Virgins and Vampires: Blood Falls (The Blood Falls Book 3)
Virgins and Vampires: Chapter 23

Explaining my theory to Shoshanna didn’t go as well as I hoped. But I should have expected her response. Of course it was to lock me back up. It seemed like everything I did scared her.

“We’re liable if you cause harm. I cannot allow you out until we know more.”

“Cannot allow?” I laughed. “I’m not your prisoner.”

“You’re too powerful to be allowed free rein. I’m sorry, but I cannot allow it.”

A part of me was afraid she really would lock me back up, but luckily it was a fairly small part these days. “Did you miss the part where the enchantments didn’t work?”

“We’ll use stronger ones.”

“This isn’t about building a bigger wall, Shoshanna. You’ll never build a wall big enough or cast a spell strong enough. I’m in control. Me.”

Growing up I saw Shoshanna as unwavering. Strong, opinionated, powerful. I imagined she knew everything and nothing scared her. But now I saw her flinch, realized she was the same as the rest of us. She didn’t know what to do about me.

I lowered my voice. “I’m not the enemy. I need you to stop treating me like a bomb about to go off. I’m a member of this House.”

Whatever she was about to say was lost as a group of five suddenly shifted into the House of Gatlin library. Every one of them was dressed in black with masks covering their faces. They moved quickly and with a plan, grabbing Shoshanna and throwing her out of the way.

Kris leapt into action, grabbing my wrist and yanking me behind him as they surrounded us. I dropped my psychic wall and linked with Kris, our bond flowing freely between us. A sense of calm I shouldn’t feel washed over me.

“Now would be a good time to test your theory,” he gritted out.

His adrenaline collided with my calm. It eased him into focus while it hurried me into action. “Keep them off me.”

I saw Kris train with his siblings over the years. Boxing, wrestling, martial arts, sword fighting, and more. I never saw him actually fight though and most of it wouldn’t register until later. The male was good. Very good. But the attackers were armed with ropes and knives.

Kris grabbed a heavy silver candelabra and a book.

I stayed in the shadow of his body and used everything I knew about the Plane, psychic energy, and my abilities to try and replicate my ability to influence the emotions of others.

I centered myself and drew that sense of calm close, morphing it into exhaustion. I bent around Kris and with a wave of my hands I sent it out into the room.

The attackers froze for a moment, shaking their heads. Kris used the advantage to knock out two of them with the candelabra. One of the other attackers shouted, rousing himself out of my mental trick.

“We’re being watched!” Kris shouted. “On the Plane.”

I flicked my attention to the psychic channels and felt the tingle of another’s awareness. Kris was right. I threw up a psychic block and channeled another round of exhaustion at the remaining three attackers. It only stunned them for a moment.

I needed more. I needed something as strong and localized as the bubbles I had been accidentally producing. A bubble. A bubble? Like a strong thought released from me like a belch. Powerful and all at once.

But what would make them stop? Or at least redirect them? I couldn’t summon a sexual thought right now if I tried.

One caught Kris around the neck. Kris flipped him over, but another jumped on top of him and pulled the rope across his throat. Kris shifted behind him and kicked, using his speed and manipulation of space to his advantage. It was like he was running circles around them, confusing them so much they couldn’t shift to keep up because they never knew where he’d be next.

Across the room Shoshanna pushed to her feet and scrambled out the library door, probably going for help. But how long would that take? And how long before Kris’s luck ran out?

Someone grabbed me from behind, slipping an arm around my throat and waist. “You’re coming with us,” he hissed, trying to shift.

But I refused to let that happen, throwing a block up around us that prevented him from accessing the Plane.

“The fuck?”

I felt my power draining. I was doing too much. Kris spun toward me, eyes wild when he saw I’d been grabbed. We were losing. A moment later two of the attackers caught Kris. One on each side. I felt them try to access the Plane and shift him away.

But our psychic bond held him to me.

And in that moment, locked in space and time, I lost my shit. I didn’t think. I didn’t try. I let myself feel. And what I felt was a combination of abject terror and soul crushing possession.

It erupted out of me like fire and lightning. Psychic waves crashed through the room, stunning everyone but Kris. Their bodies twisted, lifted off the ground, then fell with a thud. I reached into the Plane to chase down the watcher but they vanished as soon as I brought down the block. Like a ghost in the mist.

Kris scrambled to the closest body, pulled off the mask and searched their clothes. He froze, palming what looked like a medallion, just before the bodies vanished into thin air.

I felt them shift away through Plane but couldn’t track their destination. It happened too fast.

“Did I kill them?” I couldn’t move. I was stunned and exhausted and a little scared of myself.

“I killed one and you killed one,” Kris moved to my side. “The other three were still alive. Barely.”

Shoshanna burst into the room with a dozen armed Gatlin Guards behind her. While they looked around, confused, Kris pulled me into his side and whispered, “Tell her only what she needs to know.”

“Okay.” Then I wobbled a little and Kris tightened his grip around me.

“Don’t let her see you’re exhausted. I’ve got you.”

And then I felt a little of his strength flow into me.

Shoshanna rushed up to us. “What happened?”

“I got to test my theory,” I said as smugly as I could manage. “And it worked. I was able to stun them twice by making them feel suddenly exhausted.”

She blinked. “What got rid of them?”

There was no sense in hiding this part. “I got angry. It stunned them unconscious and whoever sent them shifted them back to safety.”

“How is that possible?” Rever pulled up beside Shoshanna. “Room’s clear, by the way.”

“I felt someone watching us. On the Plane. Powerful whoever they are.”

Rever grimaced. “A test of your abilities or a kidnapping?”

“Both,” Kris said. “Either would work, but they wanted both.”

“How do you know?” Rever asked.

Kris cocked his head to the overturned furniture. “I recognize the signs.” His protectiveness flowed through our bond and I had to suppress a shiver of desire or everyone in the room would know how much it turned me on.

“And you have no idea who sent them?” Shoshanna pressed.

“They were masked and they disappeared as fast as they appeared.” I shifted a little more of my weight onto Kris as the room started to spin.

Rever nodded. “We’ll set the room to rights and search for any signs they left behind that might help. As much as I hate to say it, I don’t think the House is safe for Rain tonight. Not until we know more. We need to hide her someplace until we know what the threat is.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Kris said, his voice loud and firm and sexy.

“She’ll need at least a pair of Guards with her at all times,” Shoshanna insisted.

“That will be like putting a spotlight on wherever I go. Whoever is after me is gifted in navigating the Plane and strong enough to sense me.”

“I’m not leaving you alone,” Shoshanna laughed.

But Rever stepped in. “I think it’s best. Don’t tell us where you go. Don’t tell anyone. Block your location and do not use your gifts. Go now before they return.”

Shoshanna was halfway through saying, “Absolutely not!” When Kris squeezed my arm, nodded, and we slid away.

I stopped by my room and grabbed a small bag of clothes and essentials. Then we went to Kris’s apartment and did the same thing. Then we set a confusing trail on the Plane as we traveled to and from several different locations before stopping in the forest. I blocked us from the Plane, blocking all our gifts, as we walked in cold darkness to Blood Falls cave.

I was soaked by the time we made it inside and Kris got right to work building a roaring fire. In truth, I thought I was dying. I’d never used that much power in such a short time period. The adrenaline of going on the run helped me get to the forest, but the hike from there did me in. My hands shook on the wet exposed stone of the mountain as we took the narrow footpath from the meadow to the falls, slipping behind the water like humans.

I began stripping my wet clothes off. All I wanted was to be warm again. No snow. No freezing water. Just heat. When I was naked I grabbed a fluffy towel and dried off every inch of my body. Then I wrapped a blanket around me and moved to sit on the rug by the new fire, thankful for any heat at all.

“Drink,” Kris thrust his wrist in my face.

“I can wait.” My entire body ached. It hurt so bad.

“I don’t need a bond to see you’re in pain. Take some. A start. Please?”

Our eyes met just as I sank into his skin. It was incredible I could feel such a connection to him even with everything else turned off. His blood was hot against my tongue and a moment later that heat flooded my veins, giving me some of my strength back and dulling some of the aching pain.

But I didn’t take too much. He needed his strength too.

“More.” He pushed his wrist back at me.

I blocked it. “That’s enough for now. Let me settle with it.” It was at least partially true. The sudden change was a lot and if I took more now it might overwhelm me.

Kris frowned but didn’t fight me. Instead he went back to tending the fire. I curled up on the carpet beside it, soaking in the heat. I must have dozed off because the next thing I knew, Kris had a pot over the fire and the air smelled of something delicious.

“How long was I out?”

“Half an hour, not that I’ve been counting the minutes. You sure like to scare the shit out of me.”

I felt bad for scaring him. “I’m tired, not dead.” Some of the pain had eased even more. My legs still ached, so did my hands and temples, but the rest were almost normal.

“I only know that because I’ve checked your pulse five times.”

I sat up, adjusting the blanket around my naked body. “I’m sorry.”

“You should’ve drunk more.”

“Would you have worried any less?”

He frowned at the fire as he stirred the pot. The worry lines seemed etched deep from years of frowning instead of brand new from tonight. “Just a little.”

“Well then next time I’ll drink more.”

His frown somehow deepened. “Next time. There’s going to be a next time. And a next time.” He sighed. The fire light flickered over his handsome face. “I hate it.”

“You knew this when you signed up for the job.”

“I didn’t sign up to love you. That’s just how it is. And that’s what’s hard. They came for you.” His voice broke at the end.

I scrambled to my feet. “And we won.” I stood over him.

“This time.” He pressed his cheek against my belly as he folded his arms around me.

“Who were they?”

Kris froze, then pushed the blanket open and kissed my naked skin. “I don’t know.”

“Yes you do.” His kisses felt good. They were meant to distract.

He kept kissing and tightening his hands on my ass until I ran my fingers through his hair and tugged. He looked up with sad eyes. “It’s just a theory.”

“You took something from him. What?” My heart began to thud in my chest because Kris was never like this. He said what he thought. He didn’t hedge. And since we got together, he never avoided me.

He was hedging and avoiding right now though.

He nuzzled me one more time and sighed, then reached into his bag and pulled out a silver medallion. I knew what it was before I flipped it over. The mark of the House of Gatlin. Unmistakable with a Sphinx and Intrepid, our House sword.

“No.”

Kris shrugged, looking up at me with sad eyes. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

Except that it meant everything. No one carried a House medallion that did not belong to them.

“They could have stolen it. Maybe it’s meant to be a decoy. Make you distrust your own House.”

But I knew. All the things I felt in that library suddenly made sense. The psychic power, the watcher, the attack. It all came from inside the House.

My House.

And I think Rever knew it, too.