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 started with a stake to the heart, and when that didn’t work, I thought I’d chop him into little pieces and bury him in consecrated earth, but he got in some good hits. I’m lucky to be sitting here right now. Someone must have seen us fighting, because the police showed up. The rest—”

“Is history,” I whispered.

Nathan shifted uncomfortably beside me. “Not really. He’s still out there. That’s why Ziggy’s been on the prowl for vampires. We know Cyrus is in town, and he’s the only outlaw vampire in the area. I keep an eye out for any new fledglings that pop up. I find them, kill them and report back to the Movement.” He stretched his legs to get comfortable. “They give me six hundred dollars a head. Figuratively, of course. I don’t have to bring them actual heads.”

I had to remind myself he was talking about ending people’s lives, despite the casual way he mentioned it. “You kill them? Why?”

He looked at me as if I had antennae growing out of my head. “Because they’re vampires.”

“So are you!”

“Yes, but I’m a good vampire,” he explained patiently. “Good vampires get to live, bad vampires get a one-way ticket to wherever it is we go when we die. It’s not rocket science.”

I shot to my feet. “Did you ever think maybe some of them might be good vampires? I mean, do you even check first or do you just go all kill-happy on them?”

“I give them a chance to change my mind but they all turn out the same way. It’s just not possible for them to be good vampires,” he insisted.

“And why not?”

“Because they weren’t made by good vampires.” Releasing a huge sigh, Nathan picked up The Sanguinarius. “Every fledgling I’ve encountered so far has gone the way of their sire. The blood tie is incredibly strong, which makes it nearly impossible for a new vampire to fight the will of the blood in his veins, the will of his sire. The book will explain it a lot better than I can.”

“Well, I’m here now, so why don’t you give it a shot?” I arched a threatening brow and put my hands on my hips to show I wasn’t moving until he answered my question.

“You’re a very aggravating person, you know that?” He set the book on the table. “The Movement doesn’t want any new vampires made. We’re trying to whittle our species down to nothing. Hence the extinction part of the Voluntary Vampire Extinction Movement. Some vampires aren’t so into the idea. So they start creating new vampires.

“When a vampire exchanges blood with a human to create another vampire, their blood stays in the new vampire’s veins. Forever. It builds something called a blood tie. For the sire, it’s a way of controlling their fledgling, like an invisible leash. The tie weakens as time goes by, but the fledgling and sire will still feel each other’s emotions, physical pain and hunger. The fledgling will always be ruled by the sire’s blood, and most of them don’t want to change. It lasts after death. Even if the sire dies, he can still wreak havoc on the world through his fledglings. The fledgling, forever influenced by his or her sire’s blood and whatever bent morals were handed down to them, could go out and keep making new vampires. Pretty soon, it’s goodbye human race. The way the Movement sees it, the only way to keep somebody like Cyrus from making his own vampire army and taking over the world is to kill his progeny. It’s not fair, but that’s the way it is.”

I swallowed. “You sound like you’re pretty hard-core about the Movement.”

“I have to be. When I was turned, I swore my allegiance to them in order to keep my life.” He stood and advanced on me, though for what purpose I couldn’t tell.

“It sounds like these Movement guys hold a lot of sway. How do you know they’ve really got your best interests at heart?” I was tempted to take a step back, but I held my ground. I was not going to let him intimidate me. Not after all I’d been through. If he wanted to kill me, he’d have to…well, he’d have to go through the new me first.

He didn’t answer my question, but he didn’t try to grab me or shove a stake through my heart, either. He pushed my hair aside and gently touched the scar Cyrus had left. “He really got you.”

A chill raced up my spine at his touch. I leaned into his hand. I couldn’t help myself.

Something changed in his eyes, as if an iron gate were slamming shut. He dropped his arm and turned away. “You’re going to have to make a choice, too. Whether you want to pledge your life to the Movement, or lose it.”

I snorted. “Where do I sign in blood?”

“This isn’t a joke.” He turned to face me, and I saw from his irritated countenance that it certainly was not. “I can’t guarantee the Movement will even accept you, but it’s your only shot at surviving. Your sire’s death sentence extends to you.”

My heart pounded and my legs tensed in anticipation of running. I took a step back. “You’d really kill me, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes.” He looked away, then sank onto the couch. “It’s nothing personal. But I don’t know you well enough to tell whether you’re going to play loyal fledgling to Cyrus or not. You seem like a nice girl, but I’m not willing to take that chance.”

“Nothing personal.” I laughed bitterly in disbelief. “You know, it is personal. When I get lured into a trap and almost get decapitated, it’s personal. When some guy I just met tells me he’s going to kill me, it’s personal. Because it’s my life. You’re out of your mind if you think I’m going down without a fight.”

The corner of his mouth twitched and I thought he was going to laugh. I would have punched him in the face if he did.

Good thing he didn’t. “I can respect that. But it doesn’t change my position. You need to make a decision. Ask the Movement for mercy and hope they grant it to you. You won’t get it from me.”

“Why not just kill me now?” I asked, hoping he wouldn’t take this as an invitation.

He merely shrugged and said, “Because without a kill order, I don’t get paid.”

“A kill order?” How much more like a bad horror movie could this possibly get?

“If you decide not to ask the Movement for membership, I’ll report you. You’ll be processed in their system and a kill order will be issued a few days later.” He shrugged again, as if he couldn’t care less about the conversation. “I suppose you could make a run for it, but until I have that order in my hand, I’m not going to do anything to you. I don’t work for free.”

I was about to argue that he could just kill me, then report me. Luckily, the common sense which seemed to have deserted me in the past few weeks found its way back, and I held my tongue. “How very Han Solo of you.”

He didn’t smile or laugh. In fact, he looked even more grave than before. “It’s up to you. Petition for membership or die. I can get them on the phone right now.”

“Fine.” I ground my teeth over the words. “Can I make an informed decision at least?”

He frowned and cocked his head, studying me from the corner of his eye, as if this were a trick. “What do you propose?”

I chose my words carefully. “Give me a chance to read The Sanguinarius and have some time to let all this sink in. I didn’t believe in vampires or monsters before tonight, and I’m in what we in the medical field call ‘a state of shock.’ It’s only fair to know what I’m getting into. Besides, I’m a smart girl. I’m not going to join up with some organization just because you claim they’re the good guys.”

“They are the good guys.” There was no amusement in his tone, just absolute conviction in the truth of his words.

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, well that’s what the Nazis said about themselves.”

He slowly rose to his feet. Power, dark and barely leashed, emanated from him. And that, combined with his physical presence, made him more terrifying than John Doe had been as he’d sunk his claws into me.

Of course, John Doe hadn’t been this hot. Somehow, my physical attraction to Nathan made him seem more dangerous.

But he didn’t attack me. He just invaded my personal space and shattered my comfort zone. He leaned down so our noses practically touched. “How do I know you’re not stalling so you can get back to Cyrus and gain his protection?”

“Because until you mentioned it, the thought hadn’t crossed my mind.” I don’t know if he expected me to cower or cry or melt into his arms, but I could tell by the pronounced blink of his eyes that I’d surprised him. “Give me a couple of weeks. You can even check in on me. I’ll give you an answer at the end.”

“Or you’ll run screaming.” He tried again to frighten me, but I was confident he wouldn’t kill me tonight. Something in the way he raked his eyes over my body, like he did now, raw and hungry, told me he had something of a soft spot for women. Or a hard spot, depending on how you looked at it.

A deliberately slow smile played across my lips. “Do I look like the kind of girl who runs away from trouble?”

He folded his arms across his chest. “You ran away from Ziggy.”

Touché. “Yeah, but Ziggy had an axe. Are you going to kill me with your bare hands?”

He grinned. “I’m good with my hands.”

Holy hormones, Batman.

The door to Ziggy’s room burst open, and Nathan instantly stepped away. The teen stalked angrily into the kitchen, middle finger raised toward Nathan as he passed.

“I know, I know, I’ve got an early class, I should get my rest,” the boy called. “Psych 101, I so need to be awake for that. I’m just making a sandwich before bed.”