Mated & Blooded, A Blood Ties Novel, Book 1 (23 page)

I can still remember the sheer horror and
pain on Nikoli’s face when Marie told him of what happened while we
were in the cave. I thought that Nikoli was going to change his
mind and give up on trying to build an immunity to wolf blood.
Instead it seemed to spur him on even more. So here we were in New
York City getting ready to repeat the process for what I think is
the eighteenth time. Perhaps tonight would be the night it
worked.

Who would have thought that life could change
so much over the course of a couple of months. The first month was
fantastic, the second month got a little hairy and by the third
month everything had gone to crap. A few months ago I had a
mediocre life with a daughter that I thought would never mate.
Then, my daughter not only found her mate she also found a vampire
beloved. Then, she chose and things were great. Now however we
think her choice is not only killing her but also her werewolf
mate.

Lucas and I had tried everything and nothing
was working. Kalli seems to be in a state of great depression. She
cries almost every moment of the day and won’t let anyone but Lucas
near her. That said, if it was just emotional we would try to just
keep pushing her through it, but it was so much more.

She doesn’t eat and when she does she throws
everything back up minutes later. She can’t feed, we know she’s
hungry but she refuses to take blood from Lucas or me and she has
become uber aggressive.

It all started the last night we’d stayed at
Nikoli’s house. I had gone in to check on Kalli and Lucas who was
in the process of healing from a severe neck wound. I found my
daughter in the bed lying next to her mate. He appeared to be in
stable condition and was healing nicely and I even thought that he
would be up and around in just a few more days.

My Kalli on the other hand was screaming and
writhing around in pain. Her eyes were leaking blood tears and
blood was also dripping from her ears. She screamed and screeched
hour after hour until finally she lost her voice and her screams
became silent.

That didn’t stop the tossing and turning
about or the tears from leaking from her eyes or even the pounding
of her flesh against the bed. It was clear my daughter was in
unimaginable pain and that it was killing her from the inside out.
I tried everything I could think of to help her and nothing seemed
to work. I called the pack doctor and he was also at a loss on how
to help her. Then after nearly sixteen hours of thrashing, crying,
screaming and horrific pain she stopped and fell into a deep
sleep.

In the morning, I ran into the old vamp and
asked if he knew where Nikoli was. He nodded and question why I was
looking for him so I mentioned that Kalli had been sick all night
long with some type of unknown illness. I told him how she cried,
screamed and thrashed around all night long he raised his eyebrows
and said the most bizarre thing

“Indeed, indeed illness. This is somewhat
good news. Nikoli can explain. Yes, I will leave it to him to
explain” then left the house again.

I’d gone back up to the room to check again
on Kalli and Lucas and noticed that Kalli was awake. I asked how
she felt and she said she was starving and needed to feed from me
so I brought my wrist to her mouth and she dug her fangs into me.
Unlike her past feeding this time Kalli was very rough, she was
hurting me and I begged her to stop but she just sucked harder she
drank from me until I passed out.

Later that day Nikoli visited Kalli and they
spoke for hours in Nikoli’s bedroom. I could hear their voices get
loud every now and then. I heard some banging around, and then
Nikoli stepped out of the room with several bags packed. It was
clear that he was very upset, heartbroken even and it looked like
he was going somewhere for an extended stay. I heard Kalli say with
such sadness in her voice

“Please don’t do this. You don’t know if you
will survive. It’s just not worth it.” Nikoli looked at her and
mumbled back

“I have to. Not doing it, isn’t an option. I
can’t go through life wondering what if. I know you’ve already
chosen but I still have to try.”

He turned his back to her and headed down the
steps. I saw tears leaking from his eyes and I could feel despair
emanating from him. I ran after him and asked what was going on and
what happened to Kalli the night before. He told said

“I am so sorry Marie. The pain Kalli
experience was my fault. I am going away to live in New York City
to make sure that Kalli never again has to experience pain because
of me.” I tried to get a better understanding but he told me to
talk to Kalli.

Kalli however refused to explain any of it to
me. Worse after Nikoli left she stayed in his bedroom for hours and
I could hear my daughter quietly weeping. I wanted to comfort her
but she refused to allow me to come into the room. She was very
clear that she didn’t want to talk about it and didn’t want to see
me at that moment. I wanted to ask a lot more questions about what
happened but I knew it was going to have to wait.

That following morning at Kalli’s request we
returned to BlueRidge pack house. It was a strange silent trip back
to BlueRidge. I knew that something fundamental had changed, I just
wasn’t sure what. A few days later when Lucas woke up I was given
some insight into what might be so different. Kalli was no longer
torn between her bond with Lucas and Nikoli. It appeared she had
made a choice.

To my surprise Kalli embraced her
relationship with Lucas. In fact she mated and bonded with him on
his first day awake. I knew the moment they became a true bonded
and mated wolf couple. Our whole pack did. We were ecstatic that
she and Lucas had moved forward. The BlueRidge pack now had a true
alpha pair. We could start looking forward to the future.

Part of me never stopped wanting to ask her
about that night and what Nikoli told her, but she was still
unwilling to discuss it. So after her and Lucas bonded I decided it
must have had something to do with Nikoli breaking the bond with
Kalli and I thought that was probably a pretty darn good thing.
Now, however I am starting to wonder again.

The first month after her and Lucas bonded
were fantastic. Kalli and Lucas looked like a normal newly bonded
wolf couple. They did everything together and seemed very happy.
Then about two weeks ago something started to change. Kalli has
become very withdrawn and sickly. She can’t eat real food and won’t
feed from Lucas or me. When we try to discuss it with her she
becomes super aggressive.

The only time she is even somewhat normal is
when she decides she wants to make love with Lucas. Something
inside of her shifts and she all but demands that he spend time
alone with her. According to Lucas, during those times she seems
almost like a normal shewolf. The rest of the time she is down
right nasty and very difficult to approach.

However she is getting weak and we are
becoming very concerned. We called a pack doctor to come and see if
he could figure out what could be wrong. He tried to approach her,
but she manhandled him right out of the room. Even with me and
Lucas begging her she refused to be examined. We even played the
'If you die, you will be killing Lucas' card. She wasn’t even
slightly moved to change her mind.

The pack doctor said he didn’t believe her
condition was physical. He implied that my Kalli was going insane
and that she was killing herself with her own depression. Our best
guess is that this is some kind of withdraw from being away from
Nikoli. According to the doctor if she continues at this pace it
won’t matter because she has become deathly ill and will likely die
in the next few days.

Last week, after the doctor visit Lucas and I
started asking Kalli questions about her vampire powers. We were
curious if she was still able to astral project. More specifically
we wanted to know if she could find Nikoli for us. She damn near
tore my head off when she screamed at me

“For Gods sakes Mother don’t ask such stupid
questions. I told you to never ask me about Nikoli again. Besides,
don’t you think I could project to him I would have? I was
regularly having contact with him then all of the sudden it
stopped. I think he must be dead because I haven’t been able to
make contact with him for almost a month”

Then she left the room and acted like nothing
had happened. Lucas and I have tried everything we can think of
help her get better and nothing has worked. Once we locked in on it
being a vampire thing we started to look for Nikoli. We have tried
every method we could think of to find and contact Nikoli and have
come up empty.

We were hoping and praying that he wasn’t
dead. According to our sources vampires didn’t die with their mate.
We think he is alive but for some reason unable to communicate with
her. So here we are at our last option. I am in a car with Lucas
and a very sick Kalli driving to New York City. Lucas and I are
both hoping that if we get her into closer proximity nature will do
the rest for us.

I knew that Nikoli was close. I jumped out of
the car without even asking for my mother to stop driving. I took
off at breakneck speed to where I knew he was. I ran down alleys
and little back street. I could feel his aura I just needed to get
a little closer.

I tried to make a mental connection but again
he blocked me. I was tired of being blocked. I needed him and he
knew it. I was going to make sure he never wanted to block me
again. He’d been blocking me for weeks. Initially, I didn’t realize
it was just a block I actually thought he might be dead. Then, his
wall slipped momentarily and I realized he was doing this to me
intentionally. I didn’t want to think that Nikoli was trying to
hurt me so I had to assume it was because he didn’t want me to know
the physical and emotional pain he was in. The block also
preventing him from knowing the pain I was in.

Well that ended today. Nikoli could never
again hide from me. I sensed that he was in the building just ahead
of me. I put on an extra burst of speed and smashed through the
door of an old crumbly looking brick warehouse. I spotted him lying
deathly still on a dirty blood stained cot. I felt my heart do a
little flip. I guess actually seeing Nikoli lying there motionless
caused me to be afraid that I was too late. I stalked towards him
with the grace of the deadly predator that I am. The moment my hand
touched his arm his eyes bolted open. His face registered both
shock and joy almost simultaneously.

“How did you find me?” he growled out.

“You shouldn’t have come here. I was trying
to keep this away from you?”

Hearing his voice and knowing that he was
okay helped me to relax, being this close to him felt so right. I
could feel my bones turning to jelly. The air between us zapped
like tiny little electric pulses. I’d missed him so much. I could
feel tears slip silently down my cheeks as I looked into his
eyes.

His face turned to concern and I felt his
connection open back up. I felt everything he felt. I knew that he
loved me more than he loved himself. I knew that he would do
anything to ensure my happiness. I knew the moment he realized that
he had caused me pain. I watched as he took in a deep breath and
tried to touch me with shaky hands.

“Kalli, I am so sorry, I didn’t realize that
you were hurting. I thought I was protecting you. Please forgive
me” he licked his lips and looked up at me with such sorrow in his
eyes.

He reached out to me and kissed me on my
forehead while patting me on the back. He had to be kidding me. I
needed much more than that. I didn’t need a brotherly hug and kiss
I needed him to fulfill me like a man that loves a woman. I knew I
needed to push him to the next level. I needed him to blood and
consummate our relationship I leaned in and placed my lips on
his

“N-no…” He growled at me, then pushed me away
from him.

“You can’t do this. You can’t be with me and
him. I can see you bonded with him Kalli. That’s permanent you are
his mate.”

I know I must have stared blankly at him
trying to understand why he was pushing me away.

“I can’t help myself. I need you, I don’t
even understand why. It’s coming from somewhere deep inside of me.
Please Nikoli stop the pain. Help me. I think I am going to die if
you don’t help me”

I was desperate for relief I knew he could
stop the pain and give me what I was missing. I gazed at him with
such longing, begging him with my eyes to help me. Nikoli stared
back at me for what felt like forever, then he finally exhaled a
long breath and said

“Come here love, I will help you get through
this.”

I slowly lowered myself to the dirty little
cot and sat beside him. I knew that he wasn’t happy that I was
pushing him to make love to me but I needed him so much all I could
say was

“I don’t care if it’s wrong, please Nikoli, I
need you. I just wish it wasn’t going to hurt Lucas.”

I felt breathless and wanted desperately to
feel his flesh pressed against mine. I watched as he caught his
breath and finally pulled me into him. When our lips met I knew
that I was finally going to feel complete. I was like a thousand
tiny little butterflies exploded across my entire being. Everything
felt exactly right.

His lips were firm and demanding against
mine. His hands roamed over my back and sides before the finally
found my breasts. I could feel him gently pinching my nipple which
caused it to ache for more. He pulled his lips away from mine, and
I found myself moaning softly. Then he resettled his lips against
my neck and began to nip and tug at my skin there.

Feeling his fangs graze against the soft
flesh of my neck kicked off a whole new level of desire. I felt the
blood in my veins turn to lava. I wanted, no I needed to do more
than just touch him. My hands continued to move all over his body,
I was on fire and I knew he too was burning for me. I grabbed hold
of his waist band and tried to help him remove his pants while he
got rid of my blouse. I didn’t want anything stopping us from
complete flesh to flesh contact.