Page 2 of Bonded By Blood

Kendall gave her her patented duh look. “I don’t know. I mean, I’m only a human, living in a vampire mansion. I only remember, like, a dozen arguments about Turning me if I was going to ‘stick around.’ Can’t see how that could possibly make me uncomfortable ever.”

Brianna sighed. “Those arguments are long settled. You know I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“You I trust,” Kendall said. “Granny Vampire, not always.”

Brianna cringed, her face contorting into what was surely best described as a mask of horror. “You’ll never be able to trust her again if she hears you calling her that.”

Kendall grinned. She always had gotten some perverse joy out of saying things she knew would aggravate Trista. “So now that you’ve finished your so-called meal, can we go out and do something?”

Are we back to that? “Kendall, I’m really not interested.”

“You’re never interested,” Kendall argued. She turned and leaned over the arm of the sofa. “Come anyway. For me. Please?”

Brianna pursed her lips and glanced around her library, obligingly considering the request. She highly disliked venturing into the city, but that didn’t mean she never did it. That didn’t even mean it wasn’t sometimes worthwhile. “Okay,” she relented. “One afternoon. Home for dinner.”

“Yes!” Kendall popped to her feet with the exuberance of a teenager, a big, ridiculous grin on her face. It was somehow heartwarming and alarming simultaneously.

****

Joseph Pearce rubbed subconsciously at the scar on the side of his throat, only partially hidden by the collar of his suit coat, as he stepped from the office building behind him. Thank God that’s over. He hated having to meet with his lawyer, but every now and then he had to suck it up. It was a necessary evil of owning a successful business chain. Although, in Joe’s opinion, the man had become particularly persistent ever since the home invasion that had nearly killed him. Which hadn’t exactly been an ordinary home invasion.

Joe chuckled to himself as he started down the busy sidewalk, trying to imagine how the older man might react to the truth of the world around him. Specifically to the fact that his precious practice was nestled right in the vampire capital of the world. The man was a great business lawyer, but he didn’t strike Joe as preternaturally open-minded.

Joe gave his head a shake and lifted his keys from a pocket as he approached the parking structure that housed his truck.

He’d learned about the existence of the supernatural when he was barely ten years old. A curious boy visiting his grandparents, whose property backed up to an expanse of protected forest, he’d made a habit of sneaking off to wander the woods. One of those explorations led him to a frightened wolf pup that had been cornered by rattlesnakes. Joe himself hadn’t really understood the levels of danger inherent in the scene. He’d just jumped in, grabbed the pup, and run. He’d run until the hissing had stopped. Until he’d gone and gotten himself thoroughly lost.

For the rest of his life he would never forget the awe that had flooded him when the wolf who’d eventually found them shifted before his eyes into a woman. She was the pup’s mother, he’d learned, and in return for saving her lost child she escorted him safely home. For the next three years, Joe returned to the forest every time he visited his grandparents, and every time he met up with the she-wolf and her growing son. She told him about the world, things his parents would probably not have approved of him knowing. When his grandparents died, Joe’s father chose to sell the property, and Joe was forced to say goodbye to the wolf family he’d come to love.

There had to be something wrong with him that even as an adult he preferred to spend his time wrapped up in the world of werewolves and vampires. That was probably why his best friend was a werewolf, and why he’d handed over his family’s old cabin—and of course the surrounding property—to that friend when he’d heard the man needed territory. It definitely had to be why he could set foot in Sacramento after nearly having his throat ripped out by a bitter, apparently rogue, vampire. Any sane man would certainly have re-thought his life choices after that.

He, on the other hand, needed to find the nearest bulk foods store and buy them out of chocolate bars. Because werewolves were human enough that chocolate didn’t bother them and, most importantly, Whitney was having cravings. Joe could only hope that the pack’s Beta, Jim, hadn’t been pulling his leg. Either way, he’d be dumping the load of chocolate off at the cabin in two days—everything but the Reese’s he intended to buy for himself.

With the help of his GPS, since he wasn’t overly familiar with the intricacies of Sacramento’s roadways, Joe found a qualified store in a matter of minutes.

He’d just tossed a giant bag of marshmallows into his cart, thinking perhaps Samantha’s boy might want some S’mores, when a female voice he didn’t recognize spoke up almost directly beside him.

“Wow, that is a shit-ton of chocolate.”

Joe turned, one eyebrow partially raised and a smile teasing his lips. “It is,” he said.

The woman was a handful of years younger than him by his estimation, putting her in her mid-twenties, and stood around five-foot-six. She had a head full of wild, dirty blonde hair that hung past her shoulders and a light in her hazel eyes that matched the grin on her lips. “You definitely need more graham crackers, and at least three more bags of those marshmallows.”

Joe chuckled. “The S’mores are optional in this case.”

“S’mores are never optional,” she said. “Are you going to some sort of chocolate party? Did you fall off the chocolate addiction wagon?”

“Kendall.” The new voice was also female, and from her tone the speaker was a little annoyed. There was something else in that voice, though, underneath the annoyance. Something unexpectedly appealing.

Joe obligingly adjusted his stance to accommodate the newcomer, noting the girl—presumably named Kendall—did the same with an exaggerated eye roll.

“I was just making conversation,” Kendall said.

“That’s not what it sounded like to me,” the second woman replied, narrowing her eyes slightly at her companion before she turned her gaze to Joe.

Joe drew in a breath as he studied her. She was striking. Breathtaking, even. Only a couple of inches taller than her friend, with long, golden hair weaved back in an intricate braid. Thin wisps framed her slightly pale face. She only appeared to be, at most, two or three years older than Kendall. But Joe knew as soon as their eyes met not to believe that impression. Unlike her companion, this beautiful stranger had the tell-tale black irises of a vampire.

She was gorgeous, but that wasn’t the only reason his heartrate increased when he looked at her. He hadn’t been face-to-face with a vampire since the day after the attack, more than a year and a half before.

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