Echoes of Blood and Glory Read online

  She held onto his shoulders, skimming her hands along his muscles until the tips of her fingers could dig into his back. He tasted so good, so she let her tongue sneak out when she trailed her teeth along his jaw.

  “Rose.” His voice held a note of warning—and question.

  She ignored the warning and answered his question by leaving his back and pushing her fingers beneath the waistband of his underwear.

  She wrapped her hand around him, loving how hot and smooth he was. Experimentally, she stroked him, keeping her grip loose.

  Horus growled a word in a language she didn’t know, but from his tone, she got the gist. “Okay?” she asked.

  His response was to grab her hand and tighten it around him. Up and down. He seemed to grow harder, longer, and then he grabbed her arm and jerked it away. Threading their fingers together, he pushed their hands onto the pillow and rolled them until he was slightly above her.

  Confused, she blinked up at him. “Did I do something wrong?”

  His eyes were closed tight, and he pressed his lips together until they were bled of color. He shook his head, swallowing over and over. “No,” he finally got out.

  “Then why…?”

  There was a tentative knock, and then Seti’s voice came through the door. “Uh. Sorry to bother you, but there’s something you need to see.”

  “You knew he was coming up here,” she said. Her voice was breathless, and her palm still warm from his skin.

  He swallowed once again. “He warned me.”

  Shaking her head, she laughed and tried to ignore the uncomfortable ache between her legs. “Must be important.”

  “It better be,” Horus growled. “Because if he wants to show me another video of a raccoon eating grapes, then…”

  “It’s not a raccoon!” Seti called.

  “Or goats in pajamas.”

  Only silence followed his pronouncement. Horus stared dead-eyed at the door.

  “Are you coming?”

  “He was.” Rose didn’t say the words out loud, but giggled at herself. Through the door, Seti laughed, too, and she paused. That was weird.

  So, no goats and no raccoons. Whatever it was then, it wouldn’t be good.

  Ra and Seti stood to greet her when she made it into the kitchen. Each of them wore smiles, and it only looked slightly unnatural on Ra. He was getting better. When he was happy, his smiles knocked her over. But when they were a little… forced, they scared the shit out of her.

  Well. They used to. He hadn’t taken a bite out of her yet.

  “Sleep well?” Ra asked. His dark hair was pushed back from his face, allowing her to take in the sharp angles of his cheekbones and the square set of his jaw. Like an old-time gentleman, he took her hand and lifted it to his lips, pressing them against her skin.

  His normally dark eyes had lightened to gold. Never a good sign.

  Forced smile. Gold eyes.

  Something bad had happened.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  A laptop sat on the butcher block countertop, and he spun it to face them. Pressing a key, the image on the screen came to life.

  Rose wanted to look away, but she couldn’t.

  “These images are from the Arnold Arboretum. The fire that blazed through the renowned bonsai collection has left only smoldering rubble. WBZ-TV is told by Boston Fire Department that accelerants have been identified, and they’re investigating this as possible arson. As you can see, we have emergency vehicles lining Arbor Way, and one of those is a crime scene investigation unit. The Arboretum does have twenty-four-hour security, but the names of possible victims haven’t been released. Stay tuned for more information as this story develops.”

  Ra paused the video. He pointed an elegant finger toward the frozen scene. “Do you see that?” he asked.

  Rose squinted, trying to make out the shape in the background. It was low to the ground, ash colored. At first, she thought it was just a small boulder or a tarp, rolled up and left in a heap.

  But as she studied it, she started to make out the features. A mouth like a slash across its face. Long fingers like claws. Gray skin.

  She’d thought it was a boulder because there were two of them. “Crawlers.”

  “Broad daylight, allowing themselves to be recorded.”

  “At one of my favorite places,” she whispered. “They wanted me to see them. Wanted us to see them.”

  A strong hand gripped her shoulder, and she turned to see Horus had silently entered the kitchen. “Let’s go,” he said, gaze hard.

  “We can’t just go without a plan,” Seti said, surprising her.

  They were all still getting to know each other, but one of the things that had come as a bit of a shock was that Seti—the laughing-eyed brother who slicked back his hair and mourned the loss of his favorite leather jacket—was a lot less impulsive than she expected him to be. She thought of all of them, Seti would be an act-first-ask-questions-later kind of guy.

  He wasn’t.

  For all his joking and spontaneity, when it came to fighting, he wanted a plan. Oh, he wanted to move quickly, but he wasn’t willing to risk his brothers’ lives.

  And ever since Horus’s close call, he’d been a lot more strategic.

  “They wanted your attention. They have it,” Seti said to them. “Why? What do they want our action to be?”

  Ra stared at his brother. “Who are you?”

  Seti rolled his blue eyes. “Fuck off. I’m serious. We haven’t stayed alive this long because we’re lucky. And if we have, we need to stop acting like we’re immortal.”

  “I thought you were immortal,” she whispered over her shoulder to Horus.

  “We’re not…” Seti started and then saw her face. “You’re teasing me.”

  She shouldn’t be. Rose put her hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry, Seti. Go on.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her, but undid the effect by leaning forward to kiss her gently. He smelled like spicy aftershave. “You’ll keep me on my toes, human. That’s for sure.”

  “I learn from the best.” She cupped his cheek before leaning back and getting serious. “They wanted my attention, but they also wanted to ruin something that means a lot to me. It’s a warning, but they’re also baiting us. Hoping we’ll swoop in and kill those two crawlers because there are humans around.”

  “Helpers,” Ra said. “Paramedics. Firefighters. Police.”

  A horrific thought occurred to Rose. “Do you think they’re trying to take out emergency personnel?”

  “I think Eben Stone’s end goal is to build an army and to control that army,” Horus said.

  “But why?” she asked. “If this were the Middle Ages and humans had swords and bows and arrows, maybe I’d understand that. But this is the twenty-first century. Boston PD has automatic weapons, and they’re certainly able to mow down vampires if that’s what it takes.”

  “Can they, though?” Ra asked. “They couldn’t stop them during the Nightmare.”

  “Maybe they’re ready now.” Even as she spoke, she knew it wasn’t true. All that people had done after the Nightmare— what Boston called those months when the city was under siege by vampires and crawlers—was try to explain it away.

  “Knowing all that though,” Horus said quietly. “Do we still go?” He gestured toward the image on the screen. Two crawlers could tear through the humans in moments. “Do we help?”

  “Of course,” Rose replied. “Right?”

  3

  Seti

  Horus was trying to hide it, but Seti knew his brother better than he knew himself.

  He was hurt.

  Every so often, he shifted. Or pressed his hand onto his side. Or put his hand under his shirt and touched a spot on his abdomen.

  It made Seti an asshole, but he wasn’t willing to risk his brothers and Rose for these unknown humans. Logically, he knew they had families and were probably as loved as his brothers, but it didn’t make a difference to him.

  The
y weren’t his to protect.

  These three individuals, the ones standing in this kitchen in a suburb of Boston, were the people he cared about.

  Everyone else could go to hell.

  He thought of Rose’s nonchalant response. “Of course.”

  Of course nothing. She might have the same sort of healing they did, but she didn’t have their training. She didn’t have years of fighting to draw on.

  Not to be mean but, “She’ll distract us.”

  “I won’t! I can help.” She glared at him, hurt blazing from her eyes.

  “There are two options,” Ra said. “We split up. Two of us stay and two of us go. Or all of us go.”

  “Wrong,” Seti answered. “There are three options. How about none of us go?”

  “The longer we stand here arguing, the more likely it is those people will be attacked. You could get there in minutes if you ran,” Rose said.

  “What about you?” Seti asked. “I thought you wanted to help.”

  “I can cling to your back like a monkey baby.” She made grabby hands. “Opposable thumbs. Very helpful.”

  He couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him. “So we, what, provide security? Patrol the perimeter? That’s what they’re expecting us to do.”

  “I don’t know!” she retorted. “I don’t know how to fight. I don’t know how to plan. All I know is those people will die if we don’t help. And they don’t deserve to die because of me.” Her voice got quiet at the end.

  Now Seti understood. Guilt. He lived with it every single day. “I’ll go,” he said. “I’m the fastest, and not to brag, but the sneakiest. I can get in and out.”

  “I’ll go, too,” Ra said. “I can always make them step in front of a fire truck. Horus. Stay with Rose. You’re still hurt anyway.”

  Seti widened his eyes. Okay, then.

  Rose turned slowly, and holy shit, she could be just as scary as any vampire. “What?”

  4

  Rose

  Rose studied Horus. “You’re still hurt?”

  Horus was glaring over her shoulder at his brother, and she snapped her fingers. “Don’t look at him.” When his gaze went back to her, she pointed two fingers at her eyes. “Look at me. What’s going on?”

  “It’s nothing,” he had the balls to reply.

  “It’s not nothing if you’re still injured, Horus.” His hand was slightly under his loose t-shirt, and she reached for it. “Let me see.”

  He jerked away, turning his body to the side. “It’s nothing.”

  “If it’s nothing, then it’s no big deal to show me,” she said. Worry made her voice tight, and she pictured all sorts of horrible things. Was this why he was fully clothed when he slept in her bed? Was it why he’d stopped things before they could go too far this morning? Oh god. Was he dying? “Horus. Please.”

  Staring at the ground, he crossed his arms. It must have been really bad if he wouldn’t show her. Please. I can’t lose you. Please.

  He lifted his gaze to hers. “I don’t want you to worry. It’ll be okay.” His lips didn’t move, but his voice was as clear as if he’d spoken.

  His lips. Didn’t. Move.

  Holy shit.

  “We’re telling her now?” Seti’s voice was excited. “Fucking finally.”

  “I can hear you,” she said, looking from one to the other of them.

  “Yes,” Ra answered.

  “And you can hear me?”

  “Yes,” Seti said. “You’re going to love it.”

  I’m going to love it. But panic was building in her stomach. Horus was hurt, and the guys could hear all her thoughts.

  All of them. Even the ones she might not want them to hear. Like when she was checking out Seti’s amazing arms or getting lost in Ra’s eyes. And then there was this morning with Horus!

  Nope, nope, nope. Not the time. She needed to focus on one crisis at a time. “We’ll deal with this later. Right now, Ra and Seti, you have some humans to save. And Horus, I’m going to Florence Nightingale your ass.”

  “How is that fair?” Seti whined.

  “Florence Nightingale was a nurse,” Ra said. “Assess his injuries and then tell us what you see. You’ll be more honest than him.”

  “And you’ll tell me what you see,” she said to him. “I don’t have to wait for phone calls. I want a play-by-play. Put me on mental speakerphone.”

  Seti and Ra smiled, and even Horus grinned. “You heard her.”

  “This goes both ways,” Ra said. “If either of you get a hint of an attack happening here, you let us know. I have no problem rescuing those humans, but I won’t do it at the cost of your life or the life of my brother. Understand?”

  “I do,” she said. Ra stood on the far side of the counter, and she walked around to him. Placing her arms around his waist, she leaned against him.

  Before, Ra would have tensed and been hesitant to return her affection. Now, his response was automatic. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and held her to him, his hand stroking her back. “Stay safe, human.”

  Leaning back, she lifted her chin for a kiss. His lips were firm and a little cool. He held his lips against hers before lightly pressing his tongue to the seam of her mouth. She opened for him, and he dipped inside. It was only a moment, but it was enough to get her heart racing and palms sweating. “You stay safe, too, sort-of vampire.”

  He chuckled as he stepped away. “Let’s go, Seti. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can return.”

  Seti wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a quick kiss. “Take care of my brother.”

  He didn’t need to ask. “Always.”

  5

  Rose

  Once Seti and Ra were gone, she faced Horus. “Let me see.”

  It was clear from the way his big fists bunched at the hem of his shirt that he didn’t want to show her.

  “Please.” She’d beg if she had to.

  Horus dropped his gaze, but lifted his shirt up and over his head.

  “Ohhh.”

  “It’s not that bad.” His words were in her head, and she realized that he was responding to her unspoken exclamation.

  Objectively speaking, it wasn’t that bad. For a human. Horus had been clawed across his abdomen, and all but one spot was healed. She glanced at him from under her lashes. “Can I touch it?”

  He nodded.

  The skin was cool to her touch. She wasn’t a doctor, so it wasn’t as if she could make a pronouncement, “It’s nothing to worry about.” But if she were to see a similar wound on another person’s body, she actually wouldn’t have worried about it.

  The problem was—Horus wasn’t a person. He was immortal. And like her, he healed at a rate much faster than humans.

  The scab was gone in some places, and the skin there was a little bit pink. “Why is this happening?” she said to herself. Think. Think. “Do you know which creature did this? The vampires or the crawlers?”

  “The crawlers,” he said. “I’m pretty positive it was a crawler.”

  Crawlers were poisonous. Sort of like her.

  “Shit, Horus.” She stared at the wound in horror, unable to look at him while she admitted this. “I think this is my fault.”

  “I don’t think this is the fault of anyone,” he replied.

  “It has to be,” she said. “You always heal. Always. And the time you don’t is after I gave you my blood. I may only have high school biology, but I remember experimenting with variables. And the variable here is my blood.”

  “Your blood has healing properties, though,” he said. “That’s why you’re like me.”

  “It also has paralytic properties,” she said. “I wish Briar was still here.” The woman and her vampires had left Boston when it became clear Eben Stone, the man who had once been Rose’s doctor, was after her blood. Briar, Sylvain, Hudson, Marcus, and Valen had a daughter. And they weren’t willing to risk Stone setting his sights on her.

  Rose understood. But right now, sh
e could have used their help.

  She was hesitant to even call them for fear Stone could somehow trace them. Perhaps she was assigning too much evil-mastermind status to him, but she’d rather be safe than sorry.

  “You’re just as smart as Briar,” Horus said. His abs flexed under her fingers. She’d been trailing her fingers over the scars without consciously deciding to do so.

  “Sorry.”

  “You never have to apologize for touching me.” He took her hand and pressed it against his stomach. “You can’t know how it feels.”

  He’d sat on a stool after removing his shirt, and she stepped between the vee of his legs. “I can,” she said. “Because I feel the same thing when you touch me.”

  Curling her fingers into the waistband of his pants, she leaned forward to kiss him. His hand went to the nape of her neck, holding her in place.

  She kissed him gently at first, but then touched her tongue to his lips. He responded by touching his tongue to hers, stroking down one side and then the other.

  She loved kissing him. Loved the way he took time with her, like he had nowhere else to be and nothing else he wanted to do. Kissing with Horus wasn’t a means to an end. It wasn’t foreplay. He was fully present in the moment, and he kept her with him. He turned his head, changing the angle of his kiss because he just wanted to try it. Then he turned his head again and pecked at the corners of her mouth before dragging his teeth along her jaw and nibbling her earlobe.

  “Horus,” she said on a breath.

  He smiled against her skin. She loved this man. Loved these men.

  It had happened fast, too fast probably, but there it was. They’d crashed into her life, changed everything, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. She was tired of putting down her snarky, inner bitch and was ready to accept what she’d been screaming inside her head.

  They stared at each other.