Page 2 of Tainted Blood

“If I’m too afraid, he might make me stay here,” I mused to my empty office. “I don’t think I’ll enjoy being there, but I’m supposed to help him find out who helped Edwin and Claire. They helped murder Jacob. They had to be behind what happened in Alaska, too.”

I was harboring a grudge and refused to let it go for anything less than justice. Jacob had been wonderful. He hadn’t been exceptional only as an employer or boss. He’d been the pinnacle of what vampires could be—safe, thoughtful, and controlled. Even more than that, he’d been a wonderful man, better than nearly any human I’d met. Jacob had cared. He had loved all those who lived in and worked for his nest. He’d wanted the best for us.

His murder was a heinous act of evil I wasn’t certain I would ever forgive. Beyond that, his murder had led to the deaths of so many others, one of those being my own mother. I’d been forced to cover up her murder. I’d had to step up and protect those left behind after she was gone. I could still feel the fear during those terrible weeks, trying to weave my way through and not die before I could help anyone or get justice for my mother.

I had started getting justice, but I died, anyway.

Selfishly, they were the reason my safe, secure choice had gone down a road no one could have predicted. They were the reason my entire life had blown up. My old friends moved on with their lives in safer human occupations. My brother believed I had moved across the country from our childhood home and disappeared just to get away from everything that happened. I didn’t want him to know I wasn’t human anymore. I couldn’t face it yet.

Then there was Alaska—Elizabeth, her family, and the other innocent victims. A couple who was viciously murdered in their home. Another family given a new life in a new place after we saved those who could be saved. They would never remember the terrors of that night or the truth about how their loved ones had died. All of that because someone wanted to sow a little chaos.

I nursed my grudge, thinking of those terrible nights. Homes covered in blood, evidence of how each one died. My grip on my cup tightened, and my hands stopped shaking.

“It’ll be fine. I’ll keep forcing myself to suffer through training, and we’ll stop these people. We have to,” I said, a declaration to myself. “He’ll understand that I don’t think this is enough of a threat to stay here.”

I finished my drink, changed into my workout clothes, then marched out of my suite, heading for the gym.

2

It was a quiet evening in the mansion. No one on staff had borne witness to my internal thoughts, so they had no idea why I was moving through the halls so quickly. I gave Rupert a smile as I passed him, hearing him greet me when I was already ten feet down the hall. Rupert and the others were downstairs more and more often as Alexius grew to trust me, and I learned to trust myself. It was a trick Alexius and I were playing on my instincts. I never fed from the vein, not here. The one time I had was during that long night in Alaska, and I was perfectly comfortable with it staying that way indefinitely. Since I never fed from Rupert’s vein or anyone else’s, I could more easily resist that urge, and none of them became a potential food source for me. If I got too hungry, my first instinct would be to get into any of the fridges that held easy meals. No fight, no chance of getting into trouble with a more dangerous predator.

I had never gotten that hungry in the house. I didn’t want Alexius’s theory tested, but I believed his logic and trusted him. The psychology of it made sense to me, and that had to be enough.

“Good evening,” Alexius greeted as I walked into the gym.

“Good morning, actually. It’s past midnight,” I said, heading for the cabinet. I used it to put my stuff in while in the gym with him. It was mainly for my phone, which I didn’t want to get broken while he tossed me around the room like a rag doll.

“You seem… hurried. You weren’t running late.”

Even with my back turned to him, I could feel his stare, and coupled with his statement and clear interest, I knew there would be no hiding that anything had happened.

“Your heart is racing. You just fed, so there’s no reason it should be going that fast…” he continued, and I heard him take a single step behind me.

Oh, yeah, definitely no hiding…

“I got an email,” I started as I put my phone on the cabinet shelf that I had claimed as my own.

Between one heartbeat and the next, he went from across the room to right behind me, his dark, foreboding presence casting a shadow over me.

“And?”

“It said it was easy to be brave when hiding behind a screen, and they wonder if I’ll be so bold in person.” I wondered what he would do in response to that. I wasn’t surprised by his sudden move across the room. He wasn’t trying to intimidate or scare me or invade my personal space. Turning around after I finished putting my things away, there was still at least a foot between us. He never crossed that line unless it was necessary, like holding me back from blood, or sparring as he taught me self-defense.

His eyes, when I felt brave enough to meet them, surprised me. Alexius didn’t often have the blood-red eyes of a vampire. A few things brought those out in every vampire. Hunger was the most common, but strong emotion was also a cause. I knew Alexius would never let himself get hungry enough, not in his home, so this display had to be because of the email and whatever it made him feel.

Whatever that feeling was, he felt it strongly enough to let some of his control slip.

“That implies they’ll be meeting you in person,” he said, his eyes narrowing.

“I assumed as much, and we’re only scheduled to make one public appearance for the next year if you have your way.” I tried to shrug but faltered under the weight of his blood-red expression. “So, whoever it is might be at Isaiah’s thing, one of the ancients…”

There was a long silence until Alexius nodded slowly.

“Yes, but that was something Isaiah and I had already considered. With the maneuvering they pulled with Edwin after Jacob’s death, they have to be someone of power and means. Generally, that implies one of the oldest of our people.”

“Yeah, that. I’ll be careful, don’t worry. I still really want to help there—”

“I have no intention of keeping you locked in the house while I’m away. You’ll be going. I won’t ask you to stay here. I’ll send this new information to Isaiah and see what he can do about security.”

---