Blood Oath (Box Set)

By Kira Stone

In Taggert’s Bend, the vampires love to hate the magical tricksters, and the witches hate to love the unnatural beasts. So, to keep the feuding to a minimum, the blood drinkers refrain from dining on the magicians as long as the gifted spellcasters occasi

• Language: English
• Publisher: Changeling Press
• Release date: Dec 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9780359901142

Book preview

Blood Oath

Kira Stone

All rights reserved.

Copyright ©2018 Kira Stone

Second Edition

BIN: 03599-01149

Formats Available:

Adobe PDF, Epub

Mobi/PRC

Publisher:

Changeling Press LLC

315 N. Centre St.

Martinsburg, WV 25404

www.ChangelingPress.com

Editor: Margaret Riley

Cover Artist: Reneé George

Adult Sexual Content

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Table of Contents

Blood Oath

Blood Price

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Blood Magic

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

A Marked Man

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Blood Oath

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Epilogue

Kira Stone

Blood Oath

Kira Stone

In Taggert’s Bend, the vampires love to hate the magical tricksters, and the witches hate to love the unnatural beasts. So, to keep the feuding to a minimum, the blood drinkers refrain from dining on the magicians as long as the gifted spellcasters occasionally share with them a fraction of their natural charms.

Blending the essence of the natural and unnatural has unexpected consequences when a new Vampire Lord is selected to endure the Blood Oath. Each attempt to successfully conclude the Oath only creates more chaos. Will these powerful enemies conclude the spell before an evil they fear more than each other consumes them all?

Blood Price

Kira Stone

Steven is out for blood. It’s a matter of life and death -- his own. He’s prepared to do anything he must to get it -- even try to pass himself off as a vampire on their own turf -- or die trying.

Rainer, the local Vampire Lord, is in town to keep the peace between humans and vampires, a formidable task on All Souls Night. He spots Steven as a fake right away but is reluctant to evict the imposter until his curiosity about the delectable human has been thoroughly satisfied. Once together, unparalleled lust keeps them joined at the hip until a Halloween prank endangers both their lives. For either to survive, Steven and Rainer must decide if they’re willing to pay the ultimate Blood Price.

Chapter 1

All Souls Night

Steven adjusted the collar of his oilskin trench coat. Shit, he swore as the icy rainwater funneled down his back. Not at all what he’d intended to have happen -- the story of his life these days.

Hell of a night to be out, but he had little choice. He needed fresh blood. Human blood. He hated what that made him, but what better time to play vampire than on All Souls Night? Humans dressing up as their worst nightmares to scare the ghoulies and ghosties into remaining on the other side of the Veil Between Worlds. Except he wasn’t playing around.

Shrugging his uncomfortable thoughts aside, Steven started looking for options among the closed shops lining the main street through Taggert’s Bend. On the other side of the street, a stylized V to the left of a tavern door caught his attention. Vampires served here. Bingo.

Before he could step off the curb to cross, doubts assailed him. Could he really go through with it? What would it cost him to procure the life-sustaining fluid? Would he still be able to call himself a human afterward?

A wave of dizziness assured him he didn’t have much time to wrestle with his conscience. Now or never. Besides, what was the worst that could happen? Death? If he didn’t do this, he’d be dead anyway.

Trembling with exhaustion and the need for nourishment, he jogged across the street and touched the symbol beside the door to The Cork and Casket pub. Here goes nothing.

The moment his toes crossed the threshold, an electrical surge struck his body, searing his nerve endings with a red-hot fire. For a paralyzed, excruciating moment, he couldn’t move. Then, as quick as it had come, the fire left him and Steven stumbled forward. He fell against a cobblestone wall, panting. The wall held him up, gave him time to catch his breath and adjust to the low interior light.

As details emerged from the darkness, he almost wished they hadn’t. The pub’s foyer resembled a large cave. Half a dozen dark corridors departed in different directions. Pasty white, incandescent ichors oozed from the crevasses at frequent and seemingly random intervals, the only obvious source of illumination. Whether that substance was what produced the awful stench in the air or something else, Steven didn’t know. Whatever it was, it turned his stomach and he had to breathe through his mouth to prevent himself from gagging on it.

First time? Takes some getting used to, I admit.

Steven turned to find a lean, leather-clad man standing in one of the archways. He hadn’t been there a couple seconds ago. How had he managed to approach so quietly? Not what I expected, no.

I’m Sebastian. Would you like me to show you around?

Steven saw no point in being social. He wasn’t planning on staying in the vampire’s domain any longer than he absolutely had to. All I need is the bar.

Sebastian subtly changed his stance. Instead of a lounging creature, open and friendly, he became guarded, alert. He pointed to the archway closest to him. Feeding is that way. He nodded toward the next. If you find you have other appetites to satisfy, fucking is over there. And fighting… He pointed to a third tunnel on the opposite side. … is down that one.

Feeding, fucking, fighting. Got it. What about the other tunnels? Where do they lead?

The blond smiled in a way that never reached his blue eyes. Since all you care about is dinner, does it really matter?

Stepped right into that one. Guess not.

Sebastian pushed away from the stone and sauntered toward him. He had a loose-hipped way of walking. It contrasted sharply with the hard muscles of a gutter fighter shifting restlessly under the black leather as he moved. He wore a silver hoop in his left lobe and a stud of some dark colored stone in his right. His blond hair hung well past his shoulders. Another time, Steven might have warmed up to him. He liked the looks of the guy, but he wasn’t trolling for dick tonight.

Be careful where you dine, my friend. I hear the local lord is in the pub tonight. He doesn’t take kindly to nonconsensual poaching. The vampire trailed his hand over the wall, picking up a finger-full of the nasty white slime and sliding it across Steven’s crotch as he passed. Maybe I’ll see you around.

Yeah, sure.

But the blond was already gone. The pub’s exterior door opened again, and a trio of cloaked bodies entered. They didn’t even slow down as they ducked into one of the unexplained tunnels. Another lone vampire came out of the feeding arch -- or was that the way to the fucking chamber? -- and exited into the rainy night without so much as a glance in Steven’s direction. Apparently, no one lingered here. He’d better get moving.

Steven pushed away from the wall, but was damned if he could remember where he needed to go. Hunger dulled his normally sharp mind. He had a one in six chance of ending up in the right place. He whispered a quick prayer for luck and chose a tunnel at random, trusting fate more than his own mind to get him where he needed to go.

* * *

Lord Rainer Allen surveyed the action in the steam room. Naked, writhing bodies adorned almost every surface, perhaps twenty in total. Any one of them could be his sex partner. All he had to do was beckon, and they’d come running. Just thinking about it made him hard.

That’s where he had to stop. At thinking about it. To act on his urges would be foolish in the extreme.

Kassian nudged him with a toe. See anything you like? The vampire lay on his side, one leg bent up to give Rainer a good look at his nine-inch cock as he stroked it to fullness.

Nothing I’m dying to have. Rainer preferred men to women. He’d made no secret of it, but his openness sometimes worked against him. Kassian had been trying to seduce him since he’d transferred in from Eastern Europe. Seventy-four years was one heck of a long time to continually reject a very tempting offer.

Liar.

I’d be using them, and possibly hurting them in the process. They deserve better treatment than that.

Use me. I don’t mind a little pain.

Sebastian’s arrival prevented Rainer from having to answer. The blond perched on the stone bench next to his husky lover. I see you started without me. He took over the stroking.

Kassian put his hands behind his head and interlaced his fingers, his eyes on Rainer as Sebastian turned putty into stone. What took you so long?

Door alarm went off. Sebastian kissed the inside of his lover’s knee.

Rainer watched the landscape of the black leather stretched across the blond’s lap change from a plateau to a mountain peak. Kassian alone was dangerous enough to Rainer’s self-control. When joined by his rough and ready live-in lover, the combination was kryptonite against his inner strength. Each time it got harder to resist their enticement. Tonight he might be foolish enough, and desperate enough, to take them up on it.

Hoping there was a crisis brewing so he’d have an excuse to dodge them a few more hours, Rainer asked, Problem?

No, just a neophyte who couldn’t tell his ass from a hole in the wall. He’s so fresh out of the grave he still triggered the mortal buzzer.

Kassian lowered the zipper of Sebastian’s pants, exposing a long white column of rigid flesh. You should’ve taken the time to show him around. Maybe by then I’d have had Rani talked into fucking us.

Rainer stiffened in more ways than one. No. Not going to happen. End of subject. His denial probably would have carried more weight if he hadn’t been drooling over the sight of Seb’s cleanly shaven balls. Kass was one lucky vamp to have such a fine lover in his bed every night.

Sebastian knelt beside Rainer, brushing against his arm. Rainer closed his eyes, both fearing and desperately eager for whatever the young vampire would do next.

A velvet soft caress of his nipple sent a shaft of heat to his groin. Again and again, the head of Seb’s cock rubbed over his sensitive nubbin. Rainer sat on the stone bench, boneless, and let him toy with danger.

Let us fuck you, Rainer. We know how to take care of you. It’ll be okay, I promise.

No. But the word meant nothing. Even as he spoke, his traitorous hand was gliding up the back of Sebastian’s thigh. He grabbed the blond’s firm, rounded buttock and guided him into a faster rhythm as the youthful vamp continued to fuck Rainer’s masculine tit. Such a little thing, but it was more than he’d permitted any other being to do in a long, long time. It felt so good.

And it was, oh, so wrong.

Rainer pushed Sebastian away. Stop. No more.

Kassian approached from the other side. He cupped Rainer’s straining shaft. Just holding it in his cool fist. Rainer fought against the strong urge to thrust through it as Kass said, Trust us. Seb did some research on the Blood Oath and its effect on Vampire Lords. He has it all figured out.

Something’ll go wrong, Rainer protested. It always does.

We know the risks and accept them.

Sebastian scooped Rainer’s black hair away from his neck, exposing his throat. He placed dry kisses along the cords of muscle he found there.

Danger!

No shit. Rainer didn’t need his inner guard dog to warn him of impending doom. If they pressed on, someone was going to get hurt. His friends might accept the risks, but he couldn’t. He refused to endanger them just because he was tired of his hand being the only one to jerk him off.

Enough, guys. Stop. I mean it. Rainer stood up, moving out of their range. He looked ridiculous given the way his erect penis jutted out. Nothing he could do about that here.

Kassian swore in a language so old that very few who heard the words would be able to translate them. You’re a coward, Rani. I really thought you had bigger balls.

Sebastian, equally frustrated, drummed his heels against the stone bench. You don’t trust us.

Seb had it wrong. It was the beast inside himself that Rainer didn’t trust. The Blood Oath he’d taken upon becoming a lord was both a blessing and a curse. The rite had imbued him with mystical powers which gave him more tolerance for sunlight, allowed him to consume less blood and heightened his senses, among other benefits.

The downside of the oath was that no one, not vampire or mortal, could withstand prolonged exposure to his bodily fluids, nor he to theirs. He had no choice but to obey its demands, a slave to its requirements above and beyond his own. If he didn’t heed the warning, he’d black out for hours, as long as a whole day. Those who tried to cheat the system too many times risked death, the kind a vampire could not recover from.

The single exception was to find the one person nature had assigned as his mate. His soul mate. The one person in a world of billions who could tolerate his touch. His kiss. His intimate embrace. One person Rainer knew didn’t exist in Taggert’s Bend.

And because he’d let his friends tempt him into thinking the oath could be circumvented, however briefly, he was going to have a raging hard-on for the rest of the night. He was angry, lonely and horny as hell.

He rounded on his companions, determined to get the message across so they would stop trying to cheat the system and accept his limitations. If trust and desire were enough, Seb, you’d be on your back right now with my cock buried so deep inside you it’d tickle your nose. If affection meant anything, I’d be begging Kassian to suck me until I came so hard he’d choke on it.

Even a simple kiss posed considerable risk. A tongue-tangling, soul-sucking kiss. He missed the intimacy of those more than all the rest combined. Another admission Sebastian and Kassian wouldn’t understand so he didn’t bother to make it.

He pushed the thoughts of unfulfilled desires aside and finished what he had to say. If you care for me at all, help me look for the one person in the whole freaking world who isn’t poison to me instead of spending your considerable brain power on how you can circumvent it.

The room was very quiet when he got done talking. He glanced around and realized he’d been shouting. None of the witnesses to his outburst would meet his eye, except for a lone figure hovering at the archway leading out of the hot moist chamber. A face he didn’t recognize. Rainer stared at him until he turned his back and walked out.

Fuck. Rainer started toward another exit leading to the dressing area.

Kass continued to peel his lover out of his leather encasement as if nothing untoward had been said. Where are you going, Rani?

He needed some time alone, a distraction. Anything to get his mind off his raging erection. To find the ingénue. Maybe he’ll have a problem I can solve.

* * *

Steven wandered down yet another long corridor. As soon as he’d left the round foyer, the smell improved. He’d started to feel stronger. No reason for either that he could discern, but he was grateful for both. Finding the blood bar was taking longer than he’d like.

Blood. Blood. Blood. The word hammered through his brain with each beat of his heart. He was close, so close. If he could just find it…

He’d stumbled into the fighting room on the first attempt. He quickly darted into another dark tunnel and ended up in a subterranean steam chamber. The steam felt good, maybe too good. He was tempted to stay. He could imagine closing his eyes and falling asleep there. Fall asleep and never wake up.

Which is why he got out of there. Fast.

His speedy retreat certainly had nothing to do with the amber-eyed vampire who looked like a pale well-endowed god holding court among his adoring subjects. The fact that Steven now felt harder than he could ever remember being, the fact that his hand kept straying to the front of his pants in order to bring himself some relief, well, that was a side effect of the hunger in his belly. It had nothing to do with the sexy vampire. Nothing personal.

Get a grip, he murmured.

I’ve got something for you to hold on to, a passing female offered. She opened her cloak to reveal a lush bare body. She had an hourglass shape decorated by a variety of tattoos. One of a snake crawling up her thigh to nibble on her pussy caught his eye, as it was designed to do.

Steven cleared his throat, embarrassed to have been caught talking to himself. Sorry, I meant me.

She let the robe slide to the floor. I can help with that too.

Her hand found his engorged shaft. Her fingertips traced its outline through his jeans, and Steven struggled against the urge to bat her hand away. Uh, no thanks. See, I, uh… prefer men.

She laughed and pressed the palm of her hand against his erection. What a coincidence. So do I.

Steven didn’t argue, he just ran. His body was awash with a kaleidoscope of sensations he could no longer separate into meaningful input. He was hopelessly lost in the maze of unmarked passageways. He couldn’t even see what was right in front of him. Until he ran into it.

Hey!

Steven bounced away from the solid object, a human pinball deflected by a not-so-padded bumper. His coordination was shot. He tripped over his own feet and collapsed in a heap at the base of the tunnel wall. A pair of polished brown shoes entered the edge of his vision. Make it quick, okay?

Make what quick? The voice was amused, masculine. And vaguely familiar.

Whatever it is you’re going to do to me.

Okay. Two hands reached for him, grabbed a fistful of coat and hauled him to his feet. There. Fast enough for you?

As soon as the strong vampire let go, Steven’s knees sagged. Desperation, fear, or perhaps something else entirely, made him grab onto the good Samaritan.

The vampire steadied him by putting his free arm around his waist. You okay?

Yeah. No. Steven shook his head, trying to clear the fog from his brain. I need to eat.

The vampire glanced around, seeming to get his bearings. Come on.

His companion headed in a new direction, towing Steven behind him. Less than ten steps later, he made a sharp right. Steven didn’t see the break in the wall until he followed the vampire into it.

What are we doing here?

Looking for answers, the vampire answered cryptically.

Steven battled within himself to remove the blanket of passiveness buffeting him from the worst of his tangled emotions. Why wasn’t he afraid? He was standing face to face with a vampire in an enclosure so dark he couldn’t make out much. Yet, he felt the panic recede and a strange calm settle over him. What kind of answers?

For starters, you can tell me what the hell a human is doing on vampire turf.

Oops. Caught. Definitely not good. You noticed, eh?

How did you get in? What are you after?

Steven took a deep breath, possibly his last, and said, Your blood.

Chapter 2

Promises Made, Promises Broken

Rainer couldn’t believe the human’s audacity. "My blood?"

Well, it doesn’t have to be yours specifically. I don’t even know who you are.

My name is Rainer Allen, the Vampire Lord of this particular patch of earth. And if you expect any of my subjects to offer blood from their own veins to serve your dark purposes, think again.

He wanted to shake the stupid human. There were always a few deranged mortals who tried to gatecrash on All Souls Night. As if wearing a bit of plastic and a black cape made them vampires. The man was lucky Rainer had been the one to run into him. Others in the sect might have killed him on sight, just for desecrating their private space with his mortal presence.

No, no. Nothing evil. I just need some blood.

Rainer wasn’t convinced, but he let that go for the moment. How did you get into the caverns?

Through the front door, like everyone else.

Uh-uh. It’s spelled to keep humans out.

I admit it didn’t seem to like me much, but it let me through.

This must be the neophyte Sebastian had discovered in the entry hall. Human enough to set off the alarm but not enough to keep him out. What did that mean? If there was a possibility his people weren’t safe in their own pub from the humans who hunted them, he had to investigate.

Preferably, somewhere other than this fuck cubby. Though mortal and insane, this man was too sexy for comfort and Rainer’s cock was still on red alert. If you’re after blood, why didn’t you --

Spare me the lecture about my methods. I don’t have time to hear it. I need blood. If you’re not willing to show me the way to the bar, then let me go so I can find it myself.

Oh, for fuck’s sake. Rainer was a bit surprised to find the man in his arms again. He didn’t remember even reaching for him. What made the situation even more odd was that the beast inside was strangely quiet. He knew the oath didn’t distinguish between humans and the undead. Warning bells should be going off like a winning slot machine at a Vegas casino. Rainer listened for them but heard nothing. Was the oath beyond caring? Would his next mistake be a fatal one?

Rainer tried to focus on the problem at hand -- what to do with a human who could fool some of their oldest and most reliable magic -- but his body kept tuning in to the warm bundle of muscle and bone in his arms.

Horny bastard. You’re so ready to blow that any animate object will do. Even a human one. Not that the admonishment changed the priorities in his head. He couldn’t think past the sexual need suffusing his entire body. He had to achieve some measure of satisfaction. Now. Rainer didn’t much care at the moment whether the man was willing or not. He’d risked his life by stepping on vampire turf. He was about to learn the price for such a foolhardy act.

Drop your coat, Rainer ordered.

The human struggled with the heavy oilskin. When it hit the sandstone floor, he slumped against the wall and waited for the next command, now docile despite his fiery insistence on being allowed to leave a few short moments before.

Rainer wore pants made of fine wool. The human had on jeans, still damp from