Blood Song: A Sanguinem Council Book, #1

By C.D. Gorri

Her blood sings for him. Will he answer the call?

Aleksei Delov is the owner of Timeless Possessions, part of a global conglomerate of corporations. The immortal Vampire Prince is renowned for his ability to acquire authentic, priceless antiques for his various private clientele. Alek's reputation is everything, until he meets her.

Carina Martin has a unique talent to find objects and to identify them by touch. She uses it for other people in order to eke out a meager living among other normals along the East Coast, but there is more to life than that, and she is dying for a piece of it.

When someone robs Aleksei and passes off fakes in his name, he tracks Carina down and offers his patronage in exchange for the use of her abilities. But he is not prepared for his reaction to the beautiful normal.

Can he resist the female, or will he be seduced by her blood song?

• Language: English
• Publisher: C.D. Gorri
• Release date: Jan 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215057933

Book preview

PROLOGUE

CARINA

"H ave you heard of the Sanguinem Council ?"

He spoke with a slight accent. His voice had that deep, velvety timber I loved and it seemed to tease and stroke up and down my spine like a lover’s hands. I wasn’t prepared for it or for my wildly inappropriate reaction considering my precarious situation.

I hated to admit it, but I hardly understood his question lost as I was in the contemplation of his voice. That coupled with the loss of too much blood had left me lightheaded and dizzy. My fingers and toes had already gone numb, and I felt as if a frozen sort of shroud was draped over my beaten body. I was dying and I knew it.

That did not change the fact that the stranger speaking to me was positively dazzling. Breathtakingly beautiful men were not exactly my forte, and he was better looking than anything or anyone I had ever seen.

Silver eyes seemed to take me in from head to toe in an instant. If not for that movement, he could’ve been a statue. Tall and built under his impeccable suit. Who dressed like that around here, anyway?

Oh yeah. He was definitely better looking than anything I’d seen in the last twenty-four hours. But that was not hard to accomplish considering I was lying on an uneven cobblestone alley between poorly handled plastic bags of rotting garbage, broken bottles, drug paraphernalia, and puddles whose contents I would rather not think about.

In between them were the usual marks of the rodent population, scat from various strays and nocturnal critters, and whatever else wallowed in the dank and dark alleyway. What was it he said again? Oh yeah, something about an Sanguinem Council?

More supernatural business. Shit I tried to stay out of, though that was hard since I had a foot halfway into that world myself. Being a psychic kind of sucked, especially for a normal like me. I could hardly recall a memory where someone didn’t look at me like I was crazy when I revealed what I could do. Which was probably why I had so few friends.

Normally, I didn’t care for pity parties. But fuck it. I was dying. If I couldn’t feel sorry for myself when I was dying, when was the appropriate time? SMH. Yeah, this really sucked. And I was feeling worse by the minute. Numbness didn’t mean I couldn’t still feel the pain. On the contrary, the bitter cold seeping through my blood was like a thousand needles racing through my veins. It hurt like fuck.

Focus on my voice, the stranger said and my eyes locked on his, We, those of us who follow the old ways of the Sanguinem Council, are a group of Vampires who provide patronage to certain humans we are interested in seeing reach their full potential. Humans like you, Carina Martin, he smiled briefly, showcasing his perfect white teeth on a way that was both predatory and somehow enticing.

The handsome man cocked his head and flared his nostrils, closing his pale silver eyes for a moment while he sucked in a deep breath. I stared as the tip of his tongue darted out, licking his lips. He growled a bit, as if he was savoring whatever scent he was picking up.

Suddenly, I understood. Here was a man who was not a man at all. He was one of them. A creature. An other. A supernatural, like they showed on the news. But what kind? My own human senses could not tell me unless I was touching him. He could be a Shifter or a Fae. A Vampire perhaps?

A trickle of fear raced down my spine. Yes, something inside me was practically jumping up and down at the thought. Vampire. That seemed to fit the pale, powerful predator in my midst. The strongest of all the races that had only recently come to the attention of the rest of the world and this was the first one I had ever met. I had to admit I’d been shocked when all matter of paranormal creatures began to make themselves known but then again how could they not?

Technology being what it was, it was only a matter of time really. So it was fact. For the past few years or decades, whatever really, supernaturals the world over had all outed themselves in small reveals. Not unified, and not on any timeline known to humans. They worked alone and slowly. But what was slow to a being whose lifespan was inconceivable to a human? What was time to an immortal?

I remembered my first experience of the supernatural world. A Pack of heroic Werewolves appeared on a video on the internet with footage of themselves shifting and chasing a would-be rapist from Central Park. They broke the web with that footage. With it came a myriad of conspiracy theories.

Was it a deep fake? Were they even human? All sorts of activists and nut jobs had crawled out of the woodworks to nail the story. At the time, I was between foster homes and I didn’t give two shits about a Wolf Pack across the Hudson.

Live and let live. That was my creed. But other normals had their panties in a bunch over the whole thing. We needed new laws they said, new jails for people like that.

Whatever. I just wanted to keep my head down and make a living. And get my revenge.

Are you hurting? the stranger crouched beside me and I tried to move, to scoot away, but my body protested.

Speech seemed beyond me. I tried to respond, but all that came out was a groan. Or something like that. My jaw had been broken by the first pair of fists that had struck when Vladek’s men had finally caught up to me.

The pain I’d felt then and when another goon had knocked me into the brick wall was all slowly fading away. That wasn’t a good sign. At least when I was in pain, I knew I was alive.

Easy, the man lifted my head and placed something soft beneath it.

Was it his jacket? Oh, no. He was dressed so finely, I’d hate to think what the muck covering the alley floor was doing to the expensive-looking material.

Who was this guy? Some kind of guardian angel? No. That wasn’t right. My mind kept racing back to the first supernatural word I’d thought that had made any sense.

Vampire. He was a Vampire. I don’t know how I knew. I just did. That look was far too predatory to belong to some ethereal being sent to lead me to the hereafter. Wherever the fuck that would be, who knew?

I had more pressing matters to think about. Like whether the tall, gorgeous man in the black on black suit was friend or foe. Either way, right behind that initial jolt of fear, raced another emotion. Something I had to work hard to ignore. A pesky little itch that occasionally flared to life, though I’d managed to resist all manner of persuasion for the past twenty-five years.

I didn’t know what to make of it really. I’d never felt like that before. Especially not under those circumstances. I guess all those foster parents were right, I really was fucked up.

Oh well. Nothing like dying to make a girl horny.

Are you able to follow what I am saying?

I tried to answer his questions, but I could only gurgle in response. My eyes widened. I started hyperventilating, making any number of nasty little noises in lieu of speech.

Oh, that’s attractive. FML.

The fuckers who’d been tracking me down all damn day had finally caught up with me not too long ago. They did a hell of a number on my face and neck too. But what did I expect after targeting a man like Vladek the Merciless?

I mean, it was right there in his name. The mobster was not known for his forgiving nature. I knew that going in, but this was and had always been personal. Vladek was responsible for the death of my parents.

His goons ran the drug dealers who’d gunned down my mother and father when I was just a baby. Bouncing around the foster care system was one hell of a shitty way to grow up. Far as I was concerned, that Russian fucker deserved everything he had coming to him.

As for what I’d done to deserve such treatment, well, I simply rerouted one of his trucks to a non-disclosed location. I’d called in a favor from a hacker friend who managed to get inside the GPS systems of the truck that was holding Vladek’s merch.

Now my merch.

Don’t try to answer with words. Simply nod if you understand me, the stranger instructed.

I nodded once, to show I heard him and was still listening. Maybe the hottie would say something worthwhile.