Bled: DRUID, #2

By Marata Eros

"HOTNESS and Awesome Story!!! ~ Erica Pillera

From New York Times,  USA TODAY  and #1 Erotica bestseller Marata Eros, and for fans of The Black Dagger Brotherhood  and True Blood. Binge read the Druid series for impossible-to-predict plot twists and gritty dark paranormal romance that will suck you in and leave you breathless.

"...sizzling hot, mouth-watering, knickers steaming..."
"... deliciously dark..."
"Love This series!!!!!!!!!"

Synopsis:
When a mercenary group of vampires discover there is a true Druid Queen within their grasp, they begin targeting Druid females in the region in the hopes of capturing their prize, Holly.

Aubree is living an independent college existence until she feels the pull of her lineage come full circle in an impossible summons of genetics. Can the Reapers protect their Queen, gather the undiscovered Druid females to their inner sanctum and squelch the threat of a new breed of vampire predators?

Constantine seeks to destroy a rare Exotic and finds himself under a spell he cannot break, his nature used against him. Will he get another chance to force her submission while she stands under guard of the most powerful vampire of their kind? Can the Reapers win the battle without losing the war?

Full-length novel.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: T. Rose Press LLC
• Release date: Dec 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781476144054

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

––––––––

Rachel was going a little stir crazy. The boys were so overprotective they couldn't even shop, except at night with them accompanying, of course. She remembered exactly the conversation she'd had with Cole.

Please, she gazed up at him, giving him the Big Time Big Eye. That's code for puppy dog eyes-given-by-a-chick. It was generally pretty effective. Add in a dash of sex and it cinched the deal.

Usually.

Cole scrubbed a frustrated hand over the top of his skull trim, shifting his weight, the subtle crackling of the leather the only noise in the quiet of their bedroom. He looked down at Rachel and knew he was weak to her requests.

Except when it came to this. He would not risk her safety, and for fucking groceries? Not happening.

Cole shook his head even as she pressed herself against him and he felt himself harden at her nearness. He answered with his lips, his tongue. Dragging Rachel against him, he used one large palm to press her face against his mouth and the other hand at her lower back.

Rachel groaned inside the luscious cavity of Cole's mouth, his fangs a smooth and erotic press against her tender lip as he nipped. The minutest amount of blood escaped and Cole hissed, sucking her lip into his mouth, caressing the small wound with his mouth as he kneaded her ass. Hauling  Rachel up one-handed she responded by wrapping her legs around his waist and in a smooth motion he turned her and laid her on the bed.

Cole looked at Rachel. Her black hair was spread like a silken fan of water around her, outlining the silhouette of her body to perfection. Cole took a moment to gaze at this Druid woman he now claimed as life mate, her age arrested in this space of time, twenty-eight forever.

What? Rachel breathed out, already opening her legs at the knee to show him what waited for him.

She very well knew what she did to him. He smiled in a slow seductive grin. You know what you do... Cole leaned forward, his leather clad knee pressed against the mound of feminine flesh that was firmly encased in panties so sheer they could not claim to be actual material.

Does this mean Holly and I can go out? Rachel asked, using a slim and tapered finger to work the panties lower until the top of her delectable slit peaked out from the scalloped edge.

Cole swallowed, his cock throbbing to be put to use. With a supreme effort he answered around the searing heat of his arousal, his need to spear her with his sword of flesh a weight upon his body, Not without human guards.

Rachel pouted, We're bored, Cole. We can't stay like prisoners all the time in this big house.

Rachel's eyes widened at his expression.

Bored, eh? Cole growled and Rachel squealed at the sound he made in his throat.

He fell on her softly, tearing off the panties he had admired but moments before.

With his fangs.

Cole thought he could take care of some of her boredom.

Beau

Beau made his way down the cobblestoned alley of the back of the bistro he worked at, his mouth on fire. He moved his jaw gingerly from side to side, it'd been this way for months. Every joint on damn fire, his mouth was the fucking worst. He'd been to a doctor; lot of fat goddamned good that did. They couldn't figure out what his problem was and Beau wasn't about to spend the whole shitty health care deductible on tests that yielded nothing. The bistro wouldn't give him the hours he needed for the better health care. He was lucky to have any crummy job. After all, who'd hire him?

Given the fact that he had no past.

No social security card, no effing last name.

Just Beau.

That was all the memory he had. It was like he'd been robbed. Of his life.

A light drizzle fell, pressing his dark hair against his forehead like a damp helmet and Beau thought about how he'd landed in the gray depths of Seattle. Where he'd come from. What it meant.

Same endless circle of questions that never got answered, always swirling like an irritating merry-go-round that never stopped.

His introspection was shattered like brittle glass when he heard a woman screaming. At the same time a surging wakefulness of adrenaline kicked in, causing him to be momentarily dizzy. He slapped his palm against the cold brick of the alley building and steadied himself.

What the fuck was this? The inside of Beau's mouth throbbed in time to his heartbeat and there was a liquid pain filling his joints as he stood there.

There was pain... but underneath that there was something else that swam just outside of it:

Power.

Beau ignored the oddities of his body and charged toward the frightened sounds of a female in trouble.

CHAPTER 2

Aubree

––––––––

Aubree was lost in thought. She stared at the fancy heart-shaped foam that decorated the top of her cappuccino and sighed. She should have been studying but instead she was in this funky little shop, chock full of hispter types.

She totally didn't fit in.

But Aubree didn't give a shit. She'd always walked to the beat of a different drummer. And lately, the beat had changed. A terrible restlessness had invaded her being. It was hard to understand, it was like there was a far off melody that only she could hear. It had distracted her from every responsibility she had and ones she didn't.

It was a call.

A summons.

She didn't know what the summons was for but it was slowly driving her crazy.

Aubree broke the heart with the small spoon they'd given her to stir with, never noticing the malevolent eyes that bored into her back. If she had she would have never left. She was complacent after a hundred times of leaving in the same way, at the same time.

Her fate had been sealed.

For Aubree had something that had attracted the attention from a local group, a specialized group.

The faction had caught her scent.

A Druid unaware of what she was.

She walked out into the night unguarded, undiscovered and alone.

But not for long.

Aubree hugged herself tighter against the chill, silently pissed that she hadn't worn something warmer. It was early fall and now she was paying. Indian summer had swooped in and fooled everyone with the false warmth of summer but nighttime had the bite of autumn. She looked up at the sliver of the sky that was revealed between the ceilings of tall buildings that lined one of the million alleyways that ran behind all the little pubs, restaurants and shops that were prolific along the Pike Place waterfront. A stray leaf from a city tree whistled its warning as it crossed her path and some internal alarm chimed inside Aubree at its passing.

Aubree glanced away from the tumbling leaf and found herself staring into eyes that were a startling crimson in a sea of pale skin.

Like blood.

Aubree didn't fuck around, the guy was huge, menacing and in her face. She pivoted in avoidance.

Being embarrassed at responding like he was a threat never entered her mind.

The intuitive alarm shrieked and reverberated in her bones. She didn't wonder.

Aubree knew.

His hand tore against her face like a soft caress of flesh and her head rocked back.

Aubree was trained in martial arts. She was a 6th degree black belt in judo and had never seen the move coming. She instinctively reacted through her dizziness, her knuckles seeking his tender esophagus and meeting... air.

He had vanished.

Aubree ran in a staggering jog, her head ringing from the blow.

And he appeared before her out of thin air.

Fuck this, Aubree thought. She sucked in a lungful and wailed into a night filled with traffic, people and the noises of a city that slept but briefly.

The male latched onto her throat and pressed his mouth against her ear and her bowels hiccuped with a fear so instant it came with her next breath.

Aubree clenched her eyes shut. This maniac was gonna bite her ear off.

What he said next snapped her eyes open.

Breeder, he breathed against the sensitive shell of her ear and she felt an exhaustive push of something trying to press its way inside her mind like a tide coming to shore and she did the first thing that came to mind.

Aubree kneed him in the crotch.

He laughed in her face and opened his mouth. When Aubree saw fangs she fought passing out, her eyes sweeping across a face that didn't look human. Alabaster skin shone under the pale light the moon gave the alley, hair that was probably blonde in daytime was bleached like decaying bones in the moonlight.

Hopelessness descended when Aubree saw two others like the one who was suffocating her with his hand approach and flank him.

Hold her, one of the other freaks said and Aubree was finally embarrassed when a whimper of fear escaped her. She'd put the move on this guy and he was like a ghost. He moved too fast to strike, he laughed when she'd nailed his gonads solidly.

How could you fight something that couldn't be hurt? That couldn't be touched?

And where, by fuck, where all the people? It's like Aubree was in a void, a well of stillness in the middle of a well-traveled alley. There should have been ten other people by now. It was if... as if there was a bubble around them that didn't allow anyone in.

To aid her.

She was going to be killed in a cold wet alley by a bunch of freaks of nature.

The one who held Aubree shoved her against the wall, his hand against her neck holding her still.

The other came against her with a boner that reached her stomach.

Holy fucking smokes, she was in real trouble here.

Aubree rolled her eyes up to his and he lifted a hand above himself, the hand a black silhouette in the dark alley, backlit by the moon. Talons slowly punched through his fingertips, revealing long claws.

Aubree felt her bladder burn with the need to release. She'd never understood how someone could piss themselves from fear.

She stood convinced.

Where is the Queen?

Aubree had expected something but not this.

Her mouth went utterly dry, she couldn't have responded if she'd wanted to. Aubree didn't have a clue about what they were asking.

She wasn't much of a bluffer either.

Release her. She will need some persuasion.

The one that had her throat in a death grip let go so suddenly she fell to the ground, slamming her knees painfully onto the unevenly made stones. The rain that had fallen immediately leeched through the denim of her jeans, soaking her.

The third freak jerked her head back by her hair until her scalp screamed like it was on fire and the one who had asked about some Queen used his claw to split her jeans down the seam. Aubree fought not to mewl for mercy, but she just wasn't made like that. When Seam Ripper moved his hand next to her face she clamped down on his hand with her teeth like a dog with a bone.

Blood filled her mouth and without wanting to she tasted it.

It didn't taste like blood... but like a fruity wine. He didn't react like she'd thought he would either.

Hair Grabber let go of her and pushed her back against the cold stones of the alley. He tore the fly of his pants open and ripped her resistant jeans the rest of the way off, flinging them into the darkness of the alley, her body jerking with the motion.

Aubree heard them land with a soft thump behind her. She let go of the hand she'd bitten and watched as her teethmarks filled in, the small crescents fading before her eyes.

That's when she knew.

It didn't matter that her mind had rejected the idea. These guys were not human.

They were other. And Aubree was thinking she knew what it was. But for the moment, Vampire Rapists would suffice.

The male's erection sprung out of the prison of the leathers he wore and Aubree's eyes widened.

Tell us where the Queen is and we will not hurt you.

Right.

Aubree found her voice, it was low when it sounded but not quaking like she felt, I don't know who you're talking about.

He bent down, his cock swinging like a stiff pendulum between thighs corded by muscle, so thick they rivaled her waist. She so didn't want to have that thing ripping into her, total horse cock.

I smell your fear, breeder, he said, his pupils dilating as his hand reached out and caressed the top of her panties, the tip of the claw running the edge of the lace.

I'm not a... breeder, she said, a fine tremble running through her voice. Aubree just couldn't keep the fear in check, it was leaking out of her pores.

He tilted his head back and barked a laugh into the night. It made gooseflesh rise on her skin.

You are and you will be bred this night.

They held her down and her voice rose in the suddenly silent night in a scream heard by no one. He sliced her panties off and while the other two held her arms he planted his huge palm on one of her legs and said, Be still or this will hurt.

He inserted one of the tips of the talons into the entrance of her pussy and she screamed, her hips frozen to the spot while he finger-raped her with his claw.

Stop playing with her, Issac. Stab her with your flesh, spill your seed and be done. We do have a mission. She obviously does not know what she is. But let this be a message to the Queen when they do become acquainted: that we are looking.

Aubree gazed up at him and his face was upside down as he looked down at her, finishing his threat as his friend pushed the talon in and out of her channel, the scrape of it not drawing blood, but pulling the cunt honey out against Aubree's will. Her body slid back and forth with the motion and she moaned.

At the pleasure... at the violation, mixed in a tantalizing combination of abject fear and fundamental thrill.

Hot tears poured down her face as that one talon slid out and she felt the stab of a talonless hand as three fingers were fucking her where the claw had been, the speed of it in and out of her body was breathtaking.

She is ready, he said from above her, his breathing ragged, his cock replacing the fingers at her entrance. Aubree had never felt so confused in her life. Her fear was there, she knew that he was going to force his cock inside of her, that he wasn't human... but she was wet for it.

None of it made sense, her mind felt wrapped in a cotton soaked fog of confusion.

Why wasn't she screaming for help, fighting her would-be rapist?

Then all hell broke loose and the spell broke. She screamed as a fist slammed into the temple of the one whose cock had been moments from fucking her into the cold ground on which she lay.

CHAPTER 3

––––––––

Beau moved with a speed he didn't know he possessed, every synapse in his brain firing at once, the pale girl who lay beneath... a creature. She was clearly at his mercy was all Beau saw.

All his focus was on saving her. Some girl he didn't know, against impossible odds.

A stranger.

But she wasn't. A vital part of Beau's being knitted to hers in the few seconds of his approach. He felt it like an integral piece of a puzzle falling into place that had been missing from a life that was a blank.

But no more. This went through Beau's mind in seconds, even as his fist punched out into the temple of the creature poised above her naked lower body, ready to stab his cock into her like a weapon.

Time slowed. Beau saw two of the attackers lunge for him but it was like their bodies moved through water, coming toward him slowly. Beau easily avoided them, even as instant pain flared through his mouth and he could no longer close it properly.

He ignored the mouth problem and caught the fist that came for him as he kicked the one he had smashed in the temple with his boot and sent him flying into the unforgiving brick of the narrow building that rose to the skyline of black dotted with stars.

The other attacker rose behind Beau and grabbed him around the neck with a forearm that felt like a block of ice around his throat. He slammed his head back into the skull of his assailant as the other surged forward, jabbing him with herculean force in his bread basket, the breath in his body- gone. The fist pulled away as Beau did something he'd never done before:

He bit someone. Not to distract, but with maiming force.

Beau clamped down with a new mouth, a mouth full of teeth sharpened for tearing.

For death.

The arm came away with a wet sliding pop when Beau bit down and jerked his face with a hard twist. He was released from behind and faced the two, one who was now armless (that worked out goddamned great), a sea of blood cascading out of his arm like a geyser brought to life.

Reaper... the one with both arms breathed in a hiss.

What? Beau thought and looked for the girl.

Shouldn't have taken his eyes off the two for a second. And apparently, the swinging dick on the ground wasn't done either.

Fuck me, he thought as they roared to the defense.

The fog receded immediately. Once that contact was broken by the stranger who stopped the rape in its tracks, Aubree could think. And she was a fast thinker.

She didn't say thanks, she didn't pass go or collect two hundred bucks. This was not Monopoly, this was high-ass stakes and she scuttled, naked, to where her ripped jeans were... the panties long gone. She shoved her body into them, fairly leaping from a standing position and noticed with relief they were only ripped on the top half.

What she saw when she looked up at the fight that ensued stole her breath and caused her hands to quake as she backed up until her butt hit the opposite building from where the small battle played out.

The man who had been her savior was now outnumbered three to one.

Well... that wasn't entirely true, one of the freaks had lost an arm somewhere in the melee and was staggering around swiping one-handed at the aggressor. No wonder she'd not had a chance. She stood with her mouth open, watching the one that had rescued her fight creatures that moved to fast to track and hit like battle hammers.

She looked at the man come for the vampires, his fists were blurred tools of destruction. Aubree didn't see them land, but she saw the flesh of the vampire bodies split like spoiled fruit.

Aubree's extremities felt numb, her lips and nose turning cold, her fear a living breathing thing.

The rescuer was the same as the attackers. She saw him look for her and her seawater eyes met his glacial ones, silvered by the moonlight, for one fleeting heartbeat before they surged toward him.

For the one moment Aubree felt a charged hungering, a longing need standing just out of reach.

The summons was answered and closed like a noose around her body in a physical cinch, brought on by a blind moment of surreal violence in an alleyway. Her very being called out to go to him but she had felt that pull, the resonating of flesh with the one that had just about raped her. Was this any different?

No... she wasn't going to stick around for this noise. Get the hell outta Dodge and count her damn blessings when she was back in her shared apartment with the eighteen stuffed animals on the bed.

Yeah.

Aubree backed up, using her palm to slide along the wall and holding her jeans up to her hips with