Page 7 of Bonded By Blood

A low, momentary ringing sounded behind her before the line connected and Kendall spoke. This time into her phone. “Hi, Jasen? It’s Kendall. I’m at Shopping Grounds with Brianna and we’ve got some snarly vamp named Wilson causing a problem.”

“Fuck,” Wilson mumbled, his eyes widening. Realization of some sort had finally dawned on him. Too little, too late.

“He’s on his way,” Kendall declared.

All at once Wilson began struggling, throwing his full strength into breaking free from Brianna’s grip. She hadn’t been trying to decapitate him and that worked in his favor. But instead of taking advantage of his momentary freedom, he made as if to dash to Brianna’s right—toward Kendall.

Brianna stepped bodily in front of him, arm lifted, prepared to make good on her earlier threat and rip his heart clean out of his chest.

Except Wilson immediately switched direction. He’d deduced which of the two humans Brianna was more likely to overreact for and acted accordingly. Her reaching hand swiped through empty air, failing to stop him from grabbing hold of Joe.

Joe made a startled sound as one of his arms was wrenched behind him and he was forced to his knees, a hand locked around his throat.

“Whoops,” Wilson said with a sneer. “Looks like I laid a finger on him.” He tightened his grip. The rapid beating of Joe’s heart echoed through Brianna’s ears like a drumbeat. “Now you’re gonna let me go, Princess. Or your new pet bleeds all over the floor.”

Somewhere nearby a startled human sucked in a breath and abruptly swung their cart around the other way, reminding Brianna of all the other potential casualties surrounding them.

“You should have run,” Brianna said. “Instead you did exactly what I told you not to. Now there will be consequences.”

“I’ll show you consequences, bi—”

Wilson’s angry exclamation was cut short by a blur of motion that settled with Jasen’s arms wrapped tightly around Wilson’s head. Any movement at all would surely snap the shorter vampire’s neck unless Jasen made the conscious decision not to.

Brianna didn’t miss Kendall’s relieved exhale at the arrival of their most famed, and feared, Enforcer.

“I was hoping you were your brother,” Jasen said, a twinge of irritation thickening the old accent in his voice. “But I’ll be happy to rip your head off, anyway.”

For the first time, Wilson’s face contorted in true fear.

Brianna stepped forward, knelt, and carefully pried Wilson’s fingers from Joe’s neck. The proper return of blood flow and subsequent deep intake of breath assured her no lasting damage had been done. She took him by the arm, intending to help him to his feet and move him properly to safety—next to Kendall and behind her—but Wilson truly was an idiot.

Wilson shot out an arm, grasping for what he could reach without twisting his own neck, and succeeded in scraping both the back of Brianna’s hand and the side of Joe’s head before she could pull them out of range.

The scent of Joe’s blood filled her nostrils, a distracting aroma sweet and rich. Surprisingly tempting.

The scent of her own blood, weaker than that of a human’s, followed. It was that scent—that reality—which pulled the short hiss from her lips. It’d been a long time since she’d bled. She got Joe to his feet, as his wound wasn’t bad, and moved him away from Wilson.

Jasen’s low snarl carried to her ears. “That was a mistake.”

Wilson sucked in a gasping breath.

Realizing Jasen meant to simply execute the other man on the spot, Brianna spoke up. “Jasen, wait.”

He obliged and snapped his gaze to hers. “Why?”

“Because we can use him,” she said. “To lure his brother out of hiding.”

Jasen considered her words. “And if we can’t?”

“Then he’ll be punished for his crimes accordingly.”

Wilson made a sort of gurgling sound, likely in protest.

The angry tension in Jasen’s face faded away. “Works for me.” He shoved a knee into Wilson’s spine, hard enough to crack it. He rendered Wilson temporarily paralyzed and therefore unable to flee.

“I’ll talk to someone about handling this,” Brianna said, making a vague gesture to the store surrounding them. “Take him straight in.”

Jasen flicked a brief, almost unreadable glance to Joe before inclining his head and hauling up the whimpering vampire. He tossed Wilson over his shoulder unceremoniously and dashed off without a word.

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