Cursed By Her Blood

by C. J. Brookes

  Theo stood as well. “Because of your actions, you have changed the world, Leonard Taniss. You have angered our goddess, and she has acted to punish you. She has made certain that the very worst fear you had has come true. Taniss blood…has been replaced by Dardaptoan. And Lupoiux. And whatever comes for the rest of them. The daughters and sons you have claimed, and those you haven’t.”

  Theo smiled a chilling smile and leaned closer to the old man. “And believe me when I say I look forward to bringing a dozen of my children into this world with my female, Michaela. And you will never be able to harm one of our Kind again.”

  “You will never be able to harm one of our females again.” Barlaam had just one more question. “Why did you do what you did to Jade and Joselyn? What were you hoping to find?”

  The old man stared at him. “Which one? Which one did you steal from me?”

  “She was never yours to begin with,” Barlaam snarled before he could stop himself. “Neither of them were.”

  The old man smiled. “Isn’t it obvious? Half my granddaughters are superhuman. The children they’ll breed…there are still two dozen more granddaughters out there. You think I’ve stopped with just the ones that my damned sons fathered? I have more than five sons out there. Far more. I have been waiting decades to see what kind of creatures my dear granddaughters will breed. They are my own superhuman breeding stock, you idiot. All according to my plans from thirty years ago. Tell Jade and Joselyn and the rest that Grandpa Leo sends his love.”

  Barlaam lashed out and slammed the old man’s face into the table. It wouldn’t kill him—the damned bastard had made himself immortal. But it would damned well hurt him.

  “You will never hurt them ever again.”

  29

  When she next saw the vampire of her dreams, Jade had a clear plan. She and her cousins had come up with it—after they’d accepted that she was absolutely serious.

  Barlaam was eventually going to convert her. Emily and Mickey had made it very clear that the lure between mates was extremely strong. Unavoidable.

  He wouldn’t be able to push her away for too much longer. Jade was just going to make herself as irresistible as possible.

  Somehow.

  She didn’t exactly know how to vamp a vampire.

  She was still a virgin, after all.

  Mallory and Joselyn had been the ones to tell her to be careful, before Mallory had left that afternoon to go somewhere with her own vampire. Mallory had cautioned her to take her time to really get to know him before she agreed to let him bring her over to the dark side.

  Jade had countered with one undeniable fact.

  She was meant to be with him.

  And she was going to be.

  He walked in with Theo and made a beeline straight for her.

  Jade hadn’t predicted that. She looked up at him, then over at her cousins and sister.

  Joselyn watched with a resigned look on her face. But when she nodded Jade knew she understood.

  “What’s happened?” she asked him quietly.

  “We need to talk.”

  He reached his hand out for her.

  Jade took his in hers. “Let’s go, big guy. I’ll follow you anywhere.”

  And she would. In just a matter of time, they would all be somewhere far from where they stood now. She’d just keep that to herself for a while, though.

  She walked with him silently, aware of his hand around hers the whole way. People bowed to him and studied her with curious eyes as they passed.

  Jade didn’t care.

  She was finally about to be alone with the vampire she’d waited years for.

  She didn’t care who knew that.

  30

  He took her to his office, even though he’d wanted to take her to his suite. If he did that, he’d drink from her. Convert her.

  Pull her into his bed and show her how much she meant to him.

  He closed his office door behind them and then turned to her.

  She wore denim overalls and had her hair in a ponytail. She looked young, pure, and sweet. Alluring.

  Barlaam cursed.

  He could not stop himself.

  He grabbed the straps of the overalls and lifted. She was at least five-foot-eight and of perfect build. He was near seven feet tall. It was so easy to lift her from the ground. “I don’t want to ever hurt you.”

  “Whoever said you’d hurt me? I think Mickey said the whole mate thing meant we’d be like soul mates?”

  “Something like that.” Barlaam hooked his arm behind her waist. She arched slightly so she could see him better.

  Barlaam just stared at this beautiful female.

  His fingers loosened on the denim strap. His hand rose to cup her cheek. “I am far too old for you.”

  “What if I was one hundred and you were a hundred years older than you are now? Still the same age difference. And…Mickey’s only three and a half years older than I am. How old is Theo?”

  Barlaam hesitated. She’d nailed him there. “Six hundred forty something, I believe.”

  “And you are…”

  “Four hundred sixteen.”

  “So…there are more than six hundred years between Mickey and Theo and not even a full four hundred between us. Nope. Age is not an excuse.” She gave him a superior, gloating look.

  Barlaam fell a bit more in love with her in that moment. “It isn’t just the years. I will not see you hurt.”

  “Just what will hurt me?” Her long legs snuck around his waist. Barlaam bit back a moan as he felt the heat of her close. “The conversion?”

  “That is a concern.” He carried her to his desk chair, and he sank into it.

  Jade fit perfectly on his lap. Barlaam ran one hand through her hair. “It’s extremely painful. Joselyn, Mickey, and Emily barely survived.”

  “And Mal?”

  “She wasn’t fully human.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Like you. She wasn’t fully human. Kindara is testing her blood now. Hers and the rest of your female cousins.”

  “Except Becca and Cass. I’m pretty certain they aren’t human either. I’m not exactly sure what I am.” She turned serious. “Or how it happened.”

  “It was your grandfather. He gave you an injection when you were an infant. The same day he gave one to Joselyn. It resulted in her hearing loss. And it changed you.”

  “Into what?”

  “A Blanches Dames fae. That’s what I suspect. I need to do a blood test to confirm it.”

  “You planning to take the blood the old-fashioned way?” She pushed up her sleeve to reveal her inner elbow. “Get to it. I’ve always wondered why I was so different from the rest.”

  Barlaam reached into a cabinet behind his desk. He kept a few medical samples there. There had to be a syringe and tubing in there somewhere. He dug around one-handed until he found one.

  “Are you sure about this?”

  She nodded.

  This was not what he’d imagined when he’d left her grandfather. He’d just had to find her. To reassure himself that she was safe from her grandfather forever now.

  “I want answers.”

  “Your father turned your grandfather in to me. We have him in a cell in the basement.”

  “Next to Rand?” Her distaste came through loud and clear.

  “No. Aodhan and your cousin have come to an agreement. Your grandfather is not in the political prisoner wing. But the criminal. Theo is finishing his interview now. I came from there.”

  “Right to me? Why?”

  “He sickened me. And he hurt you. I had to see you for myself. Reassure myself that he had not taken you from me.” He wrapped a latex tourniquet around her arm. It took him but a moment to have her blood filling the tubing.

  Her eyes were trained on the red. “I—”

  Just like that, her eyes rolled into her head, and she went limp against him.

  Barlaam barked out a short laugh, then snuggled her close.


  She wasn’t the first he’d had faint at the sight of blood. But it was the first time it was his female, and she was on his lap. It was his duty, his right, to take care of her now.

  He finished with the blood draw quickly, then kissed the small wound lightly. He covered it with a cartoon printed Band-Aid.

  Then held her until her eyes opened again. “Afraid of blood?”

  “Needles. The blood I can handle. It’s the thought of a metal tube being shoved beneath my skin that twigs me out.” Her arms slipped around his neck.

  Barlaam pulled her closer, just breathing in the scent of his female and jasmine.

  Her fingers trailed up the V of his vestis. Her flesh against his scorched him. “Will you kiss me again?”

  There was no way in the three hells he would ever be able to deny such a request from his female.

  His hands tightened on her, and he shifted her closer.

  His mouth covered hers.

  31

  Pounding on the door was all that had her pulling away after he’d kissed her. Barlaam snarled a curse, then shifted her back. “The door. No one comes here unless it is important.”

  She pulled in a deep breath. “Then I guess you’d better answer it.”

  Jade listened as he spoke with his assistant again. She’d kissed her vampire, but she hadn’t won him completely yet.

  He was afraid. Truly afraid.

  For her. It gave her a lot to think about.

  He turned to her, with an apologetic expression on his perfect face. “I am needed elsewhere today.”

  Jade stood. She understood the power of a strategic retreat.

  He waited for her at the door, one hand outstretched to her. She fought the urge to take it. She breezed by him instead. “I’m going to find Mickey and Joselyn. Chill out by the pool, order pizza and wings, get my nails done. Catch up on all the vampire trivia floating around here.” Research and plan and strategize…

  He grabbed her overalls and pulled her closer. Jade’s breath caught. She was just inches from his mouth.

  She wanted him to kiss her again. She wanted more than that. She’d waited for her vampire long enough.

  That assistant of his drew him away. But before he left, he looked at the same guard as before. No words were exchanged, but they did some sort of vampire talk with significant looks. Just like her father and Rand and Rathan had done before.

  Jade resisted the urge to smirk. Guys were guys—no matter what the species, apparently.

  She blew her vampire a kiss. “Catch you later, big guy. We have a lot to discuss. And fast.”

  After he walked away, she refused to let herself stand there and be a big whiney weenie. Instead, she turned to her new personal guard. “So…where are my cousins and my sister? I need to make some plans on how to seduce a vampire.”

  “It’s a pretty simple process. But I’ll let you figure it out.” Faelix was a quiet kind of guy. She liked him. And sensed he and Barlaam were long-time friends. Step one, research.

  “So…tell me all about him. I need to know his weaknesses.” She sent him a grin. “So I can strategize.”

  Faelix laughed. “I think you are exactly what he needs. Just exactly as you are.” He sobered. “Barl has been working on an impossible task for almost two hundred years. He takes his work seriously. He takes many things too seriously. I think a female like you—well, the goddess knows what she is doing when she chooses Rajni pairs.”

  He didn’t have a girl vampire. And Jade knew that made him sad. A face flashed before her eyes. One she recognized.

  She had five female stepcousins. It was just a matter of time before Faelix was married and creating vampire babies of his own.

  But she wasn’t about to tell him that. Best to let the Fates handle things—like Loren always said.

  She had more pressing matters to figure out, rather than helping Faelix find the woman he was meant for—it wasn’t Faelix’s time just yet. Nor was it her cousin Abby’s time yet, either.

  This wasn’t something Jade would be interfering in. Nope. Their story would come later.

  She had her own story to work out now.

  Faelix led her to where Mickey and Joselyn were. Fun. She changed into her swimsuit quickly—Mickey had provided one—and joined them in time to catch the last half of their conversation. Joselyn was in a real mood, grumbling whenever her vampire’s name came up in conversation.

  “Theo told me to take the day off. He has a big trial coming up and will be in his office all day.”

  “He’s such a sweetie,” Jade said. “And you love him for it.” That she had no doubt of. Mickey was head over heels. “Mine is proving uncooperative.”

  Mickey winced. “I’m sorry.”

  Jade made a split second decision. “I’m not going to worry. Like you said earlier, it’s inevitable, right?”

  Joselyn just continued to look at her with the typical worried-big-sister look. It was practically Joselyn’s patented look where Jade was concerned.

  Jade started to say something, and then she just knew.

  “Something’s about to happen—”

  She looked at Mickey. At the true target.

  As a bunch of red monsters appeared literally out of thin air, with deafening pops.

  Jade screamed, as loud and as long as she could. She dove—straight toward Mickey and Joselyn.

  It was Mickey they wanted. She just knew it. Mickey and the baby she carried. And instinctively, she knew they despised salt water.

  As they hit the water’s surface, a light near the bottom of the pool began to glow.

  Tentacles wrapped around them all and yanked them deeper beneath the water.

  Jade tightened her hold on Mickey as she felt herself going under.

  32

  She was going to die.

  Joselyn was free. Thank Theo’s goddess, Jade had managed to get Joselyn free of the tentacles before her sister had been pulled under, too. Joselyn’s feet had caught her in the head several times.

  It still had Mickey.

  Jade wrapped her hands around one tentacle. They were as big as a ball bat around and strong. She yanked as hard as she could, but she couldn’t free her cousin. Her head broke the surface of the water, and she gasped for breath. It wasn’t enough.

  More tentacles wrapped around her stomach.

  Jade tried to scream, sucking water into her lungs instead. And then she was going down again.

  As a tentacle wrapped around her neck and squeezed.

  She fought. As hard as she could, she fought. But it didn’t do any good. Light flashed in front of her eyes. It took her a nanosecond to realize she was glowing.

  The tentacle tightened. Her fingers dug into it. Every cell of her body burned—from the inside. The glow was coming from inside her.

  But it was no use. The weight of the monster was dragging her to the bottom of the twelve-foot pool.

  And then it wasn’t tentacles reaching for her.

  Human-shaped hands tangled in her hair. Then slipped around the tentacle cutting off her oxygen. Jade knew it was too late. The tentacles constricted around her.

  Darkness covered her mind, and she couldn’t fight it.

  33

  Cormac yelled. It jerked Barlaam’s attention from the young warrior-wannabe he had been tending to. Cormac ran. Barlaam started after him, yelling for Jannen to finish with the foolish youth who had challenged another to a goddess-damned duel out of boredom.

  Cormac ran straight toward the private pools.

  He threw open the doors after keying in the code, yelling.

  There were warriors inside. Fighting what could only be called Midreno demon hybrids. They weren’t as tall as the Midrenos normally were. Not nearly as fierce.

  Barlaam pulled his knife. It was ceremonial, but he had killed with it before. Knives were better for close battles such as this.

  He dove toward the first demon as Cormac gave a whooping yell and charged, his skin glowing with the gift of the Pre
datoi calling. Cormac was the best demon hunter their Kind had.

  In no time, the two dozen demons were dead, fading into nothing more than rust colored piles of foul-smelling dust. The dust would be collected for further research later.

  Barlaam stood, taking immediate stock of the injured.

  “Barlaam! Hurry!” a familiar voice yelled.

  From the pool. Faelix, the guard he’d assigned to Jade, was in the water. Brown tentacles were around his neck, pulling him toward the deep end.

  “Elhydra!” Cormac yelled, switching direction. “It has them under!”

  Barlaam just reacted. He had the knife, but others had swords. To kill an elhydra water beast, one had to stab its left heart. It would die almost instantly. If you hit it in the right spot.

  He dove into the water.

  His hand immediately tangled in human hair.

  The instant he touched her, he knew.

  Jade. It was his female.

  An urgency he had never felt before slammed into him.

  Faelix was pulling his own knife toward the center of the elhydra. Barlaam grabbed the tentacle holding the other male and yanked with all the strength of a Rajni possessed. Faelix was closer to the beast’s left heart.

  Within two minutes, the beast was lifeless.

  Faelix grabbed for the closest female and hauled her from the water, pulling her head above the surface.

  Jade’s sister pulled in a panicked breath. “Jade! It has my sister!”

  Barlaam dove below.

  34

  Barlaam ripped his female from the elhydra’s tentacles and bulleted toward the surface. Jade was slack in his grasp. He broke the water’s surface, pulling air into his own lungs. People were yelling.

  Someone reached for her. “Barl, I’ve got her!”