The Blood Bundle, Books 1-2: Blood Singers and Blood Song (New Adult Paranormal Vampire/Shifter Romance) by Tamara Rose Blodgett

teeth closer to the vulnerable bone that
lay beneath.
    Joseph felt the horrible, burning bite of the
blood drinker pierce his upper shoulder and stifled a howl of rage.
Instead, he launched his claws into the vampire's side, digging
deep. Like a handle he lifted the drinker in the air, a piece of
his shoulder coming with it and flung him away, releasing and
retracting his claws as he did. The vamp landed with a practiced
roll, springing upright, blood trails leaking everywhere Joseph
looked. All ten.
    Like mini geysers they flowed, the blood looking
like black oil in the moonlight.
    Joseph howled in triumph. The drinker was
wounded, quite badly. But he was distracted as one of his soldiers
head's flew by his peripheral vision like an errant bowling ball.
His nostrils flared and he was stung by the awful smell of a
drinker quite close. He gave an instinctual evasive lean as claws
missed his exposed throat by millimeters. He reacted even as he
leaned, bringing the claws of his right paw and swiping in an
upward arc, releasing their full length as he did. The talons
sprang from the stubs of his fingers and gutted the vamp as he
leaped to finish the swipe that had not been true.
    Andrew's face had a surprised look as Joseph
held him suspended, mid-leap. He retracted his claws and the vamp
fell at his feet on the long grass of the meadow. With his left
hand, he made the final cut to sever the head.
    That bastard drinker could have healed a
disembowelment. He could heal nothing without a head, Joseph
thought with brief satisfaction.
    The head rolled to join his fallen Were and
Joseph turned in the melee, blood spray and gore littering the
pathway as he began to move toward the girl. Belatedly he realized
that Tony already made his way to her.
    Against express orders.
    Joseph was the only Were allowed to touch the
girl.
    Already Joseph could smell the unshakable lust
of his first, riding an unstoppable urge. He would crush the girl
if he reached her first.
    The sharp claws of Joseph's feet sprung from the
pads of his feet, spearing the soft earth beneath him. He spun,
using the finely honed balance they gave him. On the balls of his
feet, he surged forward, each landing paw, gripping and shoveling a
spray of dirt behind him.
    Even with his incredible speed, he could see he
would not reach the girl in time. For the first time as a Soldier
of the Were, he experienced an emotion he had only heard about.
    Fear.
    And underneath that. Panic.
     
    *
    Julia
     
    And Julia thought she'd known fear. Tasted it.
She had not. Sheer terror took hold of her now. Something even
scarier than William approached. Not at a dead run, no. He advanced
with purpose, a light in eyes that were reflected in the pale
moonlight like a cat's. Glowing.
    They were fixed on her with a look she couldn't
recognize. Finally, as he was almost upon her she thought she knew
what it was. What he wanted.
    He looked like he wanted to consume her.
    Julia gave in to her intense fear, screaming so
loudly her voice left her and hoarse shouts were all she could give
out. Her terror was not diminished from the lack of their
volume.
    She scooted backward on her haunches with an
energy Julia didn't realize she possessed. Her modesty forgotten,
she scuttled like a spider backward, using just her hands and
feet.
    Still he came.

CHAPTER 13
    William
     
    William’s sides burned as if on fire, the wounds
inflicted by the Were deep, the poison released from his talons
delivered and flowing through his system, weakening him.
    He needed blood.
    And his group was outnumbered. Andrew gone.
    He heard a hoarse voice, hysteria riding it like
fine wine. Normally, a scream like the one he heard would incite a
tornado of blood lust.
    Not tonight.
    The source of the screaming was his to protect
with his life. By any means necessary.
    William shifted into the form that would allow
him to travel faster, his only gift. The singular thing that
separated him, identified him as having the blood of a