The Blood Bundle, Books 1-2: Blood Singers and Blood Song (New Adult Paranormal Vampire/Shifter Romance) (3 page)

Then she set to work. Foundation, powder,
eyeliner... false eyelashes.

False eyelashes!

“No way! I am not putting
that crap on my own eyelashes.” Julia stared at Cynthia in a
huff.

“How about just a few on
the outer edge? It'll make your eyes look bigger.”

“They're big enough,”
Julia thought, if they were any bigger she'd be a toad.

“They're ginger-colored!
You can hardly see them,” she wheedled.

Julia shook her head. “No. Just... put the
brown mascara on and be done with it.”

Cynthia sighed, defeated. She made it a
point to spend a ton of time on each eye, finally swiveling Julia
around in her chair to look at her reflection.

Julia stared.

And stared some more.

A slow smile spread on Cynthia's face. “See,
Jules? You're a goddess, who was to know!”

Julia couldn't believe the transformation.
The mossy green of the dress set off her hair, making the red in it
look like molten champagne. Her eyes sparkled like gold topaz, gems
in a pale face with shimmering lips in a pouty apricot. She opened
her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.

“You can tell me now,” she
said, smug.

Julia turned from her reflection and scowled
at Cyn.

Cynthia waited.

Well-hell. “You're the greatest.”

Cynthia grinned. “I know, doll-face.”

Julia rolled her eyes. What was Jason going
to think of her in this get-up? With the make-up and…. everything?
Julia rolled her glossed lip into her teeth and nibbled
anxiously.

Jason waited impatiently for Julia to
arrive. He knew he should have nixed the lame Plan of the Girls.
Them going together! Retarded. He'd let Kevin convince him it was
easier not to fight Cynthia.

“Listen man, just let
them. I don't want to deal with Cyn when she gets a head-o-steam
about girl shit, you feel me?” Kevin had said.

“What's so flaming-ass
important that I can't pick Jules up?”

“I told ya, they're
putting the masks and garb on.”

“What?” Jason asked,
confused. He was already feeling gay in a tux, the bow around his
neck was a slowly encroaching noose. He tugged at it
again.

“Hey! Don't dick with
that, it screws up the gig.”

“What's a gig?” Jason
asked, messin' around with the stupid noose.

“It's... damn-man! Leave
it alone!” Kevin said, slapping his hand away impatiently. He took
either side of the corners of the bow tie and aligned them with
Jason's Adam's apple.

There
, Kevin thought. He wondered if his ass-hat friend could
leave it alone for the next two hours.

Probably not.

“It's a military term...
it means to keep all your accessories in line with the middle of
your body,” Kevin said in a matter-of-fact way.

“That's great, Kev. I'll
sleep better knowing your ramrod dad gave you a few
pointers.”

“Hey jag-up, Dad served
our country and has a few pearls of wisdom once in
awhile.”

“Along with some colorful
vocabulary.”

“No shit, right?” Kevin
said, totally missing the irony.

Jason smiled and shook his head as they
hopped into Kev's car.

They made their way to the last dance they'd
ever attend.

*

Jason

Kevin caught sight of Julia and elbowed
Jason.

They looked at the girls as they entered the
gymnasium where fake acrylic stars danced above their heads like
wayward diamonds.

Jason couldn't take his eyes off of her. The
breath left his body in one, exhaustive rush.

Jules was drop-dead gorgeous.

Jason knew that people said that all the
time about chicks, sometimes dudes even. But Julia floated inside
the auditorium on a cloud of emerald vapor, her dress the color of
green kissed by autumn... and stunned him into silence.

Her hair looked almost red, its normal gold
color boosted by the pine of the dress, her eyes a sparkling gold.
They took up half her face.

He still couldn't look away.

She walked toward him slowly and he noticed
the dress showcased how curvy she was. She wasn't a twig and she
wasn't heavy. Jason took in a shaky breath, his eyes on her
hourglass figure as she moved toward him.

He noticed all the other guys were staring
at her too and frowned.

Julia reached him just as he put his hands
out for her and his face smoothed.

He pulled her closer and leaned down until
his jaw brushed her temple. “You're beautiful,” he whispered
against her fragrant skin.

Julia knew she looked beautiful.

She didn't need a mirror to tell her.

Jason's eyes told her.

They moved out to the dance floor, their
hands knotted together, their gazes locked.

Julia waited in her bed with bated breath.
Jason had dropped her off from prom and promised to sneak in her
bedroom window later.

Much later.

Aunt Lily had the irritating habit of
checking in on her.

Julia clutched her cell in one hand so she
could text Jason the instant she did.

She laid on her side for, she swore, ten
hours. Finally, Lily opened the door a crack and, seeing that Julia
appeared asleep, closed it softly behind her.

Julia let a long breath out, texting
Jason.

He must have been waiting outside her house
like a good stalker-boyfriend and she let him in as he stumbled
from outside the window.

“Damn! I won't miss that
anymore. No more nut-cruncher windowsill for me!”

Julia cocked and eyebrow. “We wouldn't want
your, ah, nuts crunched. No, that wouldn't do,” Julia said in a
low, teasing voice.

“Come here,” Jason said,
thinking about how he'd kiss that smirk off her face. She was
killing him. Standing there in her pajama bottoms and a cami. Her
hair was still loose and curled from prom, the makeup still
on.

“Aren't you supposed to
take all that crap off your face?”

She scrunched her nose in that way he loved
and said, “Nah, pillowcase will get rid of it.”

“Really?” Jason asked,
grinning. He walked over to her, admiring her in her post-prom
glory.

“The dance turned out
okay, Jules,” he said softly, bending to kiss the hollow between
those sexy bones that intersected her neck.

She nodded, a little breathless as his
breath moved over her pulse. She wound her arms around his neck and
his lips traveled up to her jaw then made its way to her forehead.
He began peppering her face with butterfly kisses, his lashes
grazing her skin above his lips. Her breathing became shallower and
Jason picked her up and carried her to the bed.

They lay together, head to hip, the heat of
their bodies one hot line. He moved against her, his hands on her
ribs, kneading her flesh as she wound a leg around his hip, their
mouths moving against each other.

His hands traveled and Julia pulled
away.

“Jason,” she
whispered.

“What?” he said, never
breaking from his sensual assault on her. She could hardly breathe,
she just wanted... she wanted to finish what they started. But she
wanted forever more.

She thought of her parents. Long gone. A
thread that tied the fabric of her being together.

He paused and pulled back to look at her
face, a sliver of moonlight a pale slash across her eyes.

He saw the expression there and pressed his
forehead against hers.

“I know,” he
moaned.

“I'm sorry,” Julia
whispered. “It's not that I don't trust you.”

“I know,” he repeated
against the skin of her forehead.

A lone tear escaped her eye and Jason caught
it, staring into those eyes. Those eyes that he'd looked into for a
decade.

“I want to be married.
It's what my parents would have wanted,” she said and Jason felt
her tremble against him. He silently promised to make her first
time extra special. It'd be perfect if it killed him.

“You still miss them,” he
asked as a statement, tightening his hold on her.

“Every day,” she replied
through eyes that had glossed with a sheen of tears.

He smiled. Jason wanted her so damn bad. It
wasn't just sex, he could have tapped any mindless alley cat in the
school.

She was his and he was hers. Jason knew
Jules was the one he wanted from the moment he saw her.

He leaned down and kissed the
crescent-shaped scar on her forehead, the only thing that marred
her perfect skin.

He could wait. He could wait forever if it
meant being with her.

They lay together in each other's arms until
dawn shattered the darkness into a million pieces of golden orange,
rose and scarlet, flinging the colors about the room like so much
broken glass.

Present Day

Liquid lapped Julia and the water parted,
ice replacing the subtle undulation of comfort she'd been
under.

She came to the surface of her consciousness
in a nauseating wave. She became aware that she was drowning.

Drowning in hunger and weakness. She didn't
have the strength to move. Loud voices assailed her. They floated
around her, stabbing at her consciousness until she finally
understood where she was.

If she'd had the strength, she would have
wept.

The creatures that had stolen her life away
were arguing about her again.

“I am phoning him. Gabriel
must be made aware of what is happening here!”

Julia cracked open her eyes, wide and
grainy, her mouth felt like the Sahara Desert. She was so thirsty
her bones ached with it. How long had she been out?

“She is killing herself,”
the one named William said. His fists were clenched and anxiety
tightened his already stark features.

“Call him. Ask him what we
must do. If she is as important as you hypothesize, it is
necessary, no?” Pierce queried reasonably.

She lay perfectly still but they heard a
change in her breathing and turned their silvered eyes to her.

She had just enough energy to lift her
forearm and cover her eyes. She would not look at them.

“Just kill me,” she said
listlessly. Without Jason, why go on? She couldn't bear to think of
all of it right now. The shards of that nightmare would not be a
memory she would look at any time soon.

If ever.

She didn't hear them approach but an icy
hand clamped around her forearm gently and moved it off of eyes
that ran with tears. Julia was surprised she had enough tears to
shed. Her mind was so beleaguered with grief she could hardly
breathe. Why didn't they just kill her now?

After all, that's what they were good
at.

Killing.

William tapped his cell to hibernate and
pocketed it inside the jacket he wore. He breathed out in an
elaborate exhale. They took a chance implementing this protocol. If
they did not follow it to the letter, they would lose her.

This girl. The Blood Singer from the Book of
Blood.

The Rare One.

He gave Pierce a full look as they walked
together toward the girl.

Julia watched them come, one dark and one
light. Angels. They looked like angels.

Angels of death.

Her arms long ago released, she lay there,
unable to move a muscle. Only her eyes rolled in their sockets,
tracking their approach.

William crouched down, feeling the hollow on
the underside of her wrist, where a thready pulse beat. “She is
close, it is a near thing.”

Pierce nodded. “It must be you. You are the
one with Singer heritage coursing through your veins. Maybe you can
bring her back.”

William had hoped that she would come around
these past months. But they could tarry here no longer. The Were
drew near, circling like sharks in water saturated by blood. This
coven grew restless with her presence, Blood Singers were a stick
to stir the cauldron of trouble. He had already waited too long.
She was weak, compromised.

Julia looked up at him with eyes of liquid
gold and he breathed through his mouth, hoping the scent of her
would not impede what he must do.

It was a risk he must accept.

Julia saw William look at her intently and
kept her eyes open with effort. Something was building, it thrummed
deep in her bones like a call. Julia whimpered. She hated to be
weak but knew what they were capable of. She watched as his eyes
drank in the sight of her. Then his fangs elongated, escaping his
mouth. She opened her own to scream and nothing came out.

His eyes tightened at her expression as he
tore into the flesh of his own wrist. Black blood began oozing out
of his damaged forearm and flowed down, dripping onto her neck. The
droplets splattered like hot candle wax on her skin.

“Drink,” William said,
lowering his wrist down to her mouth.

She shook her head, with her ebbing strength
she clamped her lips together.

William's eyes flicked behind her and he
grunted, frustrated.

“Hold her,” he said with a
voice filled with regret.

Large hands clamped onto either side of her
head and she was helpless to move in the jaws of their hold.

Just helpless, Julia seethed with
frustration.

The poison of his body poured into her mouth
in a steady stream and she fought, trying to move her head, but
steel bands of flesh held her in position.

He pressed his forearm onto her mouth and
with his other hand he pinched her nostrils together and she sucked
the blood down into her throat as she began to clench her teeth
around his arm.