paranormal-romance-book-series-with-shifters-and-vampires-sabrina-strong

Paranormal Romance Book Series With Vampires And Shifters

Sabrina Strong Series by Lorelei Bell

Book excerpt

“Where are you taking me?” I asked Vasyl as we sailed along the night sky.

“Back to your home, mon amour,” he murmured in my ear.

“But you have to take me back to wherever Leif is,” I said, shocked.

“Why?” he asked, wings spread wide, and he lean to one side; we began circling.

“Because Leif doesn't know if I'm alive or dead. If Tremayne thinks I'm dead, he'll kill Leif.”

“Eh bien,” Vasyl sighed. We still circled.

“I can't let that happen,” I griped. “Maybe you don't have a conscience, but I do. You have to take me back to wherever you found me.”

He made an exasperated sound in the back of his throat. “Sacrebleu, cherie, I do have a conscience. But, considering one of Tremayne's dogs worthy of my concern would be beneath me."

“Excuse me,” I said flatly, “but I work for them.”

He grunted, but then pulled out of his loop-de-loops, and we sailed off to what I hoped was the correct destination.

A few minutes later, Vasyl's wings make some sort of adjustment, we dropped down fifty feet, and then further down, toward a ramp that came off twin gray ribbons which I knew to be the toll way. Car headlights beamed down the eastbound side, busy at this hour. In the next moment, a blackened wreckage, which I realized was the Corvette, came into view. It sat on the grassy area next to an off ramp where it had run off the pavement. The grass around it had also burned. I wondered if fire engines, ambulances, and police cars had come to extinguish it and investigate. Had the vampires sent them away with their thrall? I still had no idea how long I had been gone, but by the lighter blue shade of the eastern horizon, and the amount of traffic, I had to guess it was close to sunup.

Vasyl landed with me in his arms—Except for the lack of movement and the chill of air whooshing over me, I barely felt the stop. He eased me down to stand inside the circle of his arms, pulling the horse blanket over my shoulders for added warmth.

“I will release you to him, only if you tell me that you feel safe with this one.”

“Well,” I hedged.

He slanted me a look of disdain. “Sabrina, I will not leave you with this one if you cannot say that you feel safe. I do not trust him completely.”

That was when I heard a sound. I turned away from Vasyl and sought the source of the noise. Someone called out my name.

Vasyl and I stood facing a stand of mature oak trees, quietly waiting. Crows made a sudden caw of awareness. A small flock burst from the treetops.

Where there had been nothing to see but grass and shrubbery, two people emerged from the tree line. Relief filled me that both brothers were here, now. Obviously, Heath had come to his brother's aid.

I turned to Vasyl. “His brother, Heath, is with him. I trust Heath the most.”

“Very well,” he said, eyeing me and then flicked his gaze to take in the brothers.

Heath and Leif stalked the expanse of about half a football field toward us, their wavy, caramel-colored hair flopping as they advanced with long, somewhat aggressive strides. In the pool of lights along the exit, I could plainly see that Leif looked pissed, and I could easily understand why. Heath had less anger and more relief in his expression. It was the twin's expressions that helped me identify them, since they were identical, except for the mole on Heath's cheek, and a kinder pair of brown eyes.

They stopped about twenty feet from us. A respectful distance, but not quite out of a vampire's leaping range. They would not bow to him, as he was not their master, nor did they respect him. The feelings were mutual. Although they considered him a rogue, it did not diminish Vasyl's ego one bit. I saw him puff up his chest and throw back his shoulders from the corner of my eyes.

“Dogs of Tremayne!” Vasyl shouted, then leaned over and spat on the ground. “Sabrina Strong is the sibyl, and she is under my watchful eye. Understand that neither you, nor any of the other dogs of Tremayne, nor Tremayne himself can touch her. My mark is upon her. We have shared blood, thus she is mine.”

I turned and gaped at him. Vasyl claimed me as if I were a princess to be won. Cold air swirled around and chilled me, but an odd warmth spread through me because of what he'd said. Realization dawned on me that no vampire could touch me without Vasyl knowing it, because now we were blood bound. If Tremayne as much as licked my finger, Vasyl would know it.

“I am leaving Sabrina in your care. Take her home. Keep her safe. Carpe noctem!” A whoosh of air tossed my hair around my face, and he was gone like a phantom in his nightly journey.

“Sabrina,” both twins spoke my name as they jogged up to me. Heath was the only one who I allowed to touch me. Leif looked on.

“Are you alright?” Heath asked, clutching my arm and I winced.

“Oh. Sorry. What is it?” he asked, and let go.

“I was shot. It's healing still,” I explained as I sort of withered and he caught me in his arms.

“Bloody hell! Look! The sun!” Leif cried.

“C'mon. Me car is over there.” Heath picked me up into his arms and turned in the direction of the oak trees. I couldn't see his car as he flew—I have to say flew, as he was not touching the ground at this point—through the grassy knoll toward a grove of trees with me draped in his arms. There I was, feeling stupid and useless.

“She's lost blood.” Heath said. “Where were you shot?”

“My back. We have to get to my house,” I said. “You two need to get inside.”

This place was more wooded, hillier, and less farmland. Grand, old oaks grew tall and abundant. I was trying to get an idea of where we were. The last thing I saw was a sign for a town that was about twenty miles from my house.

“What about my purse? My things, did they…”

“I found your purse, luv,” Leif said. “Must have been thrown out of the car at some point.

They both lifted higher off the ground, grass swished past, making me dizzy. Heath flew higher until we sailed over the trees. Once we cleared them, I spotted Heath's red Intrepid parked on a gravel road. He set me down next to it.

“You alright?” he asked.

“Yeah. Maybe a little weak,” I admitted.

“The sun! Hurry!” Leif reminded.

We quickly hopped in and arranged ourselves in the car. I took the passenger seat with Heath at the helm. Leif handed my purse to me from the back. The engine caught, and the car lurched forward, the tires skidded across gravel, spitting it under the carriage. Heath made a U-turn, drove out of the little grove over a dirt two-track, and followed it out onto a two-lane road.

“Turn left, here. It's quicker,” I directed—I simply Knew. With a few more turns down country roads, we'd be there in maybe fifteen minutes, if the vampire broke the speed limit.

“Not quick enough,” Leif said, panicked. “Sun's up!”

“What do we do? There's no place for us to hide now!” Heath glanced at me. Fortunately, we were heading west and not directly into the rising sun.

“Pull over,” I said. “Heath, you crawl into the back.” The black windows in the back would probably protect them enough until we got to my place. “I'll drive.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, damn it! Pull over!” I recovered quickly. I presumed Vasyl's aura had surrounded me before. With it suddenly gone, I had swooned. A moment later I seemed fine. Vasyl's blood worked on repairing me quicker than my Were blood did.

Heath pulled over to the side of the road, and we did some quick maneuvering; Heath slipped between the front seats into the back, I jumped out, jogged around the car, and in a moment was behind the wheel. This was the second time in as many days that sunrise had caught these two outside, mainly because they were trying to keep me safe. I figured that Vasyl had planned it that way so that they couldn't follow him.

“Anyone figure out who was shooting and chasing us?” I asked.

“No. They got clean away,” Leif reported from the back as the two curled up on the back seat together.

“Great,” I said dismally.

“Get your foot off my hand!” Heath complained bitterly.

“There. Better?”

“Yes, thank you!”

“Vasyl said he was following us and tried to stop them, but when he saw our car go out of control, he had to act fast.” Stopping at a four-way, I looked both ways. Traffic here was minimal. I stepped on the gas, lurching us all while I listened to the engine go through its gears.

“And then he stole you away—bloody hell!” Leif complained bitterly as I made the turn onto a familiar road I knew would take me straight home.

“He's my protector. I had a bullet in me, and Vasyl took it out,” I informed.

There was silence in the back seat while the two mulled that over.

“This won't put you in good standing with Tremayne, brother,” Heath reminded unnecessarily.

“Shut up!” Leif barked.

Another stretch of silence.

“How did they know what car we were in to follow us?” Leif asked.

“I don't know,” I groused as I gunned around a curve. The equalizer bar on the back and whatever else helped the wheels hold the road caused the Intrepid to handle beautifully. I cruised a fraction over the speed limit, wanting to open this thing up, but I didn't trust there wouldn't be some crusty town cop, or a county-mounty waiting for the unsuspecting law-breaker to go more than five over the limit. I couldn't risk the delay of getting a ticket. “Vasyl said since everyone in the supernatural realm knows I'm the sibyl, any of them may want to get rid of me because I'm a threat.”

“Why?” Heath wondered, the tone of his voice sounded upset.

“Because, mate. She'll be able to kill us,” Leif said.

“Blimey!”

“You know I wouldn't kill you,” I said but then thought that I'd have no trouble killing Leif, if he pushed me far enough. “As long as you behave, that is.” I chuckled at my own joke. They didn't join me.

“Here,” I heard Heath murmur, and saw movement in my rearview as he pulled a red, yellow and black tartan-pattern blanket over them—further assurance to be hidden from the sun's rays.

I heard a deep yawn from the backseat.

“Step it up a notch, luv. Heath has to get his beauty sleep.”

“Shut the bloody hell up, you git.”

I smiled at their bickering. They sounded like normal brothers to me. No wonder it was hard for me to think of them as vampires.

Once out of the small town's limits I gunned it, edging the speedometer a hair over sixty, and set the cruise control. After a while, I heard nothing from the back. I didn't know if the vampire's sleep was total— as was always referenced to in the “undead” part of being a vampire. But then, they were not truly “undead”.

Stifling a yawn of my own, I continued with my train of thought if only to keep myself awake. I knew that modern vampires did not sleep in coffins, and I knew that Nicolas definitely went to sleep in a bed. The night we'd met, he'd brought me to his place in the Towers after the werewolf attack. He was prepared to go to sleep as soon as I woke from his thrall and vacated his bed (yes, he had been quite the gentleman, then). He certainly needed his sleep, I'd learned.

I worried whether or not the twins would be able to wake up enough to go inside and climb the stairs. Yesterday, they hadn't dawdled around, but had gone straight up to their room and to bed, like good vampires.

I sighted a sign, and knew I was closing in on my road. Then my thoughts pinged back to what had happened during the night. I hadn't had a chance to reflect on my last few hours with Vasyl. He'd saved me— perhaps unnecessarily, but he'd come to my rescue. He was my staunch protector. I'd learned a little more about his past too. My brain was whirling with these new developments.

Rubbing my forehead, trying to keep my attention on the road, I wondered what would happen once Tremayne found out Vasyl had taken me out of Leif’s control tonight.

Hell. He probably already did. Tremayne seemed always to know what was going on.

I wondered why my phone wasn't ringing like crazy. If it was still in my purse, it was probably on vibrate. I eyed my purse on the floor, but I refused to dig for it while I sped toward home.

Screw them. All of them. Tremayne had his harem, and as far as I knew, so did Nicolas, who was more secretive about it than Tremayne—I happened to have met one of Nicolas' donors once. The two of them, at the time, wanted to keep me as their sex and blood slave. I beg to differ.

At least Vasyl's motives seemed more genuinely heroic, and unselfish. The world depended upon me, he'd said. Yeah. Right.

The scent of straw and horse filled my nose as if I were still back in that huge barn. I had been breathing it in, wondering why, until realization hit me: I was wearing Vasyl's shirt. I pulled Vasyl's scent deeply into my lungs and held it for a moment as though it were an intoxicating high. Well, it actually was. I couldn't deny that Vasyl intoxicated me beyond measure. I'd probably dream about him, once I fell into my comfy bed.

I sneezed a couple of times in quick succession.

“Bless you,” Heath and Leif’s voices chimed from the back.

“Thanks.”

My focus went back to the road. Weakened by my blood loss, for sure, somewhere I'd gained a second wind that I strove to hang on to until I got us home. But now, as I drove the last few miles, I noticed my hands were jittery, as if I needed a sugar fix, or something. Orange juice? No, a rare steak. And chocolate.

I always had some chocolate on me, and grabbed my purse and fished around until I found the squares wrapped in foil that I carry with me always because I never know when I might need a sugar fix. I was able to break off two, eat them, and then I let a third one melt in my mouth.

It had been a while since I had used the back roads to get home, but once I was on familiar territory, I nudged the speedometer up to seventy.

Before the sun was too high in the sky, I had pulled into my driveway. The barn's shadow was deep, and still covered the area of the drive in front of the house. Thank goodness, my father never tore it down as he had once considered.

“Wake up, boys! We're home!” I shouted.

“Oi!” Heath's voice rose sharply.

“Don't have to yell, y'know,” Leif added grumpily.

“Yes. We have twenty-twenty hearing,” Heath said.

“You git!”

“Ow!”

As I held the door open, they piled out of the car, and then we all gathered on the front porch. Once I unlocked the door, my vampire guests slipped through the opened door. Before I stepped inside, the upstairs door swung open wide, and they whooshed away like specters. I stared at the vacant steps. Then the door slowly creaked shut on its own.