Bound to Blackwood (2 page)

He pushed his stool back with the intention of going over and apologising but Lena beat him to it. She grabbed her shot glass and saluted him with it before downing the lot. She relieved the barman of the bottle of tequila, paid her bill and left. She didn’t stop to say goodbye.

Great
. She was going to be in a foul mood tomorrow, and not just because she was spending the night with Mr Cuervo. Ryver shook his head and ordered another beer.
 

There was that buzzing noise again. God, it was annoying. Tossing and turning, Lena shoved the pillow over her head. She'd get some sleep if that noise would just stop.

It took her a while to realise that the incessant noise was her phone vibrating its way across the bedside cabinet, rather than the pounding of a tequila-induced headache. She fumbled around in the dark and managed to knock the damned thing on the floor.
Bugger.
 

Still trying to convince her brain that she was actually asleep, she leant over the bed and scooped it up. Cracking one eye open she saw it was a text from Kaden, her boss. Sighing, she hit the read button: “Get in hr NOW,” it read.
Shit.
 

She knew what this was about. Having grown tired of the Order's reactionary strategy, she'd gone out hunting. Alone. She knew it was against orders, but she was fucked if she was just going to sit around waiting for Fallen to attack.

Vampires belonged to the Seelie Court; the aristocracy of Faerie, and were bound by honour and love and beauty. They were not the demons most humans believed them to be. Their need for blood stemmed not from evil, but from duty. Before modern day religions like Christianity and Islam, there was only Faerie, and Vampires were tasked with sending the souls of the dying back to The Glory.

But, as Lena understood it, avarice was a formidable opponent. Unrelenting, cruel and all-possessing, those who let her in would never be free. Once enthralled, those consumed by greed would change their very nature to satisfy that lust for power.

Millennia ago, one Vampire coven chose to keep the souls with which they had been entrusted. Their sacred burden forgotten, they fed on a power and vitality they never knew existed; they let the souls die and failed in their duty to convey spirits to the Glory of Faerie.

These became the Fallen. So enraptured, they walked from the light into the darkness and, in doing so, cursed an entire race.

Stealing mortal souls and taking pleasure in harming humans were just two of their hobbies. Those bastards were ruled by a code of dishonour and greed, and it was thanks to them that Vampires like Lena had never walked in the sun or known the Glory of Faerie. Her entire race had been cursed to walk in darkness until the Fallen were vanquished.

Just thinking about Fallen made her headache with fury.
Who the hell did they think they were?
Killing innocents was not okay in Lena's book. That's why she went out last night. She may have gone out by herself, but she wasn't stupid, or unprepared and she definitely wasn't unarmed.
 

Bloody Fallen!
Seven dead soul-suckers was definitely a good thing.
 

Lena opened her eyes again, the pleasure of remembering diminishing by the second.
Oh God!
She groaned as another memory danced before her eyes. Ryver had been at Diablo. He was rubbish at keeping secrets and must have told Kaden what she'd done. She shielded like mad when Ryver was around, but last night he caught her off guard. Even though he tried not to “listen” to anyone in the Order, sometimes things just slipped out. Lena made a mental note, “
do not drink tequila anywhere near Ryver.”
 

After fishing about for the phone, she realised she had the makings of one hell of a hangover. It would seem that even Fae genetics couldn’t escape alcohol-induced dehydration. She amended her mental note to plain old, “
do not drink tequila,”
and closed her eyes. If Kaden wanted to reprimand her, he could bloody well wait. Just another couple of hours and she'd be bright as a button.
Yeah right
.
 

The phone went off again.

“Oh for fuck's sake,” Lena shouted into the darkness.

Fully awake and glaring at the phone she hit
read
to see more of Kaden's demands. Reading it she sat bolt upright. It read “CODE 1 TB IN ATTD ALL.”
 

Fucking Hell!

CODE 1 meant this wasn't just Kaden reprimanding her. Something serious was happening. Only the King ever issued a code 1 order. That was what the TB was all about. Thorn Blackwood, the Vampire King, was in attendance at the Order's Command Centre at House Blackwood. Even if the King sanctioned the code, he didn't always attend the strategy meeting.

Lena did her best to avoid being in close proximity to Thorn. With his golden eyes and jet-black hair he was handsome. The six-foot-seven frame and washboard abs were an obvious bonus. But it was the immense power and strength, not just of body but of mind, that made him Lena’s very own kryptonite. She didn’t trust her reaction to him.

Being so close to Thorn would be torture. The fact that
all
the Order were being called in, though? This really was serious.
 

Lena gulped. Her customary feelings of paranoia kicked in. What if this
was
about what she’d been up to last night? What if Kaden told Thorn that she disobeyed a direct order and he'd decided to do something about it? She did things like this all the time, to the point where Kaden expected it. Bending the rules was what she was all about. Kaden knew that, didn’t he?
Shit.
 

Breathing out, Lena forced herself up off the bed. As she looked down she realised she was still wearing last night’s clothes, black, leather boots, bootleg jeans, strappy vest and a leather jacket. As she looked closely she could see blood on both her jeans and her boots. Not hers, obviously.

She hit reply on her phone and wrote, “On way.”

Then she stripped and hit the shower at breakneck speed. Wouldn’t do to see the King with Fallen blood all over her, now would it?

Chapter 2
 

Kaden slammed the heavy, oak door to his room and rushed down the hallway, his heavy footfall echoing off the flagstones. The code 1 had caught him by surprise, so he was still tugging his uniform into place as he moved. He pushed his white-blond hair from his eyes as his mind turned over the implications of the order.

Like everyone in the Order, his uniform sported the Blackwood Crest. Unlike everyone else, three gunmetal-grey keys adorned the epaulettes on each of his broad shoulders. Kaden had stood as Keeper of the Watch for the last seven hundred years. He was the head of the Order — second only to the King. Responsible for missions, the safety of the Royal Family, his Guardians, and the general Vampire population. He was custodian of the most dangerous of secrets, yet he had no idea what this meeting was about.

He strode towards what used to be House Blackwood's wine cellar but had long since been the nucleus of the Order. It was underground, completely secure and could act as a safe house for months, if not years. This was where Kaden was King. This was
his
Command Centre. It was surrounded by banks of OLED transparent touchscreens, the latest in technologically advanced equipment and a host of other gear that had yet to hit the military, let alone mainstream markets.
 

Kaden looked down at his phone and then to the empty room. “Where in the name of Blackwood is everyone?”

He'd sent the order out over 20 minutes ago. Even Thorn was late. Since Thorn really was the King, in this room and everywhere else, Kaden cut him some slack.

Kaden lifted his head at the sound of boots hitting the corridor outside. Normally laughing, joking, and high spirits would accompany that sound. Not tonight. Tonight it was just the sound of feet hitting stone.

The door to the Command Centre swung open and the rest of the Order filed in. Mercury, Lena, Skylar, Phoenix and Ryver all nodded at Kaden and took up various positions around the room. They sported uniforms that matched Kaden’s own clobber. Except for
Lena
, the men in the room were all from Warrior stock and each and every one of them was well over six foot.
 

The room felt cramped.

The feeling only got more intense when Thorn Blackwood strode in. His hair was almost as black as Lena’s though he didn’t have the same blue tones in his. His face was angular like Kaden’s, but broader, which helped to soften the lines and his high cheekbones. At six-foot-seven, he towered above all of them.  All that paled into insignificance with just one glance into his arresting eyes. Amber on pure gold, those eyes demanded the attention a King deserved.

“About time,” Kaden grumbled. There were several mumbles of apology. Kaden ignored them. “Thorn you gonna tell us what the hell is going on?” Kaden asked.

As the King walked to the front of the room, Kaden had to stop himself wincing at the look of surprise on his colleagues’ faces. It wasn’t the way in which he addressed the King that sparked the surprise. No, Kaden had earned the right to talk to Thorn like that, and they knew it. It was the fact that Kaden was as much in the dark as they were. He didn’t like it, not one bit.

 Thorn put his hand on Kaden’s shoulder as if to pacify him; it didn’t work. He was still brooding as the King met the faces of the rest of the team and leaned against the desk. Kaden plonked himself down in his usual position behind it and glowered at the audience

“Thanks for coming in everyone.” Though they attempted to give polite responses, it seemed Thorn had no time for niceties. “I know this is unusual. It’s not every day I order a CODE 1, much less issue one for everyone, but something’s come up. I had a visit from Heath Greenshire last night.”

Lena let out what sounded like a sigh and Kaden snapped his attention to her. If he didn’t know better, he’d say she looked relieved. Typical Lena, she was one of the most paranoid people he’d
ever met. Ryver had already let slip what Lena had been up to last night. Kaden might not be able to
read
like the young Guardian, but he did have an inner ability to track everyone in the Order.
 

His lip curled in a self-satisfied smile at the thought; no one, save Thorn knew how powerful his ability was
.
All of them had a sense of where their brethren were, but Kaden knew exactly where each Guardian was and the instant they were in trouble. He knew where Lena was last night and he was amused. He let Lena know with an arch of his brow. Lena was usually very good at hiding her emotions but as she avoided his gaze, he was more than a little pleased to sense the guilt rolling off her. He would talk to her about last night’s activities later.
 

“The Greenshires have been allies of the Blackwoods since before the order was created. Heath and my father were brothers in arms,” Thorn explained. “He came to see me last night to settle an
Onærelen
.”
 

The oxygen whooshed out of the room in a collective intake of breath. Even though none of them had set foot in Faerie, as part of the Seelie Court, Vampires were bound by their code of honour to repay any debt owed as soon as possible. An
Onærelen
was the most serious of debts and could not be left unattended. It was so serious a request that most of the race refused to enter into such a contract.

Kaden was not surprised by everybody's reaction. Even without the details, they knew this was of critical importance. It was a word from the old language; literally translated it meant honour debt. A Vampire requesting an
Onærelen
put their honour, sometimes their life, at risk to see their debt repaid. Honour was not something even the most wretched of Vampire gave up lightly.

Kaden just stared at Thorn as he held up his hand to continue. None of the others saw him. They were too busy talking amongst themselves.

“He asked that an
Onærelen
be
repaid
. The Blackwoods owe
him
.” Thorn didn’t shout. He didn’t need to.
 

Kaden braced himself; he had a horrible feeling he knew where this was going. The room fell silent as the Order snapped to attention.

“What did you say?” Mercury whispered as if he couldn’t really believe what he heard.

“I said the Blackwoods owe him. He saved my father’s life more than once and it was Heath who killed Karag.”

Everyone knew who Karag was. Karag killed Thorn's mother. Without her, Thorn's father had not lasted long. Most thought he had died of a broken heart, but House Blackwood held Karag accountable for both deaths.

Fucking hell, this was serious if Thorn was prepared to tell that kind of secret.
Kaden closed his eyes in disbelief. Of course he was aware of the debt, but he never thought he’d live to see the day when Heath finally asked for settlement.