Blood Ties by Amelia Elias Page A

contact the vampires of the Nighthawk Clan, as if they’d
ever offer him anything? Orion’s fangs ached in his mouth as his
fury demanded release, but Kira’s cell phone rang in that moment.
She hit the button and answered it before he could snarl at her to
let it ring.
    When he heard the tinny sound of Barrett’s
voice, he literally saw red. Orion shoved away from the desk and
shot to his feet all in one smooth motion, intending to slap the
offensive phone out of her hand and shake her until she saw
reason.
    “Wait, wait,” Kira said, frowning as
Barrett’s voice buzzed urgently through the static on her cellular
phone. She moved closer to the window to improve the reception.
“Yes, I’m still at work. I’m giving my notice right now, but the
loose ends I need to tie up won’t keep me here that much longer.
I’ll be home in a half hour or so, all right?”
    Barrett’s voice grew louder, enough that
Orion could’ve understood him even without his supernatural
hearing. “Kira, do as you’re told for once and stay there,” he
snapped, his tone more like a scolding parent than a lover. “I told
you, the apartment is being fumigated. You can’t get in for at
least another hour. Just stay put until I tell you to leave. Got
it?”
    Even before the man finished speaking, a
tickle of dread teased the fine hairs at the back of Orion’s nape.
Who fumigated an apartment in the middle of the night, in the dead
of winter? Kira opened her mouth to argue with her fiancé as the
dread blossomed into a stomach-clenching certainty of impending
danger.
    It was a feeling he’d learned to never
ignore.
    “Kira, get away from the window!”
    She jumped at Orion’s shout, but he was
already in motion. Snagging her around the waist, he tackled her to
the floor and shielded her body with his own as gunfire shattered
the night. Kira screamed and Orion hissed with fury as the window
exploded into a thousand deadly fragments that lacerated his
back.
    He didn’t even feel the pain of it as he
caught the scent of her blood in the rush of cold air. Prying
Kira’s phone from her death grip, he heard Barrett’s triumphant
laughter. “Burn the vampire and his whore!” Barrett shouted to
someone in the background, and Orion’s fangs burst forth with the
surge of rage that filled him.
    Every one of his suspicions about the man had
been right. Barrett had never intended to marry Kira. He’d only
used her to find Orion’s lair. And now the bastard had spilled the
blood of the one person on Earth that Orion cared about.
    May God have mercy on the man’s soul, because
Orion would show none. “You will die slowly for this,” he snarled
before shattering the phone with his bare hand.
    The gunfire abruptly stopped. The eerie
silence was anything but comforting. He knew that the cessation of
the bullets only meant something worse was coming.
    He didn’t plan to wait around for it to
arrive. Orion leapt to his feet, Kira cradled securely in his arms,
and dashed out of the den with preternatural speed. She clung to
him, her breath coming in quick, terrified gasps. “What’s
happening?” she asked, clutching him tightly as he kicked down his
bedroom door.
    “Your boyfriend is trying to kill us.” He let
her feet touch the floor only long enough to shove his bed aside
with one hand and yank open the trapdoor hidden beneath it. The
smell of stale air and dank earth made her cringe, but Orion didn’t
let her back away from the black pit. Pulling her into his arms
again, he brushed a kiss over her pale cheek. “Better men have
tried and failed, sweetheart. Now hold on tight.”
    And he leapt into the darkness before she
could reply.
     
     
*~*~*
     
     
    Kira bit
her lip to keep from screaming as they plummeted into the
blackness. Barrett was really trying to kill them -- and she’d led him right to Orion. How
could she have been so blind?
    Was she really so desperate for the security
of marriage that she’d been fooled so easily by