Ties to the Blood Moon 2nd Edition (35 page)

I smiled briefly at William, but when he failed to smile back the previous events started replaying in my head. I sat up, quickly feeling my face and looking at my body. I thought it all had been a terrible nightmare until I saw my pant legs were ripped at the seams, and fresh blood stains covered the front of my shirt.

“Where’s my mom?” I asked, frantically looking around. “Where’s Zane?” I pushed away from William and scrambled to my feet.

All four siblings ran in the doorway. “They’re gone,” James said, looking at William. “We followed their scent, but it’s like they just disappeared.”

“What do you mean they’re gone? They were just here,” I said, scrunching my eyebrows. “What’s going on, William? I don’t understand what happened.” I paused, thinking. “I remember fighting with Zane and I had him in a choke hold.” I slowly paced across the floor as I started remembering the details. “I felt this sudden sharp pain in my back, and then ... nothing.”

William held up Zane’s knife, and I tilted my head to the side, scrunching my eyebrows tighter. “Look closely,” He said, slowly rotating it.

It wasn’t Zane’s knife like I’d thought. I think William wanted me to figure it out on my own, but Luna innocently spoke up.

“What are you doing with Grandfather’s knife?” she asked earnestly, and I quickly turned my attention to her.

“Your grandfather’s knife?” I asked. “Yeah, William … why
do
you have the chief’s knife?”

William’s shoulders dropped, and his expression saddened. “I think the reason you can’t remember anything after choking Zane is because you were stabbed in the back with this knife.”

Luna’s expression changed to horrified and she gasped, throwing her hand over her mouth. The two oldest twins quickly averted their gaze from me, but I saw Joseph grow angry.

“But I’m a vampire,” I said, still feeling a bit self-conscious saying it in front of Luna and her brothers. “A knife to the back wouldn’t cause me to pass out or kill me … would it, William?”

“It would if it pierced your heart,” he said quietly, and he saw my confusion. “It should have killed you, Genevieve.” William had the saddest look on his face. “The only way to kill a vampire is by piercing their heart. When I found you, you were in here alone face down on the floor with a knife sticking out of your back. When I couldn’t hear your heart beating I thought you were …” His voice turned throaty sounding and he trailed off. “I held you in my arms and I pulled out the knife. When I did, you suddenly opened your eyes.” He smiled so lovingly it made my heart yearn for him. “I don’t know why you didn’t die, and I don’t care. I’m just glad you didn’t.”

I chewed at the inside of my bottom lip, thinking. “Why would the chief want to hurt me?” I asked, looking the siblings.

I guess Joseph couldn’t hold back his anger any longer. “Grandfather didn’t do this! He
wouldn’t
do this. Not to Gen. He knows how I … how we care about her and how important she is to the survival of the Adlet people,” Joseph said and glared at William.

“I didn’t do this to her,” William shouted, and got in Joseph’s face.

“Stop it!” Luna moved in between them. “I followed William here. He’s telling the truth,” she shouted at Joseph, and his features stiffened to a painful mask. “He didn’t do it, Joe,” she said softly, lowering her eyes.

“Maybe he didn’t, but I know my grandfather didn’t do it either!”

“Where is your grandfather, Joseph?” William asked, sardonically. “I sure as hell don’t see him anywhere. And he left the cave before we did.”

When William mentioned the cave, I thought about Aunt Bev. “What about my aunt? Is she … ” I trailed off, not wanting to hear one of them tell me she was dead. “I have to see her,” I said before bolting from the room.

I couldn’t help but feel sad. She was my mom’s sister. She was my blood. And maybe it hadn’t been her fault. For all I knew, Zane could have mesmerized her somehow. I remembered how I had been entranced by him in New Mexico, and I wasn’t even a human. I felt sure it would be much easier to get a human under his spell. William didn’t seem to have any trouble mesmerizing humans.

Aunt Bev laid on the cave floor in a warm pool of her own blood. She looked so peaceful and innocent it was hard for me to keep from falling apart. It was like her betrayal no longer mattered. All the fun times we had shared streamed through my mind like a home movie.

I took a few uncertain steps, and slowly knelt down next to her. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you,” I whispered, feeling responsible for everything that had happened. When I leaned in close, gently kissing her on the forehead, she moved and I jumped. I had heard a faint heartbeat, but had mistakenit for Williams.

“She’s alive!” I shouted at William, and when I looked at her again her eyes were cracked open. “Aunt Bev, you’re going to be all right. You just have to hang on a little longer,” I uttered, stroking her hair.

She tried to say something, but her whispers were barely audible, and it was hard to hear with the water noise.

“Shh, don’t try to talk,” I said, smiling sadly at her. “Save your strength.”

William rushed over and dropped to his knees on the other side of her. He peeled back her blood soaked shirt while I watched and held my breath. He gently covered it back up, looked at me, and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Gen. She’s lost too much blood.”

“Can’t you give her your blood?” I asked desperate to save her. “You know … turn her?”

He furrowed his brow. “She’s lost too much blood, and the smell of death has already set in. I’m sorry, but I can’t. It’s too late.”

Aunt Bev heard him, and opened her eyes again, forcing a smile through the pain. “It’s okay. Let me go,” she stammered and I knew she was almost gone. “Your mom,” she uttered.

“Zane took her, Aunt Bev. He got away.” I lowered my eyes, wondering if he might kill my mom as soon as he’d gotten away safely.

“I know where …” she trailed off coughing. Her breathing was labored and her words came out broken, which made it harder to understand what she was saying. “Prague … to …” she whispered, then let out one more short breath, and was gone.

Chapter 59

Luna and her brothers went back to the reservation to talk to their grandfather and William and I returned to the cabin. I wanted to confront him myself but they convinced me it wouldn’t do any good. Even Joseph said he would tell them before me.

I hugged Luna and made her promise to call me after she talked with her grandfather, but that was one call I definitely didn’t expect to get.

“Oh my God, it feels good to be home,” I sighed, dropping onto the couch and kicking off my shoes. William dropped onto the couch next to me and threw one of his legs over mine. He picked up the remote and switched on the stereo. The light from it glowed softly in an otherwise dark room. The impact of everything that had happened hit me all at once, and I couldn’t help but cry. Tears may not have fallen, but I cried all the same—from sadness and exhaustion and fear.

William put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to him. His heartbeat was slow and faint, and mine started beating in sync with his. “Everything’s going to be all right.” His voice was calm and quiet as he ran his fingers through my long tangles.

I thought about what he said and looked up at him, furrowing my brow. “How can you even say that?”

“Because,” he answered softly. “You’re here with me.” His smile was filled with love. He kissed me once, tenderly, then I closed my eyes, listening to Avril Lavigne’s, “When You’re Gone.” William let his head fall back against the top of the couch, exposing the large vein in his neck. I didn’t have to physically see it to know that with each slow, steady pulse his skin rose and fell over it. The sound of his heart combined with his scent instantly triggered my memory of his delectable tasting blood, and my mouth began salivating.

I needed to feel William’s touch more than I had ever needed anything. I used my knee to push his leg from atop mine and flipped myself around until I was sitting on his lap, straddling him between my legs. My heart sped up to match his. I felt his eyes on me as I pulled my hoodie over my head, and he reached up to help, tossing it to the floor.

We gazed into each other’s eyes as he placed his hands firmly on my sides, unhurriedly running his hands upward guiding my arms straight up in the air, then reaching down he pulled my shirt up and over my head.

I felt his hardness under me, his hands gently moved to my hips. He pulled me closer, tenderly kissing the fronts of my bare shoulders, causing my heart to beat even more wildly. He stopped long enough to tug at his own shirt, but too eager to wait, I ripped it from his chest, and ran my fingernails across the rippling muscles that lined his chest and stomach.

Wrapping his hands under my legs, he kissed me hard, picking me up and carrying me into the bedroom, his lips slowly dotting my neck with soft kisses. Standing beside the bed he released me, and my legs slowly dropped to the floor. His fingertips ran upward along the outsides of my arms until they were underneath my bra straps, gently guiding them off of my shoulders. Even though I welcomed his touch.

He had one hand holding the small of my back while the other released my bra clasp, then he pressed his bare skin against mine. Although our skin was normally ice cold, once our bare flesh touched, the temperature of our skin quickly grew hot to the touch.

My fingers trembled nervously as I fumbled with the button and zipper of his jeans, before finally getting it and they dropped to the floor. He swooped me up into his arms, gently placing me onto the huge pedestal bed, then straddled my knees while he unbuttoned and unzipped my jeans. I raised my hips, helping to make it easier for him to slip them off.

William moved up to the pillow next to me and I turned to face him. “You don’t have to do this just for me,” he whispered, gazing deep into my eyes, gently running the back of his finger down my jaw line. “I can wait if you’re not ready.”

I wrapped my tongue around his finger. “I am ready, William. I’ve never been more ready than I am right now,” I smiled nervously, wondering if I was really ready, or trying to rush it because I loved him so much I wanted him to be my first. I didn’t have to tell him I was a virgin, he’d already sensed it, and I knew he would be gentle.

His eyes glistened as he leaned in to kiss me. He slipped his fingers under the straps of my panties, sliding them down and then using his toes to kick them off. His hands moved along the small of my back, sending chills down my spine. After gently rolling me onto my back, his lips worked their way along an imaginary line that went from the warm softness between my breasts down to the center of my stomach, peppering me slowly with soft moist kisses that made my skin tingle. It was such intense pleasure I kept forgetting to breathe.

As he worked his way to my mouth, my body trembled nervously. When our lips finally met, I grabbed fistfuls of his hair, kissing him greedily. His mouth was hungry for mine, but in a gentle way. I tasted blood through his skin, and excitement raced through my veins.

I heard a faint ringing noise that sounded like it was coming from under the bed. William heard it, too.

“Is that my phone? I asked, sighing heavily.

William kissed my shoulder before reluctantly reaching over the side of the bed. He dug my cell phone from the pocket of my jeans. The darkened room quickly became illuminated by the screen. Luna’s name was lit up in bold letters, along with the words, “ urgent 911.”

“You better call her,” William said, sounding so frustrated it was almost funny.

I took the phone and dialed her number. “This better really be good,” I grumbled when she picked up.

“Yeah, it kinda is,” Luna said, sounding anxious. “Gen, it was Grandfather that stabbed you, but wait until you hear why before you go off.”

“I’m listening,” I said severely, tapping my foot on the bed.

William sat up, silently mouthing the word “what,” and I held out my phone a bit so he could also hear.

“His reasoning was if you killed Zane without permission from the Amalric, then you would be hunted down and killed, leaving the Adlet people without a leader.”

I furrowed my brows. “What? Technically, I stopped being an Adlet when I chose to drink William’s blood,” I said sarcastically. “So, I don’t see that it really matters anymore.”

There was a long moment of silence. “That’s where you’re wrong, Gen. You are still an Adlet. Grandfather saw you in your new form. He called you … hybrid.”

My heart all but stopped completely. How could that be? Zane was considered a hybrid, but when he transformed, he still looked like a wolf. So, then why hadn’t I been able to do that since William turned me? I climbed down off the bed, and picked up my clothes.

“So what you’re saying is I can kill Zane if I get permission from the Amalric?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Luna answered hesitantly. “Why?” She asked, but I didn’t respond. “Gen? Answer me. What are you going to do?” She asked, frantically.

“I’ll call you back,” I said, and pressed the end button while Luna was still talking.

I looked briefly at William, chewing on my lip. “Get dressed,” I said, not unkindly, after picking up his jeans and tossing them onto the bed. “I need you to take me to my aunt’s house, and then to the airport. I’m going to Prague.”

William jumped off the bed, and tried to put his legs in his jeans while hurrying around the bed where I was putting on my clothes. If I hadn’t been upset I probably would have laughed seeing him hop around the floor.

“Look, Genevieve. You’re a vampire now, and you have to start thinking like one. You need enough blood to last you on the trip. What if something happened and you couldn’t get blood right away when you got there?”