Hunted Blood: A Love Triangle Vampire Romance (Beautiful Innocence Book 2)

Chapter 1 – Lorianna

I wobble down the creaky stairs to the wine with a pile of couch cushions and blankets piled higher than my head. A match sparks, and then a flare of firelight glows from somewhere in the musty darkness as Alex lights a candle to help me navigate the space, but the cushions block my view of the stairs, and I still can’t see in front of me at all. I shuffle down another step, then another, and I think I’m in the clear when my foot catches on the wood.

The world tilts. I shriek as I fall forward.

The cushions fall from my arms and bounce off the floor, and the blankets plop on top. Before I join them, Alex appears by my side out of nowhere and pulls me against him.

The bare, hard muscles of his chest cradle my burning cheeks. My heart is still racing, but now for an entirely different reason. I’ve been close to Alex many times, but never this close. Never skin to skin this way.

He smells like the forest, of pine and rain and shadows. I wish I could bottle his smell so I could have it with me always.

“Careful, I would not want you hurting yourself on my behalf, Miss Lorianna.” His hands gently slide down my back like an intimate caress, and I wonder if he’s holding me longer than he needs to because he craves this contact with me, too. “You’ve already done so much…”

I relax into his grip, blinking up at his handsome face. His blond hair is messy, and a longer strand that I’m dying to wrap around my finger curls over his forehead. “I don’t mean to make you worry about me. I was in a hurry and just got a little dizzy, that’s all. How did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“You were on the other side of the room, and then…”

His forest-green eyes bear into me, and I meet them without hesitation. “Enhanced speed is one ability given to me by my… condition. There is a lot I have kept from you out of necessity. I hope you will forgive me.”

“It’s okay, I…”

Alex’s strong arms and cool aura envelop me. Every muscle flexes with unnatural power, and it’s impossible to ignore the novelty of his sculpted body pressed against mine. How the hell am I supposed to think with him holding me like this? The man I always wanted but thought was out of my league. Who I thought was worlds away from me. I refused to entertain the idea that he could want me, too, until he saved my life and I saw we were both holding back the same desires.

That man. Shirtless. Arms around me.

Pretty sure my brain is shutting down right now just to feel him.

I lose myself in those dreamy fucking eyes, the same color of the wilderness in my dream. He’d been chasing me through the trees, as if we were playing a game, but when he caught me… we fell together into a bed of moss and leaves. His playful expression had disappeared, and all the longing and desire that I felt was reflected on his face.

Finally, after dreaming that he would for years, he kissed me.

He did a lot more than that, too. The things he did with his tongue…

I shiver as the ghost of his touch races from my breasts to my thighs, and I press them together in denial. It was just a dream.

But here in the dark, we could make those fantasies a reality. If only it weren’t for the matter of, well, everything else that happened last night.

Alex’s eyebrows crinkle together. “Are you well, Miss Lorianna? Perhaps you should lay down. I… I may have taken too much of your blood.”

I want to stay like this for as long as possible, even if it’s only suspending reality at a safe distance for a few more moments. “Don’t you think we’re past titles? Call me Lorianna, please. Though I’d really prefer Lori.”

Alex’s green eyes light up with an unnatural, predatory glow. Or is that a trick of the flickering candlelight? Then the tenderness returns, the same as he’s shown me these past few weeks since he saved me. “Lorianna. Yes, I suppose I could drop the title if you are truly okay with it.”

“I am.”

He caresses my cheekbone, then he moves down to my jaw before his hand drops away. “Very well then. It’s the least I can do for the one whom I owe my life to.”

“We saved each other, Alex. We’re even.”

He shakes his head slightly, but his lips curve into an amused smile. “I was doing my job, Lorianna. You went above and beyond. They are incomparable situations.”

“Then don’t compare them. Just… let’s figure out what to do from here, yeah? You still look tired. Are you… are you sure my blood worked?”

“There is no doubt you saved my life, but I will need a few days to heal fully. Holy water is an efficient poison, and Ivan Morozov’s crossbow bolt hit me very close to the heart.”

My chest tightens with the memory of Alex’s fangs biting into my wrist. A shock of pain, and then an intense warmth had radiated through my entire body. In that moment, I felt more connected to him than ever before, and even once it was over, that feeling merely weakened, not subsided completely.

The memory of what he said to me after he drank my blood echoes in my head: “Drinking from someone I care deeply for, who cares for me in return, is different. More... intense.”

Then his eyes had met mine, full of dark desire, showing me that he knew just what I felt about him. Or at least, it made me feel as though my blood had sold me out and revealed all my secrets to Alex. The way he looks at me now, it’s like he knows everything about me while I’m still stumbling after him in the dark, unsure if he’s real or a shadow. I know so little about him, and what I do know has all been cast into question by the mere revelation of his true identity.

A vampire.

All I can say for sure is that he cares for me. Deeply. I’ve always felt it in my bones, in my soul.

But does he care for me because we’re like family, or is it something more?

“It’s all right. You don’t owe me anything. I protect you because...”He’d hesitated while he searched for the right words. “Because you bring light to my dark world. That’s repayment enough.”

Alex tilts his head, critically observing me. “Your heart is racing. What’s on your mind?”

When he bit me, it was like I shared a piece of my soul with him, and he shared a piece of his with me. Every piece of me I shared reads like an open book; the pent-up desire I barely kept restrained threatened to erupt. And Alex must have seen all of it and felt everything I felt and wanted. But all the fragments I have of him are encrypted in another language. The truth is there, but I don’t know how to interpret it. How to interpret him and everything he does.

“I’m just…” I chew on my lip. I take in his strong jaw and prominent nose but pay special attention to his lips. Pressed tight together, there’s no sign of his fangs. I want to kiss him. I want to feel their sharp tips graze my lips, my neck, everywhere.

I don’t care what he is. Nothing has changed for me, and maybe that’s scarier than everything else that’s happened.

“You’re not afraid of me, are you?” he whispers.

I shake my head. “You’ve never given me a reason to be afraid.”

“It would break my heart if you were, Lorianna.”

My cheeks flush. I must be beet red.

I should be afraid, shouldn’t I? My gaze skitters across his bare chest like a nervous animal assessing her chances of survival. Alex may have drank my blood, but I’ve known him pretty much my whole life, and he doesn’t fit the picture of a bloodthirsty monster.

“I’m having a hard time separating the legends about vampires from what I’ve seen with my own eyes.”

He gives me a wry smile. “How about we get comfortable, then I’ll create a more eloquent picture for your imagination?”

It feels like a part of me departs with Alex’s arms when he unravels them from around my waist to gather the cushions thrown around the dirty cellar floor. I grab what’s left of the blankets and follow him to the resting place he picked out near the back, far from the entrance and any risk of sun exposure. He places them in a row to create a bed, then I lay out a few loose bricks around the sides to hold them in place like a frame. Once the cushions, blankets, and pillows are in place, Alex wearily lowers himself onto the makeshift bed.

I’m distracted by the powerful muscles in his shoulders, the tension hiding there. The nasty gash just to the side of his heart, where he was shot, has healed into a pink scab over the past hour. Realizing I’m staring, I move to sit by him. I didn’t get to see how bad the wound was because of all the blood, but now that Alex is washed up, I can imagine how nasty it was before his healing kicked in.

There’s another mark on his skin that I didn’t notice until now, too.

“Is that a tattoo?” I touch the spot of smooth skin, tracing the red and black lines, realizing that it’s an oddly stylized ‘A.’ His muscles visibly clench at my touch. “I didn’t think you were the type.”

“Oh, this? It’s more of a… token, you could say, from my…”

He trails off, and my heart skips a beat. The tattoo is over his heart. It has to be from another lover, someone he cared deeply about, right? Someone he wanted to keep close to him at all times.

But… I swear I’ve seen that mark somewhere else before. Its familiarity is unnerving, made worse by being unable to pick out where I’ve seen it before.

A deep sigh comes from Alex, and his fingers curl over mine. “Most vampires are loyal to their lords because they are innately compelled to obey the one who created them, but I am a special case. Aurelius did not make me. Anyone who was not rebirthed by Aurelius or one of his trusted associates must prove themselves in other ways before joining our coven. The brand is given once you are considered worthy.”

His strong hands guide me through memorized motions over each ink stroke imprinted in his skin, as if he’s made these exact movements countless times before.

“There is so much I don’t understand about all this. Lords? Covens? Tests of loyalty? I don’t…”

“We can’t cover everything tonight, Lorianna. As much as I would love to tell you everything about where I came from, I believe we both are in dire need of rest. Ask me what you think is most important now, and we’ll cover everything else tonight. Is that agreeable to you?”

I nod. I want to stay up with him for as long as I can, coveting every minute we have together in the dark because who knows if we’ll ever be alone like this again, but now that we’re settled on the bed together, the adrenaline from the night is starting to fade and exhaustion is already tugging at my eyelids.

“Is it appropriate for me to ask who made you? If it wasn’t Aurelius? Who is Aurelius?”

His eyes widen slightly. “Those are both long and complicated questions.”

I wait to see if he’ll offer me any other information, but he stays quiet. His eyes are dark and clouded, so I can tell he’s not avoiding the question on purpose—he sank into his memories, and they must not be good. It makes my desire to know even more urgent, but I don’t want to push, either.

“I understand.” Our hands are still conjoined and pressed to his chest, where I can feel the unnaturally slow thud of his heart. Too slow to be truly alive. “If it’s sensitive, we can talk about it later.”

“Aurelius is my lord, my master, the leader of my coven and the vampires who work in the shadows around the Monroe Investment Group. Let us leave it at that for now.”

His master. I shiver at the word, linking it to what he said before—he called the tattoo a brand. From that, paired with his reaction, I can already see the troubling history unfolding there. But I know nothing about his world. I shouldn’t be making assumptions.

I’ve read countless horror novels about the wicked vampires luring women into the darkness to sate their bloody desires. It was easy to think of them as fiction, but what if they were based on reality? What if Alex is one of those monsters?

He regards me with his usual calm patience. Now, I understand why he always seems to have a good reading of my emotions: my heartbeat. He’s tracking my pulse on instinct. He can hear when I’m afraid, happy, or… aroused.

“Just tell me, are the myths about vampires true?”

“For the most part. We’re faster and stronger than humans but sensitive to sunlight. Direct sunlight can easily kill us, and anything else burns so badly it makes us wish it would.”

“And you’re… immortal?”

He licks his lips, his tongue lingering on the sharp point of a fang. “I turned over 100 years ago, and Aurelius is almost 800 years old. He was one of the first. The oldest vampires, those who turned around the same time as him, are usually called Ancients because they are the oldest creatures walking the earth.”

My head spins. A man who is 800 years old. To have so many years pass before him, watching the world change but never aging? My mouth goes dry. I can’t imagine what that would be like. Alex has only lived a fraction of that time, yet he’s lived longer than most humans who reach the end of old age. Over a hundred years ago would have been before the World Wars.

“It must be a difficult adjustment,” I realize.

“More than you can imagine. Watching all my loved ones disappear…”

His eyes flutter closed.

“When you told me that your wife had passed a long time ago, you really meant a long time ago.”

This realization spurs so many questions I didn’t know I had. I want to know what it was like back then, how he’s survived this long, how he ended up here working for my dad.

But he’s right. We have more pressing matters than learning his whole life story, even if that’s what my heart really wants. To know Alex like I know myself.

The horror stories about vampires aren’t Alex. I know that without a doubt. He’s never once hurt me or made me afraid. But in all those stories, people who are bitten by vampires don’t last long. Sometimes, they die, and other times, they become like the ones who preyed on them. We sit there in silence for a long moment while I stare at one of the wine racks. A chill settles in my toes and reaches upward, gripping my heart.

“How have you survived so long without the sun?”

He offers me a sad smile, squeezing my hand. His thumb moves in slow, sure motions around my palm. “I learned to better appreciate the moon. The sun’s reflection resides in her, and she would not be so beautiful otherwise. That gives me… peace, you could say, knowing that the sun is still there, even if I can’t directly see her.”

A fluttering sensation beats in my chest. There’s hope for me, after all. “I suppose if you managed to survive as a vampire without losing your mind and still staying a good person, then I—” I choke on air. “Then I can find a way to make it work, too.”

Confusion swims in Alex’s dark eyes. “What do you mean?”

I turn my face fully to him again, my eyes burning. The concern in his eyes breaks a dam inside me, and I collapse into him, burying my face in his neck. His heavy arms wrap around me without question as I sob, mourning the life I’ll lose. Tears leak down my cheeks and stain his collarbone, and I clutch him closer, finding comfort in his steady, strong presence.

“I’m—I’m going to be like you soon, aren’t I? A vampire. Never to see the sun again, thirsting for—”

“No,” Alex growls like a rabid animal, shocking me away from him. His eyes burn into mine, determined and enraged. “I’ll die before I let you become a vampire.”

His anger beats off of him like a wave of heat, and I believe he means every word.

“But you bit me. Isn’t it too late? Won’t I… turn?”

“It takes more than that to make a vampire, fortunately. You’re safe so long as you don’t drink any of my blood.”

His gaze stays level with mine, and I let the panic go. I believe him. But it’s more than just trust passing between us. Looking at him now, it’s like I have an acute understanding of his emotions, the same way he can read my pulse.

“If I had to… that would be too much,” I breathe out.

“I never would have asked you to save me if it meant sacrificing your humanity and becoming like me. It’s not a life I would subject anyone to. It’s barely a life at all.”

There’s a twinge of resentment in his voice, and it never occurred to me until now that Alex might not be happy with his immortality. I can’t fully understand the pain he’s gone through after living so long, forced to watch his wife Marine die and anyone else he ever knew go with her over the years, but I can see the shape of that pain. He’s hid it under the surface the entire time we’ve known each other; my impression of him has always been that he’s a reserved and private person, but now, he’s showing me what’s hiding under the surface. The darkness.

“After all these years, I still long for the sun. Most vampires accept the night because what other choice do they have unless they wish to live an utterly miserable existence?” Alex laughs bitterly. “Giving into the darkness comes at a significant cost. It’s like giving a piece of your soul away, day by day, until there’s nothing left. I’ve lost myself too many times to count. These past few years, I thought…” His eyes settle on me again, and there’s a hint of hope hidden deep within. “Thank you, Lorianna, for being so full of life. For being in my life and bringing me so much light.”

I can’t form words. Fluttering warmth pours through my body, and I’m only a butterfly trapped in a hurricane, desperately trying to stay fixed in place before the storm pulls me away. After everything Alex has told me, I still want him to kiss me like I’m his one and only.

I need that kiss more than I’ve ever needed anything.

So much about Alex is starting to make sense now, but I don’t know what to say. My whole life has changed in the span of one night. An hour ago, I found out that Luke, my boyfriend, the man I was head-over-heels for and almost ready to give myself to completely, had betrayed my trust so utterly that it’s fractured my world.

No matter how attracted I am to Alex, no matter how many times I’ve fantasized about his hands all over my body, I can’t make that mental switch so fast without giving myself whiplash.

Alex’s hand falls from my cheek, snaking down my neck to the hollow of my throat, where he toys with the golden chain and rubies that used to belong to my mother. The stunning gemstones are shaped together to make sparkling flower petals.

“Will you stay with me?” he asks. “I may be weak, but if anyone else comes tonight, I will protect you no matter what.”

“O-of course,” I whisper.

The next thing I know, Alex is gently lowering us onto the bed and pulling the blankets over us. He keeps his arms curled around me, our bodies pressed together so that I’m protected in his embrace. The hum of electricity pulses between us at the points where our bare skin makes contact, making that heat and wanting race in my blood. But the way he holds me is innocent. Protective. In his arms, I feel safer than anywhere I’ve ever been before, and when his breathing slows, so does mine.

His presence is an unparalleled comfort, and the warmth and safety of clinging to each other, with no expectations, lulls the panic of the last few hours away. With a deep sigh, I let sleep take me.

I’m exactly where I need to be.

I rouse with no sense of day or time. I tense at the unfamiliarity of my surroundings, the utter darkness dulling my senses. My forearms and shoulders clench, and a wave of panic hits me in the face.

The memories of last night come rushing back. Luke. Alex. Vampires. Everything settles into a tight ball in my chest; the tension is excruciating, like I’m living through that panic and fear all over again. Are they coming for me next? I need to leave, find somewhere safe…

A sigh breaths into my ear. The warmth tickles me, and the soft, masculine sound accompanying it can only belong to Alex. I relax into his hold, now aware of his firm body pressed against my back and locking me close, where he can protect me.

All night, I dreamed of what else Alex could do to me—taking things further than his mouth between my legs. If I asked him, told him how I feel, would he become mine?

It’s a strange feeling, believing it’s not entirely impossible. After all, he’s holding me like I’m the most precious person to him, and two days ago, I didn’t think he ever would. I’m grateful to have him in my life and for everything he’s provided me over the years. He’s protected me without question. I’ve relied on him for advice and safety.

Being with him like this now is a dream come true. A dream that’s buried beneath the weight of everything else that happened last night. I don’t know what the hell Luke was thinking when he kissed me goodnight and then went on to destroy my life and everything we shared, but I hope whatever he was after was worth it.

If breaking my trust, destroying my home, and stealing from my dad isn’t an indicator that he is through with me, he can consider himself dumped.

And yet... and yet... there’s still this rock of doubt and guilt settling in my stomach that I can’t run away from. He isn’t who I thought he was, but I’m not sure I understand who he is now, either. Is he a monster like the vampires are supposed to be? Is he a criminal? What does it mean to be a vampire hunter?

For better or worse, Alex isn’t who I thought he was, either. That’s what confuses me the most.

Who is really the bad guy here? Luke, Alex, or… me?

My mind had already betrayed Luke with my fantasies of Alex long before Luke broke into my home. It’s been tearing me apart from the inside out for weeks now. I thought these feelings and this confusion would go away on its own. That I would choose Luke in the end because he showed as often as he could that he cared about me.

After this, though? I don’t fucking know anymore. That confusion has only gotten worse, not better. If I’m going to figure out my next steps, not just in terms of processing the fact that there are vampires and people who hunt them out there, I need closure from Luke. I need to know for sure that there was nothing between us, that he was just using me, before I can truly give myself the relief of moving on.

Alex’s eyes twitch violently beneath his eyelids, and I gently peel myself out of his embrace to grab my phone from the floor beside me. The glow of the screen hurts my eyes, so I turn down the brightness to a minimum Alex stirs at the change of light, but his chest still rises and falls slowly with the weight of sleep.

I open my most recent conversation with Luke, ready to ask the questions that I need answers. But as soon as I see my last text to him, I freeze.

See you soon. xoxo

It’s almost 11 am, and he hasn’t texted me with an explanation. Everything Luke and I have been through slaps me in the face. His hot and cold attitude. Sweet kisses, hot kisses, yelling, and whispers that made my spine tingle with want.

But almost without fail, every single problem we’ve had in our relationship was because of him. And every single time he did something to break my heart, it’s always been me begging for answers.

Not this time, Luke.

I’m sure he had his reasons for what he did, and I want to know why. I’m desperate for that answer. But I know that if I reach out to him to get it, the cycle of pain will never end. I can’t keep doing this to myself, and I can’t keep letting him.

Unfortunately, that complicates things with me and Alex, too.

I need that closure to fully move on. And if I deny myself, it could take me a while to heal and trust in anything I could build with Alex beyond friendship.

Asleep, his features soften from the stoic man I’m most familiar with into lush innocence. It makes me glad to have saved him. Proud to call him my… friend. I want more, and I think he does, too, but I need answers. I need space to think and figure out what I want to do.

There’s no way that’s going to happen while Alex is next to me.

The last thing I want to do is leave, but there’s also the small matter of his tattoo. It’s been driving me crazy that I can’t remember where I’ve seen it before.

Slowly, I ease myself completely out of Alex’s grip and out of the bed. His warmth drains from my body, and this time, when I climb to my feet, I really am leaving a piece of me behind.

It’s for a good cause, I reassure myself as I search for the stairs in the dark. My dad will have the answers I need. I know I can trust him, if no one else.

I’ll be back in Alex’s arms before dark.

That’s the hope that keeps my feet moving, leaving him behind, even as my heart breaks all over again.