Chapter Two

Jared.

His name tore through my mind and it took all of my will power to keep me from crying out. It had been less than a week since I found out that Jared wasn’t in the Blood Moon Corporation’s system anymore. No phone number. No forwarding address. Nothing. That only meant one thing…

They killed him.

It made no sense.

Why would they kill him? He didn’t do anything wrong. I was the one that broke my contract. I was the one that almost killed Jared. It should have been me!

They had enough chances over the past six months to take me out. My three mile jog every morning had me pass Haven, a BMC-owned home on East Battery Street. They could have easily taken me out from the second story window and made it look like a mugging gone wrong. They didn’t have to kill Jared.

I felt an icy hand on my shoulder. Dom leaned against me, giving me the comfort I needed without making my inner turmoil obvious.

At times, I loved my mentor. It was a pity the BMC let him go. So many people like me needed a teacher like him.

Just like Jared’s death, the BMC’s abandonment of Dom made no sense. Why would they get rid of one of their best teachers?

I gasped as it came to me as clearly as a premonition. I felt my connection with Damian flair as my mind went into shock, putting pieces together that I didn’t know fit. It couldn’t be…

It made too much sense not to.

I looked up at Dom. “Why didn’t the BMC save you from Marcellus?” I asked with my voice barely above a whisper.

It was the most obvious question, one that should have been asked the moment the vampire necromancer died. I had been too busy grieving over Jared to think straight.

Damian kept the metaphysical lines between us open, listening but careful not to say a word to distract me. I could feel him in my head, and I didn’t mind, one less person to tell.

Dom looked into my eyes and I could see indecision filling their black depths. He sighed as he backed away, and I thought that he decided not to tell when he faced me and said, “They ordered me to kill you.”

“And?” I asked. My blood ran cold. I felt the wolf inside me tense, preparing for an attack.

“I refused,” Dom growled with disbelief written on his features. “Sarah, you’re like a daughter to me. I could never cause you harm.”

“What did the BMC do?”

“They said that they understood. The next day they sent me to take out Marcellus.”

I licked my lips. “They sent a vampire to kill a vampire necromancer?”

“Yes, that’s…” Dom froze. “They set me up.”

“No. I don’t think they did.”

“How do you figure? Sarah, I was controlled…”

“By a creature sent here to kill Damian, not me.”

Dom cocked his head to the side, and I screamed with frustration that he wasn’t putting it altogether.

“Think about it Dom! There are four people that I can fully trust; you, Donavan, Jared, and Damian.”

“Go on.”

“They sent Marcellus here to kill Damian. If he had succeeded, that would have taken care of one of my four. In doing so, the throne of Charleston would have been open to him, and I would be out of a safe place to live. Donavan should have killed you for killing his Weres. I should have been kicked out of the Clan for letting the dead Weres happen on my watch. I would have been out of another safe house as well as a Clan to protect me. Luckily, Donavan is more understanding than the BMC give him credit for. You, a vamp that would sacrifice his own life to keep me safe. Jared…” I couldn’t say any more, and Dom started nodding as he thought it over.

“I can’t believe they would do this,” he said.

Donavan came over as Dom said these words. “Who?”

“The Blood Moon Corporation,” Dom and I said in unison.

“We’ve got to tell Damian,” Dom said as he dug into his pocket for his phone.

“There’s no need,” I said before he could pull it out. “He’s been in my head listening since I figured it out.”

I felt Damian’s anger bubble over, and suddenly I saw Damian as though I actually stood in his office. His black hair, once long enough to touch his knees, now barely brushed his shoulders. His plum-colored eyes burned with anger as he pulled book after book off the bookcase against his back wall. His clothes were enough to make my mind want to go into shock. Usually he showed off his physique in leather pants and unbuttoned shirts. Tonight he wore sweatpants and a t-shirt. I felt like saying something, but after the loss of his once close friend Marcellus, maybe Damian wasn’t feeling like himself. I sensed that my body still remained in Donavan’s foyer, but my mind was back at Malevolent Dead. Damian looked up and cocked his head to the side.

“This is a new development,” he said with a half smile. “Sorry, Sarah, but we’ll have to figure out what it means later.”

“Your clothes?” I said before I could stop myself.

“Ha ha, very funny. You’re astral projecting. Usually witches can develop that ability to be in two places at once. Since you aren’t a witch, I can only guess that our blood bound link has caused you to feel my…displeasure.”

“And what? Brought me here to rage with you?”

“In a way, yes.”

“What are you doing?” My transparent hand indicated the books. Some of them looked new, with clean crisp pages. Others were ancient, with chipped covers and pages so brittle that they looked as though they would crumble with the slightest touch. Damian opened one, flipped through it so quickly that pieces of the book’s corner drifted to the table, and then tossed it back onto the shelf.

“I’m trying to find a way to protect you, Sarah. This is ridiculous. You broke a contract. They should make you pay a fine, not try and kill you.”

“We can’t tie them to it yet,” I reminded him. “We’re lacking physical evidence. You’ll need that if you plan on challenging them.”

Damian growled, and I saw his fangs sparkle in the lamp’s light. “I’ll obliterate them all if they harm a hair on your head. I will not sit by and watch this happen.” He paused, and then whispered, “Not again.”

If we hadn’t shared blood, then I would never had heard that. I had an uncanny resemblance to Damian’s deceased wife, Phaedra. For that reason alone Damian hired me onto his staff and gave me his blood. Originally he had hoped that I was his lost love reincarnated in another life, but I wasn’t. It was just my family’s random genes. I felt happy for that, because I’d be dead right now if I didn’t look like Phaedra, but it caused a lot of problems between us. Ever since we had shared blood, an experience that left us knowing each other carnally, Damian had treated me as though I was his dead wife, attempting to kiss me, calling me by her name, and making comments like he just did. I could ignore the comments, but everything else aggravated me.

I had to find a way to reverse the connection that opened when I drank his blood. If I didn’t, I’d have to leave Malevolent Dead, and I had come to love the vampire club.

“The books will help?” I asked, changing the subject.

Damian laughed unpleasantly. “The BMC, as you call them, have not been around as long as I. There are rules that even they must follow, and I’m sure what they are doing to you is going against that.”

Rules? Beside the BMC’s guidelines, I didn’t know of any other rules. Curious, I drifted to the table to look at the titles Damian shifted through.

“Desmond would know,” Damian muttered to himself, “but he’s not allowed to tell. Damn that pompous fool.”

Desmond was the full name of Dez, a blue-haired…thing…that lived at Malevolent Dead. I had first thought he was a vampire, but the more I grew to know him the more I realized that he was something else. He had the abilities of a born vampire, but with Damian around I could tell that he wasn’t. I would never describe Dez as pompous, but Damian seemed to know him better. He trusted him too. A feat that I hadn’t been able to do, since I was out of the loop when it came to his true identity. I wondered what he could know and who wouldn’t let him tell. Maybe when this was over, I could ask. For now…

The thought created a pulling sensation in my middle. Damian glanced up.

“Go with the flow, Sarah. Your soul needs to reconnect to your body. Fighting it will only cause pain.”

“What do we do?”

“Come back here. We can keep you safe. I’ll have Dez meet you in the parking lot.”

“As soon as I’m finished, I’ll head back.”

“I look forward to seeing you tonight.”

I opened my mouth, when the pulling sensation yanked, and I returned to Donavan’s foyer.

“Figured what out?” Donavan asked. It felt as though time stood still here, while I traveled to Damian’s. While I had been at Malevolent Dead I had felt safe. Now, I felt icy fear slide across my skin as I realized how bad everything was. I’d be lucky to make it back to Damian’s club alive.

I wrapped my arms around myself. “What happened last week wasn’t the actions of a vamp wanting Damian’s throne,” I said, choosing to pick up where we had left off rather than try to explain what had just happened to me. “It was the BMC trying to kill me.”