Cursed by her Blood: Dardanos, #6

By C. J. Brookes and Calle J. Brookes

SHE DOESN'T THINK SHE IS FULLY HUMAN.

 

But what she is, college co-ed Jade Taniss, doesn't have a clue. Until the vampire she is destined to spend the rest of eternity with shows up in the middle of her family's vacation estate—after his family abducted her older sister and three of her cousins to make them vampire brides. Her sister and cousins were taken against their wills, of course. Didn't it always work that way in the vampire novels and movies Jade had pored over for years?

 

She wants her man. Well…vampire.

 

Nothing in life is free. Jade knows that. To be his mate, she will have to become a vampire. Kind of hard to do when she's squeamish at the sight of blood. But Jade can probably manage. She can handle becoming a vampire bride if it means she gets to be with the one guy destined for her.

 

There is only one problem with her plan…

 

—HER 400-YEAR-OLD VAMPIRE GROOM JUST WON'T GET WITH THE PLAN!

 

Vampire healer Barlaam Dardaptos has been searching for a cure for what has been killing off his people's females and infants for centuries. He's finally getting close. The last thing he ever wanted was to find the mate chosen for him by the goddess of his people. Not if it means he could lose her to the same horrific fate. He just wasn't ready to find her yet.

 

Not that any male in any of the worlds could ever be ready for her…

 

The human female seems to draw trouble her way—and not just human trouble. And it is his right and duty to protect her. Keeping Jade safe from the forces gunning for her family won't be easy—but he'll fight any enemy to protect the female he is destined to love.

 

No matter the ultimate cost…

 

 

Previously released as THE HEALER'S HEART, book six in the Dardanos series. Now greatly expanded and updated as Cursed by her Blood.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lost River Lit Publishing, LLC
• Release date: Sep 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781948328180

Book preview

PROLOGUE

Her photo haunted him. Barlaam Dardanos, second healer of the vampiric Dardaptoan Kind, stared at the four-by-six snapshot. The blond female was beautiful. Young. Human.

A reminder that he would never be a part of sanctioning the deaths of innocents like her again. Three of the girl’s cousins and her elder sister had almost died at Dardaptoan hands. That they hadn’t was a miracle brought only by the goddess of his people.

Instead, the four once human females had been converted into bloodsuckers. Their humanity stolen from them because of the sins of their own grandfather.

Her grandfather was a murderer, and the Dardaptoan high court had ruled that his bloodline was to pay for his sins.

Four females, barely in their adult years, had been the ones chosen.

It sickened him.

He had taken her photograph from the files he had been forced by his brother, the king of his Kind, to gather. He’d told himself he’d taken it as a reminder that he would never act in such a despicable way again. But Barlaam knew the truth.

He had taken her photo because, once he saw it, he could not let it go.

He had prayed to his goddess with every drop of faith and strength he possessed that this mischievous blonde would not be one of the females chosen to die.

His prayer had been answered. Her sister and three cousins had been chosen instead.

Now it was time to put her photograph away and get back to the task that had been put before him.

He was the Second Healer of his tribe, and it was his task to find why his people were dying out. It wasn’t just the actions of those girls’ grandfather, though the old man was responsible for almost two thousand Dardaptoans losing their lives.

It was something else. Something to do with the Curses. Legend had it that the Dardaptoan females were not always as weak as they were now.

It was only three thousand years ago that Dardaptoans had begun to change.

Barlaam had to find out why.

He and Kindara, the First Healer of their people, had been working on the task for more than twenty years now.

They had yet to find a single answer. Or even a place to start. Except for with the newly turned females.

The older sister of the girl in the photo had nearly been killed by Lupoiux werewolves just days ago. She had survived, but there had been strange antibodies he had never seen before in her blood.

Antibodies that intrigued him.

Someone knocked on the door, and he called out for them to enter.

His assistant, Jannen, stood in the door. Barl, I…have news you must hear!

Barlaam hastily slipped the photograph into his pocket.

He sighed. Jannen was young, perhaps as young as the girl in the photo. Slight, pale, and nervous—with the mind of a genius. And a truly strong healing gift. But her anxiety kept her from doing the great things she was meant to.

She was still young. And she had some of the greatest teachers of their Kind to help. Jannen?

Have you heard?

Heard what? It was late; what could have happened between the last time he had seen his brother and now? Rydere had been injured, along with one of his female’s young cousins, just mere days before. What’s happened?

Kindara and Ji… She wiped at tears.

Barlaam tensed. This wasn’t just her nerves. It was more. He stood quickly. Tell me.

They’ve disappeared. Someone has taken them.

Barlaam swore. He grabbed his keys and cell phone. Let’s go. Tell me everything on the way.

He’d find his brother and get answers.

Kindara was his closest friend. Her daughter was like a niece to him. And the last thing the two of them needed was this.

He bit back another curse as he pushed the fear aside. Kindara had been abducted many times before. So had Barlaam. Healers of the Dardaptoan Kind were extremely rare. Many of the other Kinds thought nothing of stealing Dardaptoan healers for their own use.

Abductions were not all that uncommon in the world of the Kinds. Most ended with financial negotiations. Some weren’t even all that unpleasant. There had been a female Druid who had had him abducted two hundred years ago so that he could heal her young daughter after her mate had abandoned her.

He hadn’t minded at all. They still kept in touch.

But for Kindara, an abduction of her and her daughter would be particularly traumatic.

He shoved thoughts of the once human girls aside. There was nothing he could do to change what had happened to them.

But he might be able to find Kindara and save her in time.

1

Something didn’t feel right. Something bad had just happened.

Jade tightened her hands on the wheel and kept driving. She was miles away from the family vacation home and would be there in just a few minutes. Hopefully, no one would be there except the security guards her father insisted patrol every Taniss property. Her father was a bit of a worry wart when it came to safety.

But then again, after what had happened recently, Jade couldn’t blame him.

Her breath hiccupped out in a barely suppressed sob. Her sister…her cousins…no one knew where they were.

And when her father and cousins told her that Joselyn, Mickey, Mallory, and Emily were safe, she knew they were lying. Just like she had always known things.

It had been bad, whatever had happened. To her sister and her missing cousins. Something worse than what had happened over two weeks ago.

That nightmare had had Jade screaming so loudly in her room that her roommates Loren and Mara and her cousin Becca had all come running.

Jade had convinced herself it had been a nightmare. Until she’d made it home the next morning and realized her sister and the others were missing.

And Jade knew she was supposed to be here at the vacation property right now to find out why.

No one in her family had ever said it, but they all knew. Jade had something extra that gave her feelings when something good or bad was about to happen.

Emily’s brief phone call three days ago wasn’t going to change that.

Jade’s feelings were never wrong. The extent of that fact was a secret that not even her family was fully aware of.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the vacation home came into sight. She entered the access code into the gate, then identified herself to the security camera.

Usually, someone answered right away. This time, they didn’t.

Jade said a word her father would have chided her for, then entered the second code to open the gates anyway.

She’d get settled into the suite her family had always shared on the third floor and just wait. See just why she was supposed to be there now, after all.

See why she just knew that whatever had taken her sister and three of her cousins wasn’t human.

And figure out why they—he—were coming for her.

2

He hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours when the note arrived.

It went to Kindara’s brother first. No doubt she had given her abductors the information they needed to determine just where to send the short, sarcastic missive to achieve the maximum effect.

Cormac was beyond furious. Aodhan, the second-in-command of Barlaam’s brother, was both angry and bemused. He could not kill the offender, not without hurting his new female.

The human responsible for abducting the First Healer of their tribe was now Aodhan’s brother-in-law, twin to Aodhan’s new female.

That he was the grandson of the Dardaptoans’ sworn enemy wasn’t helping matters. Barlaam was fighting off the urge to find the male and kill him. Even though he was a healer and prized all life, the son of Taniss blood deserved to pay for what he had no doubt done to Kindara and her daughter.

Both had been taken by Leo Taniss thirty years ago and tortured.

It was a miracle either had survived.

And now the two were in the hands of Leo Taniss’s grandson.

It sickened Barlaam.

We have no choice but to comply, his brother said. Rydere’s own anger radiated from him. Barlaam, as healer, could read the emotion easily, though Rydere showed no outward trace of how he felt. Find me everything you can on this Rand, Barl, Aodhan. We will meet them at this address tomorrow.

With two of the females? Cormac asked, furious. Barlaam frowned; Cormac needed to be with his female. She had been gravely injured just five days earlier. She did not need to be separated from her male so soon. Which two? Joselyn can’t. She’s already refused. Not that I would allow it, anyway.

That was not a surprise to Barlaam. The pair had been mated long enough for the bonding of their souls to have already taken place. She needed to be kept calm. Having her male far from her would not keep her calm. Not with the way Dardaptoan pairs mated. Their souls had become one the instant Cormac had claimed her as his female.

Nothing short of death would sever that bond.

Mine is going, Aodhan said. She’s angry at her brother for this. Not the response I was expecting.

No. No doubt Aodhan had expected his redheaded female to leap at a chance to escape him. The two had not yet fully bonded.

The girl was highly reticent to the idea.

Barlaam didn’t blame her. What his brother, Cormac, Aodhan, and