Blood Ties Bundle: Blood Ties Book One: The Turning / Blood Ties Book Two: Possession / Blood Ties Book Three: Ashes to Ashes / Blood Ties Book Four: All Souls' Night

I listened until I heard Max turn off the television, then I crept into Nathan’s bedroom. He woke immediately, bolting upright in bed. “Carrie? What’s wrong?”

“Shh.” I peeled off my nightgown and climbed in beside him. His arms closed around me and he pulled me beneath him.

This time, the only urgency came from his desire for me. He touched me as though reassuring himself I was still there, we still had time.

We didn’t speak. I think we were both afraid of making it mean too much. Perhaps Nathan thought to spare me the pain of his death. I know I would have done anything to spare him the pain of mine.

So when he kissed me, I kept the contact brief. When he slid down my body to tease me with his mouth, I didn’t cry out his name. And when he finally spoke to ask me what I wanted, I didn’t say I wanted him to make love to me. I told him to fuck me.

Angrily, he obliged. He spread my legs wide and plunged into me. Besides that, the most contact our bodies made was the slap of his hips against my thighs and the hard grip he had on my ankles as he held them high and apart. The bed shook and slammed against the wall, and I didn’t bother to muffle my screams of pleasure. He came with a shudder that sounded like a sob and pulled me into a fierce embrace.

I kissed his forehead and held him tight. Who was I kidding? Trying to block off my emotions for him would be like trying to stop a leak in the Hoover Dam with a cork. I had to know that eventually, the cork would shoot out and my feelings would just gush everywhere, bringing nothing but death and destruction to the valley below.

Okay, maybe it wouldn’t be that dramatic. But it was foolish of me to think that I could deny the bond created by the blood tie, or my feelings for Nathan that had existed long before our tie was created.

“Nathan,” I said softly through my tears. “Nathan, I—”

“Please, don’t say it.” His words might have hurt me had I not felt the meaning behind them.

Please, don’t say it, or I won’t be able to deny that I feel it. And I’m too afraid to let myself feel it.

“I won’t,” I promised.

He laced his fingers with mine and raised my hand to his lips. “Thank you.”

But when he fell asleep, I kissed him and whispered, “I love you, Nathan.”

Or Nolen. Or whatever. Even if I never get to find out who you are, I love you.

Minutes after sunset, I slipped from his arms and dressed quietly. I didn’t leave a note because I had no idea what I planned to do.

Only one thing was certain: by sunrise, either Cyrus would be dead, or I would be.

Twenty-Three

Welcome Home

My vampire heart beat loud in my chest as I approached Cyrus’s mansion. The windows were dark, and for a wild, panicked moment, I thought I’d missed my chance. Cyrus had moved on, my heart tucked away in some box that was hopefully marked Fragile.

Then I saw a gentle glow in the huge, floor-to-ceiling windows of his study, and my heart sank further. Nothing would take this confrontation from me. It was time.

While charging through the front gate would have probably been the brave thing to do, I’d never prided myself on being exceptionally brave. It also didn’t seem like a good idea to walk, barely armed, up to the gates of a heavily guarded castle and politely ask to be let in.

I patted my hip pocket, where I’d concealed a stake beneath the hem of my shirt. I didn’t even know if I had the physical power to use one against another vampire, especially Cyrus, but at least I’d have something to jab into one of the guards if they got too close.

I followed the sidewalk around the end of the block. The entrance to the guardhouse was so far from the main gate that someone would naturally assume they were two separate residences. I passed the gate where Nathan and I had shared our secret meetings to plot Ziggy’s escape, and I thought of Nathan, still asleep in his bed.

It seemed like all I had to do was walk into my room and Ziggy would be there, just like all those weeks ago. I glanced up the lawn. The lights were on in my old room. I felt an unexpected pang of jealousy at the thought I’d been replaced.

A thin figure picked his way gingerly down the lawn, toward the hedge maze. I recognized that profile.

“Clarence?” I called out. My voice echoed back at me in the cool air, and I gasped.

He squinted, then straightened quickly as recognition dawned on him. “Doc?”

My heart in my throat, I watched the old man scurry across the grass. The last thing I wanted was for him to break his hip. “Be careful!”

“Be careful,” he mocked. “You’re a damn fool, coming back here. They told me you were dead!”

From the pocket of his neatly pressed trousers, he produced a key ring covered with antique keys. After much muttering, he selected one and slipped it into the gate’s lock. Instead of crumbling to dust, it actually swung inward with a minimum of screeching. A few leaves from the clinging ivy pulled off, but no one would notice the gate had moved in a hundred years.

“Get your ass in here,” he scolded, glancing nervously up at the house. “Now, you got some explaining to do. Did you eat that boy?”

“What? No!” I said, a little too loudly.

Clarence shushed me. “Keep your voice down. The master’s home, and he’s been in a real bad mood since his daddy left.”

“I thought the Soul Eater couldn’t survive without his annual feeding?”

“Ain’t nothing going to kill that bastard. Believe me, this isn’t the first time somebody tried.” Clarence shook his head. “What happened to the boy?”

“Cyrus killed him.” I thought of the barrels in the basement and what Clarence had told me. “What did you do with him?”

“I didn’t do anything with him. I had the night off. They probably burned him with the rest of them.”

At least he wasn’t crammed in some barrel. I pointed to the house. “Where’s Cyrus?”

“In the study. He’s been there since the night of the party, trying to avoid her.” His last statement was delivered in an accusing tone.

“Her? Dahlia survived?”

Clarence’s face scrunched in an almost comical expression of disapproval. “Seems somebody told her she should find herself a vampire to turn her at the party.”

I ground my teeth. It would be one thing to fight Cyrus, but Dahlia was way out of my league. “What about the guards?”

“They’re trying to steer clear of Dahlia and the Master, but they’ll find you if you go in there.” He squinted at me. “You got backup coming, right?”

“No. I might as well stake myself right here on the lawn,” I muttered, looking up at the looming facade of the house.

“I got one in my back pocket,” Clarence offered. “This is gonna be ugly, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “You might want to get out of here.”

“No, when he’s gone, someone’s got to tidy things up around here,” he said with a sad smile.

“You don’t have to stay. I’ve got friends, we could help you get a condo in Florida or something. Anywhere you want.”

“I ain’t going nowhere.” He made a halfhearted shooing motion with his hands. “I told you before. I come with the house. You give him hell, Doc.”