Bound By Blood. Elizabeth Valentino
“Well, your business is your own dear. But if you don’t make it up to the office in the next hour or two, I’ll be back down here and he’ll be my target,” she says, waving her gun in Bryce’s direction. “Come along folks, nothing to see here. Let’s leave these two alone to get dressed.” Pulling the door haphazardly closed–as best she can after the abuse it’s taken–Mrs. Novak gives the handle a final tug as she turns to walk away. The rest of the crowd reluctantly disperses.
The cool metal of my gun presses to my temples. I lost it while trying to collar Bryce.
“You had better start talking, princess, and fast–or I’ll pull this trigger and leave you here to rot.” Bryce’s voice is menacing and sexy, rumbling low and deep in his chest.
Dread blooms in my chest as Bryce catches sight of the dripping mass under the blanket. The growl rising in his throat is pure beast, despite his hairless exterior. I don’t even think he notices when my gun slips from his fingers as he approaches the bed.
“I can answer your questions, but not if you kill me.” Hastily shoving my gun in my waistband, I grab my jacket and goggles just in case I need to make a quick retreat. Sure enough Bryce turns and lunges at me, his handsome face twisted into a mask of rage without a hint of humanity to be found. I flee for the door. I don’t want to kill the lycan leader. He’s probably one of the only creatures in existence who can take down the vampires.
“Bryce, listen to me! Evan died from a disease engineered to kill off the lycan species.” With a sharp kick, I slam my combat boot into the door and fling it open. “If you decide you don’t want to kill me, come find me and I’ll give you answers.” I don’t care if it looks cowardly; I need to run. In my haste, I have no time to throw on my jacket.
The instant the sun begins to singe my skin, I regret it.
Chapter 3
I seek refuge in a cave until nightfall. It’ll provide a safe place for me to repair my skin after my encounter with the sun. With slow, deliberate strokes, I use my blade to slice off the portions of flesh destroyed by sunlight. It had taken me five minutes, tops, before I had my coat and goggles secured, but that was long enough for serious damage. The only way for my flesh to repair itself is to remove the ruined pieces. This is in no way a pleasant task. At least Bryce was more concerned about leaving his brother behind than chasing me, so I didn’t have to run far to escape imminent death.
I hope the lycan leader comes to his senses and finds me before he heads back to his pack. Just because I don’t trust him doesn’t mean I don’t see the benefit of using him to achieve my goals. It will be nice if I can persuade him to cooperate with me. He’ll have to keep that collar on even if he does cooperate, though. The last thing I need to deal with is a furry lycan. That’s assuming he doesn’t kill me before I can talk to him.
My vision blurs from blood loss and fatigue. I’ll have to sleep if I’m to heal enough to hunt tonight. I need my strength to travel to Venice. I am forever grateful that my death and vampiric transformation granted me the ability to grow wings. It’s my gift from the Dark realm. They make getting around so much easier, though they tend to be a bit fickle and retract at the least opportune times.
I throw my jacket to the side. No need to get more blood on it. I also slide my goggles in the pocket for safekeeping. The steady drip of water on the stone floor will hopefully help lull me to sleep. With a groan I lower myself to the floor and snuggle into the dampness. I regret I hadn’t had the foresight to grab a shirt, so I wouldn’t have to lie here in the slimy filth coating the cave’s floor. As my eyes drift closed, I briefly mourn the loss of my heartbeat and its soothing rhythm.
If it helps me save my sister, it was worth the loss.
* * * *
“Wake the hell up, princess.”
The words filter through the fog of sleep, punctuated by cold, hard metal pressing into the tender flesh of my throat. I must have been in a really deep recovery sleep to not smell Bryce coming from a mile away. I slowly open my eyes to find Bryce, still collared and looking every inch the lycan warrior. He hasn’t killed me yet, but everything in his body radiates rage–and his eyes tell me if he didn’t have a purpose for me, I’d be dead.
“What do you want, Bryce?”
“Your little vampire friends are tracking you. Whether you live long enough to see them again will be determined by your next few answers.” Bryce rocks back on his heels, lifting the blade off my neck enough for me to sit up.
“I don’t have any vampire friends, dipshit. Do you really think I was sitting in a hotel room with your dead brother because it was fun? For the record, Evan was a good man who didn’t deserve what happened to him.” Briefly I consider getting my coat to cover up my exposed breasts, but decide not to. It isn’t worth getting stabbed over. Not like I haven’t been topless the majority of the time since I met him anyway.
“Don’t expect me to believe you really feel that way about my brother. I need to know more about this disease that killed Evan, and how he was infected.” A strange look crosses Bryce’s face. Still keeping the knife pointed at me, he snatches up my coat and throws it at me.
“Thanks.” I shrug into my jacket. “Now before I answer your questions, I have one for you. How far away are the vampires?”
“I’d guess we have about thirty minutes, so talk fast. The only reason you’re alive is because of something Evan wrote in that note. For whatever reason, he seemed to trust you. You better not have fucked with his mind.” Bryce rubs a war-callused hand over the sprinkling of fuzz on his shaved head. The mist of tears veiling his eyes is unmistakable.
“Considering the vampires after me, I’d guess more like fifteen minutes. Trust me, we don’t want to get into a scrape with them in our present condition. I haven’t fed in days, and I recently lost a great deal of blood after almost being mauled to death by a dumb wolf.” I dismiss Bryce’s snarl. “And you can’t shift, so basically we’re worthless right now.”
“What do you suggest, then?”
“I needed to be in Venice two days ago. Now that night’s fallen, I can fly us there and we can talk on the way–but only if you promise to stop threatening me with your little knife.”
“There is no fucking way I’m going anywhere with you. “ Closing his big hand around my throat, Bryce lifts me with ease and slams me hard into the solid wall of the cave. “Don’t play games with me, princess.”
“Stop calling me princess, you archaic cave man! I have a perfectly good name. It’s Mila, so use it.” My tentative thread of self-control snaps. My hand whips out of its own accord and slaps a stinging blow to Bryce’s stubble-coated cheek.
“I swear to god, woman, you have all the sense of a male in mating season.” With a final shove, Bryce releases his grip.
My vampire sense goes on high alert in seconds. “Shit! Well, thanks to you and your pig-headedness, we have six bad ass vamps about a minute out. I hope you have a lot of weapons stowed in those tight leather pants, because we’re going to need them.”
“Taken care of. I thought you vamps were supposed to be hyper-observant?” Bryce shoots me an annoyed look as he kicks a khaki duffle bag with his heavily booted foot. “If you don’t die during this fight, I will extract answers from you in any way necessary. Preferably with pain.” Tossing me a shotgun and a few DMSO grenades, he straps on a belt loaded with grenades and arms himself with a semi-automatic handgun and a sword.
DMSO still makes me a little twitchy handling it. It’s one of the few things that can kill a vampire. If enough of the toxin is released inside the body, it will break down the blood cells at a rapid rate and cause a vampire to bleed out in a matter of minutes. This is why the smell of garlic freaks vamps out, because DMSO has a distinctly pungent, garlicky smell.
“Will you unlock this fucking collar?” Bryce demands,