Page 11 of Bonded By Blood
“I hope you won’t take this the wrong way,” Joe said, “but … that’s kind of human nature. The ugly side, sure, but when you boil it down that’s how it works.”
Her distracted gaze sharpened again and she raised a brow. “How do you mean?”
“Look at society,” he began, “people get power of any type and it changes them. Not all of them change for the worse, sure, but power tends to corrupt. A poor man wins a multi-million dollar lottery and it goes to his head, up-ends his life, and in the end he may have more cash, but he’s lost what really matters.” A bitter grin teased his lips. “Then there’s the political angle.”
Brianna laughed softly. “I don’t think we need to go there. I see what you’re saying.” She sat back and stretched out her legs a bit. “I suppose that makes sense, but it’s inherently disappointing from my perspective.”
Joe hesitated, curious but not wanting to ask things that weren’t his business. As always happened, his curiosity won out. “You’re an Original, aren’t you? I’ve heard there are two left, though Trista’s is the only name I know. But that was why he called you ‘princess’ like an insult, wasn’t it?”
Brianna didn’t show any sign of being bothered by the question. She smiled slightly and said, “I am, but please remember it’s rude to ask a lady her age.” Her lips lifted a little more to assure him she was joking. “Trista’s my mother. So, yes, in essence I would be the ‘Princess’, given that so many refer to Mother as the Queen of Vampires.”
Joe grinned wide. “I never thought I’d sit in the presence of royalty.”
Brianna rolled her eyes. “If you refer to me by any sort of title whatsoever I will make you regret it, that I promise you.”
“Not one for formality?” Joe teased.
“I’m surrounded by enough of it every day,” Brianna said. “I don’t need more.”
“All right,” Joe said. “Then with me, you can be casual. You’re just Brianna, whoever ‘just Brianna’ is, and I’ll neither hold it against you nor sell your secrets.”
She studied him for a moment as if contemplating his impulsive suggestion. Something reminiscent of mischief shone in her dark eyes and she said, “You have a deal, Joe Pearce.” And as if to prove she was serious, she bent down and extracted her feet from the prison of her heeled shoes.
Joe watched, captivated, as she proceeded to swing her legs around and stretch them out on his couch. She angled sideways so she was still facing him and propped her head up with the assistance of her elbow on the armrest. The vision she presented—the way she presented—made him want to scoop her right off that couch. He didn’t give a damn that she was a vampire. He probably should give a damn that she was an Original, but even that failed to matter. She was perfection wrapped in midnight blue.
“So, I’m terribly curious,” Brianna said, drawing him out of his distracted thoughts. Sort of. “Tell me the story behind meeting a werewolf at age ten.”
A breathless laugh slipped from his lips and Joe stretched out his legs as he settled in to walk her through the memory.
****
The First Family was so damn arrogant. That self-appointed Queen dictating how every vampire in the entire fucking world was supposed to live their lives. Thinking about it made Tobias sick. And now they had his brother.
His stupid, impulsive, oblivious older brother. Well, he was older by human age. The definition was sticky anymore. Troy had been born first, three years before Tobias. Tobias had been Turned first, at twenty-nine. It’d been a few more years before he’d decided to Turn his brother. Eternity was a big commitment and it wasn’t like they’d always gotten along. Troy could be a big fucking idiot sometimes.
Like right now. Getting himself captured by their enemy. It was infuriating and sickening all at once. Now Troy was one of two things—dead and gone, or bait.
Tobias would bet his largely-stolen fortune on the latter.
There was no way in hell he was going to sit back and be baited by Trista and her goddamned goons. No. He and Troy had returned to Sacramento to make a scene, and he was going to stick by that plan. He’d just make his scene a little … louder than he’d been previously planning. It wasn’t as if she would ever release Troy, no matter how thoroughly Troy cooperated. And that was the best thing about his brother. Troy was loyal, at least to him.
There.
Tobias’s gaze sharpened with focus when he spotted his prey.
A woman, walking alone, talking on her cell phone. She was of average height, with a pretty face. She wore professional clothes and a purse that probably cost an entire paycheck hung off her arm. Considering the early evening hour, she was most likely headed out somewhere. Or she was a workaholic only just leaving the office, but she didn’t have that look. Ultimately, Tobias didn’t care. She had the kind of face the public would mourn.
He dashed out from his hiding place, the same alley he intended to kill her in, and came to a full stop directly in front of her, so close their noses practically touched.
The woman’s eyes widened with startled, instant panic and she stumbled in her effort not to walk into him. “Wh-who are you?” she asked, tightening her grip on the phone in her hand.
Tobias leered and curled a lip deliberately back, revealing a single fang.
He saw her see it, saw her eyes go even wider and her plump lips part as if to scream.
Then he grabbed her around the waist and dashed back into the alley, the sudden, jarring movement knocking the phone from her grasp. He tossed the woman to the ground on the other side of the filthy dumpster, kicked her purse aside, and knelt over her.
She was already crying, trying to push to her elbows and scoot away, but there was a wall there. Nowhere for her to go. The only way out was through him. “P-please,” she stammered, lips quivering. “I have money in my purse. The purse is valuable. Take it. Take all of it—”