Blood Of Kings (Transfusion Book 3) Read online

One worthy of owning her.

  I only let go of the blade when the glowing steel started to simmer down, knowing that I had done all in my power to save her in that moment. But even then, it still didn’t feel like enough. So, all that was left for me to do was to hold onto hope that whatever it was that had suddenly befallen my girl, my vow had at least kept her alive long enough until I could save her. And speaking of saving her, I rose to my feet and grabbed the only thing left that had the power to do that…

  My one and only bargaining chip.

  The Gods be damned box was one I simply wished I could have destroyed and have done with it, but unfortunately it wasn’t that easy…as I had tried!

  I had even had my own witch, Nesteemia, try and overpower the protective barrier which was held over it. But it was no use, as there was only one way to beat it and that was to actually open it. And by all accounts, doing so would lead to my destruction, so that wasn’t exactly my idea of a fucking solution either.

  In truth, even my own people studying it hadn’t discovered as much as my girl had. Amelia’s intelligence and cunning wasn’t just something that impressed me, it was something that utterly astounded me! It was also something that I was beyond proud of.

  Now, if she could just stop using that cunning against me in trying to leave, then I would revel in her skills instead of silently dread them. As right now, and knowing what she was like, well all I could hope for was that pretty little head of hers was smart enough not to try anything that would end up getting her killed. For I swear the first thing I would do when kidnapping her from Heaven would be to spank that ass hard enough she wouldn’t be sitting on her vessel’s behind for a fucking week!

  After this I walked back into the lobby with the box and cause of my current cluster fuck situation, before entering Amelia’s apartment. All my council were here already and the second I started growling, Clay spoke,

  “Nothing was touched, as I knew you would wish to see for yourself.” This appeased me enough to nod, thankful at least that my people knew me and knew me well enough to act under orders I hadn’t yet needed to voice.

  I scanned the room, first taking in the state of my people, and for the moment, purposely ignoring the dead bodies. Ruto was on the sofa looking slightly less worse off than I had seen him last when being pulled from the wreckage by Clay.

  Clay himself still had the metal imbedded in his side as if this was a mere annoyance that came secondary to all else. Liessa was being cradled in her husband’s arms trying to soothe him, for he looked nearly as murderous as I did. Especially seeing as he was still plucking out spent tranq darts from her body, then I could understand why. It also told me how they had managed to overpower her, for it looked as if she had been shot with enough to take down a herd of African Game.

  Hakan was taking in the scene, as if seeing it all playing out in front of him and Percy was doing what Percy did best, trying to care for others. He was currently dabbing at one of the many cuts on Ruto’s torso, one that ran the full length of his face and torn shoulder.

  “So it’s easy to say that we got our asses handed to us,” Clay commented drily making me growl before swiftly grabbing hold of the metal shard about the size of his forearm and yanking it out of his side in anger. He winced, gritting his teeth from pain but remained strong enough not to make a sound other than a clenched,

  “Point taken.”

  “Good, now explain to me what happened?” This was aimed at Liessa.

  “She was fucking shot, that’s what!” Caspian snapped clearly struggling with this and with only a stern look from me, did he back the fuck down and yield. This was also helped by Liessa muttering something in his ear before feeding him her wrist so he could suckle on the siphons on her skin that let her secrete the deadly ink. One her husband was not only immune to but mainly addicted to. To say that they were meant to be together was more than just a romanticized statement, but more of destiny throwing these two into each other’s paths.

  Although, if I recall I do believe his original mission had been to eliminate her and the threat she possessed to my people. This being because it was a substance that could kill a weak Vampire while putting one of greater strength on his ass for a considerable time.

  But seeing as Caspian had the unique gift of immunity to all poisons, natural or unnaturally made, then he became the obvious man for the job. One that didn’t exactly go the way anyone expected, especially when he returned with who he now deemed as his personal prisoner, instead of the dead body I had ordered.

  And technically speaking, she had remained his prisoner ever since and one he even married near a hundred years ago. If memory serves me right, then it was the only order he refused and fought me on. So, in the end his solution to this was to shackle her physically to him for the next decade, just so he could prove that she was going nowhere, and her every move would be under his command. Of course, his obsession with her morphed into one of love and it was soon clear to all around him that he wasn’t just pussy whipped, as Ruto would say, but she ruled his heart. Doing so with her own sacrificed in return for the obsession most definitely went both ways.

  A sentiment I was only now coming to fully understand. I almost shook my head at my once naive belief. A foolish belief that my own obsession with the girl had reached its peak seven years ago when I started having the entirety of her life monitored. Oh, but how wrong I had been, for since having her here with me at Transfusion, only then had the full depth of my obsession come to light.

  And now that she had been taken from me, it seemed that my ability to deal with that knowledge was a hairsbreadth away from giving way to my demon entirely. Meaning that a simple look at Caspian and I was remembering all those times my second in command, Adam, had been fearful for his wife. Even the rash and desperate actions from Dom were all now no longer believed as foolish as they once had been out of fear for his Keira. For I too was close to bursting out of my fucking skin with worry and I had to say the sight in the room wasn’t fucking helping.

  “Liessa?” I said her name in a way this time that silenced her husband and demanded answers. She lowered her head in shame and told me,

  “They shot me like Caspian said.”

  “Was this after you attacked them?” I asked nodding to the two dead humans that looked to have met a gruesome end. The moment her eyes widened was when the reality of the situation really hit home.

  My girl had once again been underestimated.

  “I didn’t do this, I had little chance to do anything as they burst in and shot me before I even had chance to fire a single drop.”

  “Fuck me, so this was all Birdy girl?” Clay asked, his surprise evident. Liessa nodded before looking to me with pain in her eyes before telling me,

  “I am so sorry Sire, I failed you.” And had this been anything other than my girl’s life on the line, then I would have been in a mind to make this easier on her. However, it wasn’t and therefore I would not.

  “Yes, you did. You failed me and you failed her.” Caspian was about to speak, no doubt arguing in his wife’s defense, but I was having none of it.

  “ENOUGH!” I roared letting a wave of dominant power to roll over them and making them visibly flinch before showing me their submission with lowered heads. Then I walked closer to Percy and said in a somewhat calmer tone,

  “Percy, if you please.” I then handed him the box to hold whilst I was on my mission to discover what had happened. He nodded and his scarred little hands took it from me, no doubt happy to help in any way he could. Only then did I turn back to Hakan.

  “Now, walk me through what happened!” I shouted making him nod his head before speaking, something he only ever reserved for times it was most needed. After Clay got in there first of course,

  “Oh, I just have to see this shit!” My head of security commented like an excited child, obviously intrigued to know what else ‘my little human’ was capable of. I rolled my eyes in sight of his exuberance and then nodded for Hakan
to continue.

  “This way, my Chieftain,” he said, long ago granting me this name as was the old ways of his people. His voice was hoarse but not from disuse, it was this way from what had been done to him at the hands of Westerners intent on stealing his father’s lands many years ago. Since then, his vessel had been healed the moment he had been destined to become the fallen, doing so in the name of revenge.

  For the moment he discovered his own life after death, he ripped the wings from his vessel the second he tried to break free of the bonds still wrapped around his reincarnated body and tamed the very manner in which he had died.

  Tortured and wrapped in thorned wire before being thrown into the river to drown.

  Needless to say, after this two things happened. The first was that when I heard of his history, I felt inclined to offer him a position at my table. The second was happily aiding him in executing that revenge.

  But as it turned out, he was the best damn tracker in existence. Which meant the second he took in the scene around him now, he started to piece together what had happened and played it out in his own mind as if it had been recorded and put on rewind. It was a tracker’s way and a skill used to retrace a person’s steps or past movements. The gifts were those similar to a seeker, but instead of being gifted the sight of the past and the future, a tracker could only see into the past.

  It was due to their talents in picking up a lingering energy left by a person’s soul. He could tap into the unique signature left behind and watch the person’s aura act out the past like the ghost of a vessel was actually still there. Unfortunately, for most trackers there was a fairly small window for this to be achieved before that person’s steps were lost over time. Or that they were simply overwhelmed by the presence of far too many others. Hakan, however, well he was one of the only trackers who could eradicate all other auras in his way and pinpoint the one he wanted. Doing so even as far back as six months in a crowded space.

  It was this strength that made him the best there was. A talent I had been gifted the option to exploit many times over in the past and if truth be told, one even exercised on Keira when the occasion was needed to find her.

  Which was why I trusted his account implicitly, no matter how strange it first started, something that began in the bathroom.

  “Well, it’s got to be said, Sire, that girl of yours certainly has a unique way of killing people,” Clay commented as we stepped around one dead body that looked to have been killed with an electrical cord. This was from a broken lamp, a piece of which was still embedded in his cheek, telling me she had first hit him with it. Gods, but just the sight of her kills had me worried, proud and fucking hard all at the same time. I could only hope that when I witnessed this account of past actions, that by the end of it I was satisfied that she had done all this unscathed.

  “It started in here, my Chief…”

  “Let’s forgo the formalities for the time being, yes.” I said holding up a hand knowing I didn’t have the fucking patience for all that Chieftain, my Lord, Sire shit right now. He nodded before disappearing inside the bathroom where there was a man lay on the floor, strangely covered in white foam and blood.

  “You were saying?” I remarked with a raised brow at Clay’s earlier comment about Amelia’s unique way of dissipating her enemies.

  “Yeah, well she left this shithead alive,” Clay scoffed as if disappointed. On the other hand, I thought differently.

  “And lucky for us, for now we have someone to torture,” I said unable to stop myself from cracking my fingers when they turned into fists by my sides. But that would have to wait,

  “Hakan, if you please,” I said nodding for him to proceed, something I knew had started when his eyes turned as black as the strip of ink across his eyes. Then they started to flicker from white to black, looking now as if he had an old black and white film flickering out the scene in his mind and we were getting a mere glimpse at it.

  Then it stopped and his eyes snapped back to his usual dark shade.

  “I…um…well.” This was all Hakan said and for once, his opting for few words said wasn’t through choice.

  “What is it!?” I snapped as I didn’t have the fucking patience for it either!

  “I think it best I show you my…Sir,” he said stopping himself with just a cautionary look sent his way.

  “Proceed,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Oh, this ought to be good,” Clay commented just before Hakan started to bring forth the ghosts of their auras for us to watch. It was as if an invisible body had been surrounded by smoke, allowing its shell to be seen.

  I swear just the sight of her aura taking shape had me tensing and having to resist the irrational action to reach out and try and touch her. Then I was forced to watch as she attacked the other smoked figure after it first rose up from the unconscious piece of shit still breathing on the floor. Hers was white, and his black, which I could see started off holding a gun to her. Then she disarmed him, with the aid of…

  “Is that shaving cream?!” Clay took the thoughts right out of my head as he watched what I did when the smoked ghost of her raised an arm as if spraying something in his face. Clay had at this point walked over to the star patten left on the counter and brought a fingertip to his nose as his curiosity got the better of him.

  “I wonder how this…oh, never mind.” Clay was cut off when we all saw that after swiftly breaking his arm, she then slammed his head face first into the counter, creating a burst of cream and blood splatter to decorate the stone top. Then, as another aura burst into the room, from what I perceived was to be the man that now lay dead in the bedroom, she opened her mouth and spoke to him. Now I found myself intrigued to know exactly what it was she said to him before she let go of the now unconscious man whose aura quickly slid back down to the floor. Floating down like a wave, it disappeared on top of where her victim still lay slumped to the side and indeed, still breathing.

  Well, not for long, I thought with some satisfaction.

  After this she retrieved what I can only assume was a gun and started firing. I looked to the doorway, to see the new aura move out of the way of the flying bullets. But I could see for myself that none had been on target, not if the wide array of bullet holes in the walls were anything to go by. So, instead, she used the weapon to her advantage and decided to throw it at the mercs head, knowing she had a better chance, seeing as her aim with a gun was shocking.

  Fuck me, but after tonight then I was considering our second date to be at a fucking gun range, just to be sure she could use one, for I hoped never again!

  The aura stumbled back on impact and then unbelievably I watched as her own aura charged the man, taking him down to the ground.

  “Whoa, look at her go!” Clay commented enthusiastically as we both followed Hakan into the bedroom. He had halted the re-enactment until we were positioned in the room so we could continue to follow the fight. This was where things got more difficult for my girl, and even I could see the added texture of features the ghost of her showed. The strain in the shadow as it vibrated, humming with tension. Especially when she started to reach whatever was closest to her in desperation to beat her opponent.

  I swear but it felt as if I was watching it in real time and found myself trying to anchor myself to the spot, so I wouldn’t step forward and try to intervene. This was by far one of the hardest things I had ever forced myself to experience, as unlike all others, this I did so willingly. Because I needed to know. I had to know just what she had endured at the hands of these fuckers!

  Gods, but the one left alive was going to die and fucking slowly! Hell, at this point I considering carving out his fucking heart and having the fucking thing gift wrapped as a welcome home present for when I finally got my girl home!

  In fact, I was that worked up, that Clay had to get my attention to make me aware of the damage I was doing to the walls behind me as plaster started to crack and rain with powder. It was coming from the force of my fisted
gloved hand, one that I could feel humming with unleashed pent-up power. One that only relaxed when I saw the moment she finally wrapped the cord around his neck. Then she placed a foot to his shoulder and arched her back, using his own body against him as she used him as leverage to strangle the life from his body.

  In the end, he had died suffering like I hoped he had, for there was a bloody gash on his forehead and large shards of ceramic embedded in his face. There was also yet again another broken arm, multiple kicks to the face and an electrical wire cutting into his flesh. One deep enough that if he hadn’t died of asphyxiation, he would have from blood loss. Not that all of this had been enough, for at my hands it would have been far more bloody and violent. But more importantly, it wouldn’t have been so quick.

  Yet, all in all, my girl had done well and to the point I couldn’t help my lips from twitching when Clay had remarked,

  “Fuck, but what is it with your girl and breaking arms?” I didn’t reply, but then again I didn’t need to. As it was obvious, my ferocious little princess was a force to be reckoned with and I very much doubted that even Dom knew the extent of this.

  A thought that both pleased and amused me greatly.

  In fact, I had a feeling as though Amelia had been underestimated her whole life and I was starting to understand her annoyance at the common mistake of most.

  I nodded to Hakan when I saw him look to the door. But he paused in a strange manner, as if this next part was something he didn’t want to show me. So, I prompted,

  “You may continue, Hakan.”

  “My Ch…”

  “Just fucking spit it out!” I snapped making him bow his head and tell me,

  “She struggled in this next room…greatly,” he confessed, and the last word uttered make me grit my teeth so hard I thought the fuckers would crumble!

  “Just fucking show me!” I barked knowing there was no other way I could speak in that moment. Not now knowing that if I had found this last one difficult to watch, then this next fight would be fucking agonizing.