Midnight Hunger (Blackthorne Bloodlines #2)

by K Loraine

  “Do you think we’ll ever have some kind of normal life?” Briar’s voice was a mere whisper against the bare skin of my chest as we lay together, sated, happy, connected.

  I trailed my fingertips over her shoulder and down her arm, trying to work out exactly how to answer this question. It wasn’t an easy one. I’d never lived what anyone would call a normal existence. “Do you want that? The home with a picket fence? A couple of kids? A dog, perhaps?” The mocking note of my tone didn’t go unnoticed. She stiffened in my arms.

  “You’re right. It’s stupid to think of anything like that.”

  “It’s not stupid, but we’re also not human. Our normal isn’t the same as theirs. Did you ever live life without looking over your shoulder for hunters? Or in a home where the time you spent as a family was loving and supportive? I sure as fuck didn’t. My father was a sick man well before he was infected with sun sickness. He pitted us against each other for sport, sent us out as bait in order to catch hunters, made us take human pets even if we had no desire to. That’s not normal. Not by your definition.”

  “I’m sorry that was the life you had to lead. Mine was different. Of course, we were always on guard from the hunters, that was unavoidable, but we did spend time together as a family. We ran as a unit, even when the whole pack couldn’t join in. We talked and played games. My mother was less involved, but she taught me how to play the piano, how to be…accomplished and cultured. My father read me bedtime stories until I was old enough to read them on my own. It was…beautiful until it all came crashing down.”

  “It sounds idyllic. No one ever read me a bedtime story. The only tales I was told were ones about bad little vampires who burned in the sun.”

  She snuggled closer to me. “That’s terrible. We’ll have to start a new tradition in our family.”

  Family? God, I wanted to be able to give her that, but the truth was, she and I could never have that. “Briar…”

  “What?”

  “I don’t think…children, that is. I don’t think you’ll be able to become pregnant. And if you do…you may not survive.”

  She frowned, I felt it where she was pressed to my chest. “How do you know?”

  “Creatures like you…”

  “Abominations?”

  “You know I hate that word. There’s nothing abominable about what you are. It kept you alive and brought you back to me. I think it’s a bloody miracle.”

  “But you think we can’t procreate?”

  “It’s in the few studies Callie did on the topic.”

  “She was studying us?”

  I nodded, unease curling in my chest. I had to tread lightly so she wouldn’t spook. “Always searching for new things to learn about. Studying our kind. Studying as many creatures as she could. When she met a vampire named Hugo and his mate, Isla, she thought she might learn more about breeding between mixed species. They’d been together seven decades, and he’d turned her after the first. She was a vampire-dragon hybrid. Not once did she conceive.”

  “And what makes you think I wouldn’t survive?”

  “The other two studies Callie did ended with the death of the child, and in one case, the death of both mother and babe.”

  “You’re wrong. You have to be.” She contradicted me so easily, so confidently. I wondered if she knew something I didn’t. If perhaps she was already carrying. Pushing my way into her thoughts, I invaded her privacy because I had to know. If we were having a child, that meant she was in even more danger than just being found by the council. I’d killed my mother on my way into the world, taken her life so I could have mine. What would happen to Briar if I’d sown my seed inside her? Would it bring about her end?

  “Get out of my head, Lucas. I didn’t invite you to pry on my private thoughts.”

  She slammed her walls down, locking me out and blocking me from even sensing her emotions.

  “Why are you so sure I have to be wrong, Briar? Is…” I had to swallow back the lump in my throat where fear sat like a gag. “Is there something I need to know? Are you…”

  Eyes wide, she took in a short gasp. “No. I’m not pregnant, I promise.”

  I cupped her face and forced her to look into my eyes. “What then? What are you keeping from me?”

  “It’s just…someone close to me, someone I should be helping and caring for. When you said…what you said, it scared me for her.”

  I hated that she was still keeping things from me, that I didn’t know enough about the last hundred years of her life. Briar didn’t trust me. Not fully. But what had I done to earn that from her? Nothing. I brought her here under duress, told her my feelings were true, and proved we were mates. A mating connection isn’t something I did or had control over. It was biology and something magical. That was nothing I’d done. But she’d fought for me. She came to find me when I’d been missing. She was the hero of our story, not me.

  “I took you from people you loved.” It was a statement. The truth I couldn’t ignore any longer.

  “People who need me. Yes.”

  “So, it was more than just you and Sebastian?” The man’s name made my hackles rise instinctively. He wanted her. He’d tasted her lips more than once. He was a threat to my bond with her.

  “Yes.”

  “Where are they now?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. I sent them away when you found me. I didn’t…I didn’t want you to hurt them. Most of them are weak, sick, fighting for their lives because, as you know, abominations rarely survive.” Sitting up, she pulled her long blond locks to one side and twirled the ends mindlessly. “Someone’s coming after them. We lost one to hunters. They took her heart.”

  “They would have found you too if you’d been with them.”

  “I would’ve killed them first and eaten their hearts.”

  A rush of desire flooded me at her words. “My wicked wolf has found her teeth.”

  “I’ve found a lot more than that. I’m strong while they’re struggling. It’s my responsibility to care for them. Instead, I’ve been here, playing at being yours.”

  Playing? Who the fuck was playing? “You are mine. There’s nothing imaginary about that.”

  “I need to face my former pack. Prove to the council I can control myself and make a case for creatures like me. If I can gain control, just like Seb can, why shouldn’t I be allowed to help teach the others? Just like we did with the orphaned, sometimes feral, children of the pack.”

  “Are you ready to see your mother?”

  “Ready or not, I think I have to.”

  “Fine. But we do this on our terms. We need…home-court advantage, as they say.”

  Her brow rose. “What do you mean?”

  “What better way to bring people together than announce our engagement to the pack and both shifter and vampire councils?”

  “How do you suggest we do that?”

  “Well, my darling, it seems like the perfect time for the Blackthornes to host a ball.”

  19

  CALLIE

  “This isn’t the time to have a bloody ball, brother,” Cashel growled. My elder brother, so surly and domineering. He was born to lead our people.

  “It’s the perfect time to do this. Bring them all together. Prove the hybrids aren’t a threat to our safety if they’re taken care of. Bring the pack to heel.” Lucas leaned against the wide window, staring out at the starry night.

  “I think a ball is a great idea. Think about it, Cash, all the most important moments for the Blackthornes have happened during a ball. When you realized you needed me, when you came back to me.” Olivia’s cheeks turned deep pink. She was remembering a pivotal moment between them; that much was clear, even if I hadn’t already been inside her head. “Lucas is right. This makes a public statement.”

  A ball? Oh, how I loved balls. The dancing kind, not the…other kind. I shouldn’t have been spying on my brother, I knew that, but life as a ghost was really no life at all. I supposed that was the poi
nt. I wanted so badly to take corporeal form and be able to dance and join in on the revelry with my siblings. Instead, almost no one could see me, and I had to fight for each and every interaction I had with them. So far, I had only spoken with Cashel twice before fading and Olivia once. Briar was the only one who could easily see me. Thank fuck I liked her.

  I hoped Lucas didn’t cock it all up. Again.

  If I had the energy to make myself known, I would have piped up then and there. As it was, I settled with knocking over the glass of water at Olivia’s side table. Everyone turned to look at the table next to her.

  “Callie?” Lucas asked.

  I wanted so badly to answer him. But it had taken all my strength to knock over something as simple as a blasted glass of water.

  “She’s here,” Cashel said. “I feel her.”

  “Well, she’s going to want all the details of this ball then. You know how much she loved them.” Lucas smirked. “Have the invitations delivered. We will be announcing our engagement in front of both councils and the remnants of pack Dumond a week from now.”

  “And what about our…guest?” Cashel asked.

  “You mean Sebastian?” Olivia’s question was innocent, but it drew a sneer from Lucas.

  “Of course you need to invite him. He’s her friend. He needs to see she’s in good hands and happy here with me so he can leave.” Lucas played at calm and collected, but I knew my brother. He was torn apart by their connection. “Callie, if you can hear me, make sure my wild wolf feels like the beauty she is for this ball.”

  My chest fluttered with excitement. One week was barely enough time to prepare. There were menus to arrange for the wolves, invitations to create, and protections to set into place.

  “Hmm, and what should our pretty wolf wear?” I flitted through the walls separating each of the vast rooms in the estate, moving through the library, the music room where Knight paced while texting furiously on his phone, and finally up the staircase, running straight through Logan, who shivered at the contact. The only thing I hated more about being dead than not being able to leave this house was the silence. The contact with Briar and brief conversations with a few members of my family had been a precious gift. One I wasn’t going to take for granted.

  “Callie, God, you scared me. You’re so quiet.” Briar stood at the window, staring out at the thick forest sprawling across our property.

  “So, we’re having a ball?”

  “Yes. Lucas thinks it’s the best way to bring everyone together. I worry it’ll be a bloodbath.”

  I chuckled. “Knowing my family, it’ll definitely be that. But he’s right. You can face your pack with the protection of the Blackthornes behind you. Better to have your back covered than go in alone. You won’t save anyone that way.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, sweet Briar, if you go down, so too will my brother. Surely he’s let you see the scar he bears on his side?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “The one you put there?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Yes. It kills me to know he put himself through that.”

  “But what kind of torture did you endure? A stake through the chest was probably not terribly comfortable. He loved you with everything in him, and you died before his eyes. He became a shell of the man he was, hid the torch he carried for you behind a cement wall for a century. When he realized you were still alive, he burned with guilt. I saw it. One of the perks of being a spirit? No one knows you’re there.”

  Briar cocked a brow. “How much have you been spying on us?”

  “I leave before things get too naked.”

  She sighed and sat on the edge of the couch, toying with the fringe on one amethyst velvet pillow. “He said you were studying us. That you think none of us will survive a pregnancy.”

  Bloody hell. Did the man have zero tact? “I have studied a handful of hybrids like you, though none as strong as you, and none were wolves.”

  “We can’t have children?”

  “You may be able to. I don’t know. Although, breeding between a turned vampire and a born one is also tricky.”

  She sat up straighter. “It’s fine. I… Family is what you make of it anyway. It would have been too much to hope for to have everything.”

  “Briar—”

  “No. I didn’t even think about it until it was too late anyway. Funny how we take things for granted.” She looked at me with tears in her eyes. “I’m damaged in so many ways, and I’m afraid Lucas will see that at this ball and realize we are a mistake.”

  That caused my chest to ache. I’d taken every single day for granted, avoiding admitting my truth because I was afraid. Afraid my father, the man who used and tormented us all, would hate me if he found out who I really was. I let go of the woman I loved out of fear. And for what? To spend my eternal life a specter locked in a prison of my own making? I wouldn’t let Briar and Lucas have the same fate.

  “You don’t believe that. You are strong and willful, a challenge for even the most powerful of alphas. Briar, there is nothing that will keep you and Lucas apart except for your own stubbornness. Do me a favor, love?”

  She smiled gently. “Sure.”

  “Go kill the wolf who’s sniffing around our garden? His thoughts are set on Olivia and the baby. And we can’t have that.”

  “What?”

  “You’re an assassin, aren’t you?”

  She nodded.

  “Then put on your shit-kickers and take his head. I’ll pay you in clothes for the remainder of your stay. You can’t be charged with anything, you see. You straddle the line between both species.”

  Closing her eyes, she homed in on the same thing I’d heard. A wolf, lying in wait for Olivia. What he didn’t know was that the woman was always armed and always ready to slaughter anyone who threatened her. But Briar needed to be reminded of who she was. A wolf, a vampire, with no fear, nothing to lose, and no one to stop her from getting what she deserved.

  Pulling the long silver dagger from the sheath at her thigh, she nodded, strode to the balcony, and soundlessly leapt three stories to the ground.

  If she wasn’t my brother’s betrothed, and I wasn’t dead, I’d be in love with her too.

  20

  BRIAR

  “You smell like blood and another man, Briar,” Lucas said as I slipped into the bathroom.

  “I thought you were already asleep.”

  “Sneaking in late. Not the best way to begin our engagement.”

  I rolled my eyes. “If you weren’t so afraid of the sunlight, you could have helped me on this job.”

  “Oh, forgive me, darling. I simply don’t want to burst into flames and ruin an otherwise lovely night.”

  He slipped from the bed and stalked toward me, a cat coming after his prey. “What are you doing? I thought you were tired.”

  “The sun hasn’t even begun cresting over the trees. I have plenty of time to prove exactly how I can help you.”

  My heart sped, and arousal pooled between my thighs. “Don’t you care that I’m covered in blood?”

  “Vampire,” he murmured.

  “He was an assassin sent to take out Olivia,” I whispered as Lucas grabbed me around the waist and pulled me against his bare flesh.

  “So you handled him?”

  “Yes.”

  “My darling girl, you are a fighter, aren’t you?”

  “You knew that.” My breath came in sharp gasps as he licked a line up my throat.

  “I did. And the wolf is…”

  “Dead in the garden.”

  “Ah, we’ll need that taken care of before it’s too late.”

  I moved to slip out of his grasp so I could dispose of the body. Of course. I was sloppy. I couldn’t let that happen out here where there was a war constantly waiting for the right trigger. Lucas wrapped his fist in my hair and tugged me back to him.

  “Where are you going, love?”

  “To…take care of the body?”

 
He shook his head just as Martin appeared in the doorway. “Master Lucas?”

  “There’s a body of a wolf who found himself the victim of an unfortunate accident in the garden, Martin.”

  “Ah, very good, sir. Shall I dispose of the beast?”

  “Yes.”

  “And I will, I assume, ensure there’s no trace?”

  Lucas nodded. “Make it so, Martin.”

  The butler blurred out of the room, closing the door behind him.

  I frowned. “Did you just quote Captain Picard?”

  He laughed. “Perhaps. Star Trek, eh? You spent nearly a century locked in a tower, but in the last few years you managed to familiarize yourself with the final frontier?”

  “There wasn’t a lot to do. We watched cable whenever we found a place that still had access.” I shrugged. “Don’t judge me.”

  “I’m not. I find it rather endearing. You’re a feisty, sexy, badass…nerd.”

  “Hey, remember that guy I assassinated in the garden? Ask yourself this, Blackthorne. Where is the knife I used? You don’t want to find it.”

  He growled. “Oh, is that a threat? Shall we play, Mistress?”

  A thrill ran through me. “Yes. I think that sounds like exactly what I need. Now, vampire, I have to take a shower, and then I want you to show me how far you can take me.”

  “Darling, I’ll take you wherever you want to go. No questions asked.”

  “I love it when you shut the hell up and let me make you mine.”

  “I’ve been yours for a century. I don’t need words to prove that.”

  “Then stop talking and come help me in the shower.”

  He smirked and nodded, but his voice whispered in my mind.

  I am at your service, my wolf.

  LUCAS

  Crimson silk. That was all I could see the moment Briar stepped into view. The gown hugged her every curve, from the rise of her perfect breasts to the tuck of her waist, before flowing to the floor in a graceful cascade. The plunging neckline dipped to the center of her breastbone, revealing flawless skin that teased and tempted. Then she moved, and the slit that ran all the way up to her hip flashed one long leg.