who enter this wing are usually related to me—or their guests. Your cousin Emily lives at the end of this hallway with my brother Rydere. I am next to them. There is a smaller suite across from mine that is kept for Rydere’s guests.”

  “So you’re close? In case I need you?” And she had no doubt she would. Even if it was just for him to hold her. Jade thought she could get used to being held by him.

  “Barl!” someone called from behind them. Jade looked over her vampire’s shoulder. The woman who had shown them to Barlaam’s office was chasing after them. “Barl!”

  He turned. “Jannen?”

  “I just got a message from Theo. There was an incident with one of the Taniss Lupoiux. Kindara is needed in the green room. Theo is on his way, here, though.”

  “What happened?” Jade asked. “My dad?”

  “I don’t know. Theo just said that Mickey was to go with Barl and that Theo would join you shortly.”

  “I really need to get my cell phone back,” Mickey said, next to her.

  “I have it in my bags, Mick. Yours, Mal’s, Joselyn’s, and Em’s. I knew you’d want them.” Jade closed her eyes and put her head down on his shoulder as he started walking again. “Becca’s ok now, I think. For now. It might change tomorrow. He is with her.”

  “Who?” Barlaam asked.

  Jade just shook her head. “I’m not sure. I’m not sure what he is. Vampire or werewolf, maybe. Or something magical in between. But Becca likes him. Trusts him. She’s ok now. For now. That might change tomorrow. But she’s not at home. I need to call Loren and Mara. Check with them. See what she told them.”

  “Sometimes, Jadie, you are a little bit spooky,” Mickey said, as Barlaam told her the code to the guest suite.

  “Look who’s talking, vampire girl. I told you years ago you’d end up with a myopic vampire, didn’t I?”

  “You’ve met Theo?” Barlaam asked.

  “Not face-to-face. Was he on the helicopter?”

  “No. He stayed behind.” Barlaam shot her a probing look. “Have you met your cousin’s male yet?”

  “I don’t remember. I hate helicopters. Too scary.”

  “I know.” He carried her inside. The suite was beautiful, decorated in orange—not her favorite color—and white. And gold, real gold. It would take some getting used to.

  Her family might have been one of the wealthiest on the planet, but at least they didn’t flaunt it everywhere like this. “Wow. Talk about Aladdin’s cave of wonders.”

  “Then how did you know Theo has vision issues?” Barlaam asked.

  “I just did. I’m really tired. I’m always so tired when I see things.” She closed her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  “Rest if you need it. Your cousin and I will stand watch. You won’t wake alone.”

  “Good. I really hate being alone. It’s why Becca and I share a room in our apartment. She just gets me.” Jade closed her eyes and slipped into oblivion. “That guy Matt really needs to get them out of there soon.”

  19

  Matt. It made sense. He looked at Jade’s cousin. “Matthuin Lycurgus. Do you recognize the name?”

  “No.” Green eyes the same shade and shape as Jade’s stared at him. “Who is he?”

  “Aodhan’s cousin. He was sent to watch your family after you were abducted.”

  “There’s no guarantee it’s the same Matt. It’s a common name.”

  “Yes, it is.” And that concerned him. Matt had disappeared. Aodhan had males out looking for him. Nothing had been found yet.

  He lowered Jade to the bed after her cousin pulled the coverings back. She was out, exhausted. “She’s been through a lot these past weeks.”

  “No doubt. She was the one who realized we were missing. She shares the house with Joselyn when she’s not at the university. She was supposed to come down to have breakfast with Joselyn and Uncle Jason that morning. She’d called while we were out. Called me and told me not to let Joselyn go home alone. That it wasn’t safe. That’s why we left early.” Her cousin slipped Jade’s shoes off and then flipped the blanket over her. “She gets a little freaked out sometimes.”

  “And no one ever believed she was telling the future?”

  “Not really. Just intuition. And only for the last four or five years or so. Nothing major. Not like today. And even when she told us things, we thought she was teasing. Marrying vampires? We thought it was just her pestering the rest of us. Jade does crazy things sometimes. She’d dyed her hair blue the last time I saw her. Just for a few days and for fun. She made Rathan promise that none of us had to marry vampires unless we wanted to. He just humored her. Gave us his oath that we would never have to marry vampires unless we truly wanted to.”

  Barlaam winced. A demon oath like that was nothing to joke about. And she’d enticed such a vow for the cousins who had married vampires. There had to be a reason for it. “I hope Joselyn and Mallory decide soon. Demon oaths are completely binding.”

  “I…he’s really a demon?”

  “Yes. I have met him before. Two hundred years or so ago.”

  Mickey stared at him for a long time, then looked back at her cousin. She picked up Jade’s hand for a moment.

  “He gave Jade this ring. For her high school graduation. He told her to always wear it. That it would help guide her through her future, or toward her future, or something.” She held up her cousin’s hand. There was one ring on her finger.

  Barlaam swore quietly when he saw it.

  He’d given it to the demon king as payment for the demon king’s part in his escape. At the time, he’d been pained to part with it. Now…now it looked perfect encircling her ring finger.

  Dardaptoans did not exchange wedding rings in the tradition of humans. But to see that ring on her hand felt right. “It was my mother’s. She gave it to me when I hit my hundredth year. For my Rajni to wear. It’s a focus ring. For those of great power.”

  Mickey gasped and stared at him. “How did Rathan get it?”

  “I gave it to him many years ago.”

  “You really are supposed to be her vampire, aren’t you?”

  He hesitated. “I…”

  “She knows you are. Just so you are aware of it. And she’s determined to get you. You’d better be prepared. She can be relentless when she wants something.”

  He looked at his female. One more time. “I—I can’t. Not right now. Stay with your cousin. I’m going to go find your male.”

  He turned an
d forced himself to leave the suite.

  20

  When Jade woke, there was a handsome vampire with perfectly sculpted muscles and glasses on his face staring at her.

  He held Mickey in his lap. She was tucked up against his neck.

  It was entirely possible her cousin was drinking his blood.

  Jade didn’t want to think about that possibility.

  Vampires did do the whole blood-drinking thing, after all. But she thought she could get used to that. If she had to.

  Kindara was there, too. She checked Jade’s pulse quickly. “Jade, how do you feel?”

  “Like I haven’t slept in four weeks. You know, since my sister and cousins were kidnapped by vampires.” She felt like a total doofus. And Barlaam was nowhere to be seen.

  He’d left her. That upset her more than anything.

  “You were too late to stop what was destined to happen,” Mickey’s vampire said. “We both know that everything happens for a reason. Tell me: Have you always had visions?”

  “I don’t know that you would call them that.” Before she’d graduated high school and enrolled in college, she’d thought she just had a very active imagination. None of her cousins dreamed about vampires and werewolves or things like that. Just Jade.

  Until she’d met Loren and her friend had told her to accept herself exactly as she was.

  Loren had believed in her visions completely.

  She’d even told Jade stories about some sort of fates.

  Loren claimed to be a real witch. And she was definitely into all sorts of rituals and things. Things that freaked out Mara, the timid one of their group.

  “What would you call them? You get these feelings, and they mostly come true? Probably to a deeper extent than your own family knows about?”

  Jade nodded slowly. “I…didn’t want them to get freaked out. But I’ve always known things. They just got worse after I turned sixteen.”

  “When you started to physically and sexually mature,” Kindara said. “It’s a rare gift in a human.”

  “I’m not so sure I am fully human,” Jade whispered, shooting a look at Mickey.

  “Oh, Jade.” Mickey climbed off Theo’s lap and onto the bed next to her. She wrapped her arms around Jade’s shoulders. “You should have told us.”

  “You would have just told me I was being strange again. And with Becca and Cass already looney tunes…”

  “Who?” Kindara asked.

  “Becca is Mickey’s younger sister. Cass is Em’s,” Jade answered.

  “Tell me about them. How are they different?” Mickey’s vampire asked.

  “They’re not different, exactly,” Mickey said, a hesitant look on her face. “Becca is just very athletic. But so are Mal and Rand. Becca is just very dedicated to physical health and the outdoors. And Cass…ok. Cass is different. Really different. But she’s just very reserved and quiet.”

  “Even more than Mickey,” Jade said. “Cass doesn’t like people around her. Even family gatherings can be trying for her. We tend to protect her as much as we can. She didn’t go to college with the rest of us. She takes only online classes. She doesn’t work for the company. All she wants to do is research plants and work in her greenhouse.”

  “But you still kept this gift secret?”

  “For the most part.” Jade fiddled with the ring on her finger, a habit she’d developed years ago after it had been given to her by Rathan. He’d made her swear never to take it off, that it would one day lead her in the direction she was meant to go. Once she’d slipped it on, she’d known he’d spoken the truth. And the dreams of her vampire had intensified. “It just felt like I was supposed to.”

  Kindara’s hand covered hers. “May I see that ring? It looks extremely familiar.”

  “I never take it off.” And she wouldn’t. She actually feared what would happen if she did. “I haven’t since Rathan gave it to me.”

  “Rathan again. Why am I not surprised? I’ll just look. I know someone who used to have one just like it.”

  Kindara took a long moment to study the ring. “It’s beautiful. And not human. But that is no surprise, considering who gave it to you. That stone in the center—it’s designed to help center a young one’s great gift. It probably is best if you never take it off. I think, as your healer, that you need to just rest for the remainder of the evening. We’ll find your cousin. Aodhan already has males out searching for his own cousin. We’ll have them find yours as well. You just rest.”

  Jade thought she’d take her up on that idea. Her eyes drifted closed again as some sort of magical warmth surrounded her.

  It was nice to be with people she could tell the truth with for once.

  21

  “She’s your female.”

  Barlaam looked at the female across the office from him. Kindara had stormed in without an invite. “Yes.”

  “She wears your mother’s focusing ring. I recognized it easily. I’m surprised your brother hasn’t yet. It’s probably all that has kept the power within her from tearing her apart. A human with that strong of a prognosticating gift is very, very rare.”

  “Blanches Dames. With a bit of Lupoiux and some Sebastos blood, I suspect. It’s the only thing that makes sense. I want to run some tests to be sure. And…” His hatred increased tenfold. “It’s what that bastard Leo Taniss listed in the file he kept on her.”

  Kindara blanched. “What?”

  “There is a file on her. I found it. And one on Emily’s young sister. Leo Taniss experimented on them when they were infants. I’m searching for any other files he kept on the rest of them.” When Leo Taniss was found, Barlaam would be demanding a Mate’s Right.

  It was based on an ancient law from their goddess stating that the male of any injured female had the right to confront the one who had harmed her.

  He would tear that bastard limb from limb.

  “He injected Blanches Dames blood into her. As well as Lupoiux and Dardaptoan. Sebastos, from somewhere. And then he carefully watched the results. For two decades.” He bit back his fury. He would do no one any good if he lost control of himself. “He referred to her as familial subject number eleven. He experimented on ten more that he was related to. His grandchildren.”

  “He is a sick creature. It doesn’t surprise me at all.” Kindara looked as horrified as Barlaam felt. “She’s resting now. When do you plan to convert her?”

  “I don’t.”

  “She is your female. And she needs you.” Kindara shot him a pointed look. “You have to. Soon. The power within her is just going to grow. It’ll swell soon now that she is of age; and she will not be able to withstand it. It’s already starting. She needs you to help her stay sane, if nothing else. Theo is planning to speak with her about what her future will hold. It’s a strong gift. And if there is Sebastos blood within her, it makes sense.”

  “Conversion is far too painful. And she has a human’s life expectancy. That was evident when she first came to me.”

  Kindara shot him a look of exasperation. “Then convert her. Keep her with you as long as you can. I am not certain a human girl can withstand the full Sebastos gift of foresight forever. It is far too powerful. It very well may kill her if you don’t convert her soon.”

  “It is too painful. Three of the four almost died. Cormac held Joselyn’s soul to him. Theo breathed for Mickey. And Rydere just got damned lucky Emily had enough willpower to stay alive.”

  “And Mallory? Aodhan said she took to his blood instinctively. She had an easy conversion.”

  “It’s possible that she was only partially human.” Ten others had been experimented on. Most likely, Aodhan’s female had been one of them.

  “Like your female. We need blood tests. Before the rest of her human antibodies break down. I noticed them in Joselyn already.”

  “We need to take blood tests from all of them.”

  “There are two more female cousins?”

  Barlaam nodded, thinking of the files he had procured f
or his brother just a month ago. If he had known Jade was his…he would have been drawn to her. He would have fought all who threatened her.

  And if she had been on the Taniss property that night, he would have fought his own brother to protect her and those she loved.

  “We need to see what he has done to them.” He would find the answers. For her.

  “Aodhan has sent four of his top warriors out to find Matthuin. Theo has confirmed that his sister-in-law Rebecca is with Matthuin now. But Theo said that the two of them are doing exactly what the goddess intends. I can only speculate what that means,” Kindara said, with an eye roll. “He’s refusing to give any hints to where she is.”

  “Aodhan?”

  “He’s…busy. He and the Lupoiux alpha had a scuffle. And he’s dealing with Jambu.” Kindara laid a hand across Jade’s forehead. “Theo said not to speak to anyone of Jade’s vision. Or her gifts. That now is not the time for that. That to speak of it could bring danger to her.”

  Barlaam swore. Theo predicting danger meant danger was most definitely coming. “Did he give you anything else?”

  “Yes. He said to tell you to get your ass to your female…take her to bed—and enjoy her.” Kindara rolled her eyes. “You guys are all assholes. You know that, right?”

  “She’s too young. And what if…she wants children? She’ll want children. Just like Theo’s female and the rest of them.”

  That was his greatest fear.

  Losing her. Losing her and perhaps leaving their babe behind in the world without them.

  “Then you deal with that when it happens. You’re not the first male who has had this fear. And she is young. It might be hundreds of years before her first babe is born. By that point…that’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

  “What?”

  “When I was injured yesterday—the demon gave me his blood. And he did something with his horn.”