Page 5 of Bonded By Blood

“I thought you were trying new things?” Kendall returned.

Brianna held up the bag. “One new thing. Just one. Just this.”

Kendall opened her mouth, undoubtedly to insist she try all the other things she’d missed out on over the centuries.

Joe cut her off. “How about you let her start with one thing?”

Kendall turned her attention to him. Brianna did the same.

Joe stuck his hands in his pockets. “Maybe if one thing pans out, she’ll be interested in trying another. Whereas trying one hundred things at once is a lot, right?”

There was a pause.

“Fine,” Kendall said with an exaggerated breath. “You’re not wrong.” She pointed the corner of her cookie box at him. “But you must tell me your secret.”

Brianna handed Kendall the bag of chocolate, thereby causing her to retract her rudely extended cookie box. “How about we don’t harass the poor—” She cut herself off as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, offering her a moment’s warning.

An unfamiliar man, another vampire, suddenly stepped awkwardly into the space between Kendall and Joe. He was facing Joe, as if Brianna and Kendall weren’t even there. The vampire was about the same height as Brianna and he donned an old, dark gray sweatshirt over worn jeans and sneakers. A baseball cap covered what looked like brown hair.

Kendall shifted her weight, leaning closer to Brianna, and whispered, “Um…?”

Joe had taken a half-step back, likely out of surprise, but his previously glittering brown eyes had already gone wide. His heartrate kicked up again, a little higher and a little harder than before.

“I know you,” the vampire said slowly, his voice low so as not to carry far. His head tilted ever-so-slightly to the side. “You’re supposed to be dead.”

Kendall’s heartrate spiked a bit.

Brianna narrowed her eyes at the cocky, ignorant vampire.

Joe gathered himself, somewhat, and straightened. “Obviously your friend failed to finish the job.”

The scar on his neck. This vampire was connected to that somehow.

The vampire pulled his hands from his sweatshirt pockets and took a single step forward, as if to intimidate Joe. Probably to threaten him.

Brianna moved and caught him by the elbow, jerking him around to face her. Either he was a bigger idiot than his blatant behavior gave him credit for and he hadn’t noticed her presence as a vampire, or he simply hadn’t expected her to bother, because he was clearly startled. “That’s enough,” she said firmly. She had plenty more to say, actually, but it wouldn’t be wise to create a scene in the middle of the human’s store.

Both of his eyebrows arched high on his forehead. Visually he appeared older than her. Brianna guessed he’d been in his mid-to late-thirties when he’d been Turned. What mattered more was that she’d never seen him before. So he wasn’t likely to know who she was, at least not by face alone. A theory he quickly confirmed when he yanked his arm free. “Stay outta this,” he snapped. “It don’t concern you, sweetie.”

Behind her, Kendall bristled. “What did you—”

Brianna lifted a hand to silence her. She kept her glare on the vampire. “Quietly take your leave. And do not bother this man again.”

In her peripheral vision, she noticed Joe quirk a brow. She also noticed he’d calmed a bit. For some reason, that eased a little of the tension inside her.

The other vampire, however, was not feeling cooperative. “Listen, bitch,” he snarled, his lips curling back to reveal his fangs for emphasis. “I’ve got a score to settle with this human. He got a friend o’ mine killed a couple years ago.”

Brianna deliberately arched a faux-patient brow. “The same friend who tried to kill him?”

“He called fuckin’ wolves,” the vampire said with heavy disdain.

“You and your friend picked a fight,” Brianna said. “He and his friend won.” She let the glare return to her face. “I don’t see the problem. Now for your own sake, do as I say. I don’t like repeating myself.”

The vampire made a guttural sound somewhere between a snarl and a hiss and stalked up to her, presumably thinking to intimidate her by getting in her face. He didn’t stop until the front edge of his cap brushed her forehead. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

Brianna curled her lip, his stench invading her nose.

“Oh yeah,” Joe said, as if he were suddenly remembering something. “You’re the guy who got away, right? Tobias Wilson?”

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