Page 3 of Blood Bought

Chapter Two:

Holding my shit togetherwas easier said than done with five metric tons of ancient vampiric power swirling around me. Logically, I knew these weren’t the Alphas or the Sons of Veresian, which meant that what I was feeling right then was a fraction of what I’d be feeling soon.

Afraction.

“What are we doing here?” I asked for the third time, and yet again I was ignored as Malik hotwired a car. Neither of my captors said a word until I was bound with my hands behind my back and thrown in the back of that stolen rust bucket, and even then, I wasn’t sure it was relevant.

“He’s not that bad.”

Who? Brander? His fucking name is Brander, that doesn’t exactly instill confidence,I thought to myself. “Oh.”

“That was his birth name,” Malik explained, apparently helping himself to my fucking thoughts. “He doesn’t brand his bloodwhores... much.”

“Much?”

Aerin’s chuckle felt like ice. “You think he’ll even want her? His tastes have changed in age.”

“She’d better hope it’s him. Nyx will kill her outright if Idris takes her instead, and I’d hate to be anywhere near Dregan.”

I’d learned enough about Veresian’s ruling families during school that I didn’t have to ask who they were talking about. While Brander was the true Alpha, in control of our territory’s Discipline, the other Alphas had their own strengths. Dregan’s was Hunting, which told me pretty clearly that I wanted nothing to do with him, and while Idris and his wife Nyx were in charge of Wealth, it didn’t sound like I’d want to cross them, either. “So what will he do with me then?” I asked. “Why come get me at all?”

“A debt is a debt. May as well be law to us,” Malik said plainly. “He gave up family blood to save your life.”

Family blood. So it wasn’t his own that saved me, but someone close enough to him that he’d never let me go. Not until the debt was paid. “Who?”

“Above our pay grade, Human. Stop asking so many questions.”

We drove in silence for a while, and it was a testament to how sluggish my brain felt that I didn’t notice how fast Malik was driving at first. He was going at least a hundred and twenty miles per hour down roads that had broken down decades ago, but somehow, the ride was smooth. I was as impressed as I was scared for my sister’s life — not my own, because mine was over either way. But if I died like this... hers would be, too.

“Could you slow down, maybe?” I asked, hating the high-pitched tone. “Just under a hundred, perhaps?”

“This is already taking longer than it should,” Aerin snapped. “We should have just tossed her over our shoulder. Her comfort is the least of our concerns.”

Malik scoffed. “Okay, Warrior Princess. You tell that to Brander, yeah? Tell him you were so impatient you felt a couple of cracked ribs were nothing to worry about. He wants her in one piece and preferably not puking on his floor.”

That nickname had me taking a closer look at Aerin as they started to argue. She really did look like a warrior — several tattoos in addition to the Veresian clan sigil on her forearm, blonde hair pulled back in tight, intricate braids, and a look in those red-rimmed black eyes that promised violence. I couldn’t stop myself from wondering why she’d been sent to get me when I wasn’t a threat.

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