Blood Line Read online

  I wound up for another strike when he laughed underneath me.

  “What’s the matter, Hausle? Not into sharing anymore?”

  A surge of rage raced through my body, expelling from my mouth in a ferocious roar. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  He turned his head and spit out a mouthful of blood. “We used to share all the time. Don’t you remember?”

  I clenched my fists so hard I could hear the bones grinding. “You have five more seconds to speak before I break your fucking jaw.”

  He grinned at me, teeth stained red from his blood. “I just thought you wouldn’t mind sharing your little human pet with me since you had no problem sharing Tessa.”

  “Who the fuck is Tessa?”

  His grin shifted into a sneer as his eyes turned cold. “You don’t even fucking remember? God, you are a piece of shit.” He pushed my shoulders, catching me off guard. I stumbled back before regaining my balance.

  He rose unsteadily from the ground and spit blood again, this time on my boots. “You don’t remember sleeping with my girl at the Parliament Ball fifteen years ago?”

  I wracked my brain as I tried to figure out what was going on and how it had anything to do with Charlotte. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

  “I saw you two in the fucking closet! Don’t try to deny it!”

  “You mean that red-headed chick? Her name was Tessa?”

  Michael let out a guttural scream before launching himself at me. “I loved her, and you fucked her! Right behind my goddamn back!”

  I dodged him easily and spun around to wrap my thick arm around his neck from behind. “You really held onto a grudge this long over some random bitch I banged at a party?”

  He went wild in my hold. Kicking and swinging his arms, screaming, and cursing. It was like he’d lost his fucking mind.

  “She’s not a bitch! She’s the love of my fucking life! How fucking dare you!”

  I shook him until he shut up. “So, you thought this was how you would get even with me? To rape my claim?”

  That was the first time that word had passed through my head and it stuck there. It grew in size. In might. It flashed neon in my brain. It blared long and loud, like a foghorn in my mind.

  He touched Charlotte.

  He took her clothes off.

  He had his mouth on her skin.

  He might have–

  I shook him again, hard enough that I heard his teeth clack. “What the fuck did you do to her? Did you fucking touch her?” I screamed.

  Michael laughed again. “Ask her.”

  My heart stopped in my chest as I turned back to my office. Charlotte stood in the doorway, her hand clutching her open shirt and her blue eyes filled with tears.

  The words were on the tip of my tongue, but they fucking burned like they were made of acid. “Did he touch you?” I said, my voice the most deadly and lethal it had ever been.

  She shook her head slowly, chin trembling the slightest bit. “I don’t remember,” she whispered.

  And I knew then what happened.

  He’d glamoured her.

  He’d taken away her will. He’d taken away her thoughts. Her memories.

  And now we had no way of knowing what he’d done to her before I got here.

  My eyes raced up and down her body, looking for clues. Searching for something that said this happened here but, of course, there were no answers.

  The only one who knew what transpired between them was about to be silenced permanently.

  With another roar that started at the bottom of my feet and built until it was billowing out of me, I grabbed his face, twisted, and yanked.

  His head ripped from his shoulders with a squeal, and I kicked his lifeless body away from me. I dropped his head on the floor and stomped on it, smashing his skull instantly. I ground my foot into his face until I felt the carpet beneath my rubber sole just to make sure they couldn’t put this motherfucker back together.

  Charlotte gasped, and I whipped around in her direction. The hand not holding her shirt together was shaking as she tried to cover her mouth. Her wide eyes moved from me to the asshole’s remains beneath my foot and back to me.

  I’d never wanted her to see me like this.

  Like the true monster I was.

  But here we were.

  There was no denying what I was capable of anymore. No more pretending I could be something I couldn’t.

  And now she saw it too.

  I looked away from her, my insides seizing with the knowledge of what came next. This was the end of the line for us. All that was left was to tie up loose ends.

  I breathed out through my nose and turned to her again. My hands ached with the need to hold her, but I held my ground. She wouldn’t want my touch anyway. Not after she just watched what I did to that vampire.

  “Are you all right?” I asked, my voice gruff.

  A single tear leaked out of her big eyes as she shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

  It was a better answer than I’d hoped for.

  I nodded. “Come. We need to leave.”

  She nodded and walked past me. I breathed her in deeply, knowing how much I’d miss her smell once she was gone.

  Chapter 6

  Charlotte

  “I’ve got the board set up if you want to play,” I asked, my voice sounding small in the quiet apartment.

  Chess was Alexander’s favorite game. He said his dad taught him when he was a little boy with a set he’d carved himself. He’d introduced the game to me shortly after I moved in and we played all the time. Some nights, we’d sit for hours with the board between us before we noticed the time. It always put Alexander in a better mood, so I thought it was worth a try.

  “I’m busy right now.”

  I held back a sigh as I watched him at his desk. He’d spent more time there in the past three days since my disastrous first night at Parliament than he had in all the time I’d lived here.

  But that wasn’t the only thing that changed since the first and last day of my internship with the vampires.

  Alexander was prone to moodiness, but not like this. When there was an expression on his blank face, it was usually a scowl. It seemed like he was always angry, and I couldn’t help feeling like I was the cause.

  I was the one who’d convinced him to let me come to Parliament. He’d thought it was too dangerous, but I’d insisted. And then, just like he’d predicted, I’d been attacked.

  I really couldn’t blame him for being mad, I just wished he’d forgive me already.

  “Do you want to watch a movie instead? You can pick.”

  That offer had a ninety percent success rate. Alexander loved watching movies. The older the better. He’d once talked me into a silent film marathon, and I’d had to spend the whole night reading the movies instead of watching them.

  “Not right now.”

  He hadn’t even looked up.

  It seemed he was taking this latest threat to my safety harder than I’d thought he would.

  As for me, I was… okay.

  I’d spent a lot of time crying in Alexander’s arms once we’d made it home that night. He’d held me as I fell apart, making sure none of my pieces got lost. I’d spent the daytime in his room, sleeping through it like he did. When I’d woken up the next night, he’d already been in his office and that began the trend of him working from home and basically ignoring me.

  I’d done a lot of thinking. A lot of searching for the minutes I’d lost in that office with that vampire, but they were gone. There was no amount of digging I could do to ever retrieve them, and I was slowly coming to terms with that.

  For some reason, it was harder for me to accept that those memories had been stolen from me than it was to get over the fact that I’d been partially undressed while I’d been glamoured.

  Maybe it was because I was pretty convinced nothing had really happened before Alexander got there. I knew there hadn’t been much time between whe
n the vampire broke into the room and when Alexander stopped him.

  And there were other things that settled the horrific thoughts of what might have happened. Like I’d still been wearing most of my clothes. My shirt had been opened, but my bra was still in place. And my skirt had been lifted, but my panties weren’t removed.

  Besides that, I knew my body. I knew I hadn’t been truly violated. At least not physically. Mentally was a different story.

  I shook my head. “How about later?”

  Alexander sighed, but still wouldn’t look at me. “I’m working, Charlotte.”

  The sad part was that was the most he’d said to me in days.

  He didn’t even come to find me when he woke up anymore, he just ducked into his office and began working on whatever it was he did all day. He’d spend all night in there and then slip back into his room before the sun rose. I didn’t see him unless I went searching for him.

  Since he wouldn’t look at me, and he wouldn’t talk to me, that meant feeding was off the table. I would have suspected he was drinking from someone else if he ever left the apartment, but he didn’t. He’d said before he didn’t need to feed every night, but he always had since he claimed me.

  I found that I missed that connection between us.

  A lot.

  Because it was more than just fulfilling a base need for him. It was intimate. It was private. It was a tether pulled tight between us. It was deep and strong and real and some of the most beautiful memories I had.

  But they were just memories now.

  I wondered how long we could go on like this. He’d need to feed eventually, right? Would he finally forgive me and let us get back to the way we were? Or was he done with me? Finally sick of having to constantly be on alert in case I stumbled upon a vampire. Finally sick of fighting fate to keep me alive.

  Maybe he was actually giving up on me.

  “All right,” I said. I tried to hide the sadness in my voice, but it was impossible. “I’ll see you later, I guess.”

  I hadn’t really expected a response, but it still hurt when all that greeted me was silence.

  I shuffled away from his office, wondering what to do with myself. My internship was now remote, but I’d finished my work for the night. Ashton had left hours ago, or I’d have asked him to play a card game with me.

  I was stuck.

  I was locked in the apartment, with no one to talk to and nothing to do. I’d thought I felt like a prisoner before, but it was nothing compared to now. Now it was like I was in solitary confinement.

  As I thought about my situation, my blood started to slowly boil.

  It wasn’t my fault Alexander couldn’t keep it in his pants and pissed off that other vampire. If he hadn’t taken his revenge out on me, it would have been someone else at another time. I was just convenient. But that wasn’t my fault.

  I’d done nothing wrong.

  Why was he blaming me for something that was essentially his fault?

  Why was I getting the silent treatment when I’d done everything he’d asked me to do?

  Why the hell did he think he had the right to treat me like I was nothing?

  Like we were nothing.

  I clenched my hands into tight fists and nodded at the empty apartment. I wasn’t going to take this shit for another minute.

  I turned around and stomped back toward his office, knowing he’d hear me coming. To my surprise, he was already looking up when I made it through the doorway, his dark eyes trained on me.

  “Alexander, I am fed up with the bullshit.”

  He said nothing, so I continued, the indignant rage still burning wildly inside me.

  “What happened the other night wasn’t my fault, and I’m sick of being blamed for it. You need to–”

  “Of course it wasn’t,” he interrupted.

  I stopped short, my tongue flopping uselessly in my mouth and my brows pinched. “Wait, what?”

  He shrugged and clasped his hands on the desk in front of him. “Of course what happened the other night wasn’t your fault. I never said it was.”

  I was floundering.

  I’d come in there expecting one of our knockdown, drag-out fights, and instead, he was agreeing with me.

  “Then what the fuck, Alexander? Why are you ignoring me?”

  His eyes shuttered, and he looked away. I knew I’d struck a nerve, I just didn’t know which one. “I’ve been busy.”

  I rolled my eyes and folded my arms across my chest. “Too busy to look at me? Too busy to speak to me? Too busy to feed?” I asked that last question the quietest. It hurt the worst, and I was afraid to say it too loudly.

  He flinched, but kept his gaze pointed away from me. “I’m sorry,” he said softly.

  Those two little words took the wind right out of my sails. But he still hadn’t explained anything. “Can you please just tell me what’s going on? I know something is up with you and I hate that you’ve left me in the dark.”

  His shoulders rose and fell with a deep breath before he turned to meet my eyes again. “You wanna take a ride with me?”

  I cocked my head to the side as I thought through his request.

  It sounded benign enough, but deep down I knew it wasn’t. There was a hesitancy in his eyes. Almost like he expected me to say no. Or maybe it was that he wanted me to say no.

  But I wasn’t going to do that. If he was cracking the door open, I was going to shove it aside and stroll right in. I didn’t like this distance between us, and if a car ride alone could bring us back to where we used to be, I wasn’t going to miss it.

  “Okay.”

  His lips pressed into a thin line and he nodded once. “Let’s go then.”

  He pulled me through the apartment by my hand and it was almost like things were back to normal. Or at least whatever was normal for us.

  We made it to his car, and he left me by the open passenger door to climb behind the wheel. He started the engine without a word and took off into the ever-crowded New York streets.

  “Where did you grow up?” he asked. I turned to frown at him, but he was looking straight ahead. When I didn’t answer, he prodded me. “Well?”

  I cleared my throat. “Connecticut. About an hour from here.” He nodded and opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. “What about you?”

  “Austria. Is your friend Candace from the same town?”

  My frown deepened. I hadn’t expected him to bring her up. Or ask about her. Or really, to even remember her name. “Um. Yeah. I met her in elementary school.”

  “Did you continue school together?”

  “Uh, yeah. We graduated high school together. Why?” I asked, honestly perplexed.

  He shrugged. “Just curious.” He tapped the steering wheel like he’d just remembered something. “Did you meet any new friends when you went away to college?”

  “Yeah, a few. I made most of them freshman year when I met my boyfriend, but when we broke up, they all chose him. Now there are only a couple left.” I shrugged. “I kinda like it better that way.”

  “How many boyfriends have you had?” he grunted.

  “In college?”

  His hands tightened around the wheel. “All together.”

  “Like, three? I’m not sure what you’d count as a boyfriend, but they’ve all been while I was here at college.”

  “You didn’t date in high school?”

  I snorted. “No. No one ever noticed me back then.”

  He shook his head. “I find that hard to believe.”

  “What about you? How many women have you dated in your life?” I tilted my chin in his direction, preparing myself for an answer I wasn’t sure I wanted.

  He sighed. “I haven’t dated since my wife died.”

  My stomach fell as I tried to process his words. “You were married.”

  He nodded. “Yes, once.”

  “I’m… so sorry for your loss.”

  He shrugged. “It was a long time ago.”

  �
�Yeah, but losing a loved one like that has to still hurt.”

  He tilted his head to the side and pursed his lips. “I suppose I did love her. In a way. I’m sure I cared about her a great deal. But I know I was never in love with her. Our marriage was arranged by our families and we had no say in the matter. I’m not sure she would have chosen someone as… difficult as me, had she had a choice, but we learned to live together after a while. It helped that I spent so much time away from home with the military.”

  I’d just learned more about Alexander in the last thirty seconds than I had in the whole month I’d known him. He never talked about his past. Never opened up like this. Never divulged anything of himself.

  His words filled me with the hope that maybe he was coming back around. That maybe he was getting over what happened. That maybe we could get back to the way things used to be. The smile spread across my face unchecked.

  I had so many questions I wanted to ask. So many things I wanted to know about him. I wasn’t sure which one to voice first. I wasn’t sure which one would keep us going on the path we were on, and which one would steer us off course.

  “Why did you leave Austria?” I finally asked.

  His eyes narrowed the smallest bit as his knuckles turned white. “There was nothing left for me there.” I took a breath to ask my next question, but he spoke first. “We’re here.”

  I frowned as I looked out the windshield at a vaguely familiar city street. I turned to stare out my window but didn’t recognize anything. “Where is here?”

  He was quiet for so long that I turned to look at him. His face was pale, fingers threaded together, and his eyes were looking at anything but me. Finally, he blew out a deep breath and said, “We’re at your new place.”

  I could understand each word individually, but when lined up like that they didn’t make any sense. “Wait, what?”

  He nodded to the building on my right with the navy-blue awning above the door. “It’s as close to the apartment you were supposed to move into as I could get you. Hopefully this is a good enough substitution.”