Blood for blood Read online

  CONTENTS

  Chapter One……………… 4

  Chapter Two…………….. 12

  Chapter Three…………… 19

  Chapter Four…………….. 28

  Chapter Five……………… 40

  Chapter Six……………….. 46

  Chapter Seven…………… 60

  Chapter Eight……………. 69

  Chapter Nine……………… 80

  Chapter Ten……………….. 89

  Chapter Eleven…………… 98

  Chapter Twelve…………… 109

  Chapter Thirteen………… 116

  Chapter Fourteen………… 124

  Chapter Fifteen…………… 137

  Chapter Sixteen…………… 146

  Chapter Seventeen………. 158

  Chapter Eighteen………… 170

  Chapter Nineteen………… 183

  Chapter Twenty…………… 196

  Chapter Twenty-One…… 202

  Blood for blood

  Tainted Bloodlines Series

  Book One

  Tobi Grim

  © 2017 by Natassia Carss

  Cover art and design © 2017 Tobi Grim

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Chapter One

  “There was always the rain…”

  His fingers slid down her waist, cool hands caressed her fevered body. He pressed his mouth to hers so hard that she thought she would be consumed by his passion. Her fingers twisted through his dark hair, pulling him closer. Her chest heaved, eyes searched his as he peered into her soul. She wanted him. She needed him.

  He grazed his teeth down her neck; a cry escaped her lips as cool fingers brushed under her bra. Her nails dragged down his back as hers arched in pleasure. She thought she was going to explode and he hadn’t even gotten into her fucking pants yet.

  Shoving her against the wall, rough hands all over her shaking body. Hands that knew her soul. Hard hands, yet gentle at the same time. Knowing her, feeling her. Oh, how she loved the rough skin against her trembling body. Her head slammed into the wall as he kissed her neck, lips lingering so close to her breasts, so close, but not fucking close enough.

  He tore her skirt up with one hand while the other tangled in her long hair, pushing her mouth back against his, back into the kiss she thought might drown her very existence out. She felt him undoing his pants, panting as he ripped his mouth away from hers. She was ready. She was fucking ready. Strong fingers tear her panties aside, as claws dig into her soft skin.

  Claws. Fuck. Fucking claws?

  ⃝

  She woke up covered in sweat. What the actual fuck? She’d be dreaming of fucking a wolfblood? Her skin crawled as she rolled over to check the alarm clock sitting on the floor next to her bed. Three am. Fuck it. A good a time as any to get up, knowing she wasn’t going to sleep any more after that fuckery in her head. Fucking wolfblood...

  She pulled on her black jeans and walked into the lounge room of her apartment. Where were her damn cigarettes? She spotted them on the bench, lit one and stuffed her feet into her falling apart sneakers. She needed to get some damn air. Pulling on her red hoodie, she grabbed her keys and headed for the door.

  Outside was dark, most of the street lights were busted in this part of town, and the rain was bucketing down. Again. She huddled in the doorway of the building, smoking and trying furiously to rid the thought of his hands on her skin… his teeth on her neck... fuck!

  Two kids were kicking something up the street, the noise breaking her thoughts. She watched them with an absent smile, street kids still managed to find some fun then, hey? She narrowed her eyes, one of them was a wolfblood. She could feel it easily with her nerves all jacked up. She watched them coming closer, focusing on the kid-wait, he wasn’t a wolfblood, he had wolf-blood in him. Probably from a distant relative or some shit, it was weak now. She relaxed. Probably didn’t even know he fucking had it. He’d never spawn a full blown wolfblood in his life time, not even if he screwed a pure blood, and the chances that a pure wolfbitch would want a weak blooded kid like him was slim to none.

  Whatever. She wasn’t going to go down that road right now. What she needed was a distraction. The rain didn’t look too bad now, so she flicked her smoke, pulled her hood over her head and began walking down the dimly lit street, down to Bar 28.

  ⃝

  Inside was warm from all the bodies that occupied it. It was busy, but not packed; she made her way to the bar quickly. Pulling out a fiver from her jeans and waiting as she leaned on the sticky surface. Her favourite bartender was on, Big Mike, a grin split his rugged face as he greeted her.

  “Hey, Little Red, want a beer?” he said smiling.

  “Vodka.” She responded, sliding the note across the bar. “Double shot if you don’t mind, Big Mike.”

  Grinning like an idiot, he filled the cup, placing it in front of her but ignoring the money. “You aint sleeping again?”

  He almost sounded as though he cared. Almost. She was never really sure if he did, or if he just did his job well. After all, didn’t everyone dump their sorrows on the poor fucking bartender? She knew she was guilty of it, more than once too.

  “Nah, not really,” she took a big gulp of the burning liquid. “Fucking dreams, hey, always with the fucking dreams.”

  She took another drink, her eyes burned almost as much as her throat. She wasn’t usually one to drink straight up and she could see Big Mike amused by her discomfort. But right now she needed something to warm her, something other than those damned sex dreams.

  She knew he was talking to her, but she wasn't listening, he’d be spouting the usual speech about how someone in her field should really get better rest time. She smiled as he noticed another customer. Nodding and pushing off from the bar, the money was still sitting there, so she stuffed it back in her pocket. Hey, if Big Mike was feeling generous this morning, who was she to complain?

  Ambling through the crowd she found an empty booth to sit in. One good thing about this time was pretty much everyone else was too drunk or fucked up to want to sit, so she could revel in her own company and watch the crowd. She enjoyed watching people, fascinated by how they were so easy to read from her point of view but it seemed like no one understood each other. She noticed a redhead talking to a big guy with a Mohawk, watching as Red tried so hard to draw his attention to her body, laughing at his jokes as her fingers brush against his bare arms, licking her lips and staring doe eyed up into his face. But the guy seemed oblivious to what Red wanted. Although as she watched them, she suspected that if he knew, he’d drag the redhead outa there and screw her in the street as quickly as possible.

  “Hey Little Red, mind if I sit?” The voice broke her thoughts and she looked up to see Karl standing at the other side of the table.

  “Sure, Karl. You know you don’t have to ask.” She smiled as he nervously sat opposite her, eyes scanning over the crowd.

  Karl was her partner. Work partner. They were bonded. She had learned to trust him with her life. He was almost always nervous, eyes darting around the room, checking no one was looking too closely at him. He may have seemed weak to those who saw him, but she knew better. He’d killed hundreds of wolfbloods with her. Sure, most of the literal blood was on her hands, but without him, she’d have been dead years ago. They’d been paired toget
her since she was fourteen, she knew him better than she knew herself. And she knew he’d felt her presence here, and that he had some news.

  “There’s going to be a raid tonight,” he blurted out. No time for chats then. “Slasher ordered it. She found a nest. Pretty big one too. A hundred wolfbloods, she reckons.” He lowered his voice, not that there was any need; no one even looked their way. “Heard she said that most of them are close to pure. Gonna be hell. Said she needs at least six teams. Knew you’d be up for it, so I got us in.”

  He glanced around again; she could almost hear him counting the people in the room, counting how many were bigger than him. Probably most of them. She watched him flip the soft brown hair out of his pale eyes, chewing on his lip as he scanned the crowd.

  “Right,” she said, her words snapping his attention back to her, “Best get up to her place then, hey?”

  He nodded. Knocking back the remainder of her drink she stood up, waiting for him to lead the way. As ridiculous as she thought it was, she knew he liked to be ahead of her. It was his job to protect her after all, and he took his job seriously, no matter where they were. All Protectors did.

  Back outside and the rain had started pelting down again. Karl ran to his car, unlocked it and shoved the passenger door open for her. She climbed in and slammed the door against the torrents of water streaming down from the dark sky. His car was clean to say the least. He never let her smoke in it, said it would ruin the upholstery or some shit. She never gave a damn about that sort of stuff, but hey, his car his rules. Sighing, she slouched down into the seat as he started the engine and took off slowly down the poorly lit streets.

  Her mind wandered to work. A big nest. They hadn’t found one in a few months now, right? Mostly little wolfblood gangs. Barely any pure bloods. There was a lot of money to be made in nests, but with at least six teams involved, the split would make it a lot less. She hoped no more than six put their hands up, hell knew she needed the fucking money. She rarely went on these sorts of big operations; too many people involved. Too easy for fuck ups.

  The wolfbloods had attacked every main city in the world just over twenty years ago, coming out of hiding and trying to take over. She’d only been little then, not understanding what was really happening. Her parents had been in hiding for years; their love forbidden. Her mother was a Hunter, a very powerful witch, her father was a stinking wolfblood. They had betrayed both their kind, for ‘love’. And they had created her; a cocktail of magick and blood thirst. They had been so fucking selfish. Thankfully, she had never shown any wolfblood signs in her somewhat short lifetime. But her magick had been strong from a young age.

  She barely remembered her parents, and what she did remember she wasn’t even sure if it was real. They had been slaughtered not long after the wolfbloods attacked. She had been orphaned, not wanted by the wolves, not wanted by the witches, and too powerful for the humans to handle. Luckily, Slasher had taken her in, barely sixteen but ready to parent the little mixed blood child. She had found her bawling and accepted her as her own, even though other witches had thought she was crazy.

  Slasher was royalty amongst the Hunters. Her father was once so powerful it was said he could make the wolfbloods insane with a look. Maybe he could have. She hadn’t been old enough to fight when he was out there hunting. He died fifteen years ago, torn to shreds by a nest. He’d gone in alone. Fucking idiot. No matter how much power someone had, they all knew never to go alone, not fucking ever. So Slasher, now Commander, ran The Organization in Black City. She was smart. She was ruthless. And she was powerful.

  “Lupa!” Karl yelled, bringing her out of her reverie.

  “What?” she frowned at him, he was one of the few that called her by her actual name.

  “Get outa your thoughts, I need you on the ball. It's been a long time since we’ve done a nest.” He pulled over and stopped the car. “You need to be focusing, you know I-“

  “Yeah, yeah,” Lupa waved her hand at him. He sucked at groups. He was too busy watching people to retain all the information. Which he needed, she didn’t need it mostly, she needed to fight, and he needed to protect her. “I’m here. Just thinking.”

  He looked at her pointedly and she rolled her eyes. She knew him better than she knew her fucking self, dammit. That’s why they rarely did group hunts. But he knew her, knew she would have blown most of her money by now. Knew it was her that needed this more than he did. He had family money. Fuck, he had family. But he always had to... whatever. Best not to think about it.

  They hopped out of the car and he knocked nervously on Slasher’s big red door. Tank, Slasher’s Protector, opened it. His bulk took up most of the doorway. He grinned down at Karl and put his meaty hand on his head and rubbed his hair.

  “Good mornin’ scrawny fuck,” he boomed, “Come on in and get your asses sat down, Slash aint got no time for wastin’.”

  He stepped aside to let them in, Karl was fidgeting, glaring at Tank as he walked past him, she knew he was even though she was behind him. Karl hated Tank, but Lupa had always liked him, he’d been around practically all her life. Tank rested his hand on her should briefly as she passed, he wasn’t good with words, but she knew he was glad to see her. He slammed the big door shut making Karl jump in front of her. She wondered, not for the first time, whether he even knew how to close a door gently, if he even could. She smiled at the thought. Probably not. At least; she’d never seen it.

  Inside they walked down the hall to the massive lounge room. Slasher didn’t use it as a lounge room though; it was where she sorted out the operations she went on. She hated being at headquarters for the raids she was personally involved with, which were only nest kills, she didn’t waste her time with small fry. Fuck, she didn’t even need to go on any operations being in charge, but she did because she liked it. And because she knew the government and the higher ups respected her more for it. She may never get out of Black City, but then… she didn’t really want to.

  Slasher nodded at them as they joined the six other people in the room. Tank just behind them folded his thick arms and smiled in amusement. Lupa sat on the edge of Karl’s armchair. Only six other people, three other groups. Good. Less people meant more money for her.

  “Right,” Slasher put her hands on her practically non-existent hips, “let’s get down to business. We will be going into slum central. Fucking Blackwater.”

  Everyone nodded and groaned as she started explaining where the nest was located. Fucking Blackwater. Not it's actual name of course, but that’s what everyone called it; Black City’s slums. Not that Black City was exactly clean, it was pretty far from Central, and the further away from Central City, the dirtier and more desperate the people.

  Blackwater was known for the constantly wet streets, puddles of muck and fuck knows what else. Its people were skinny, poor and addicted. A drug lord’s wet dream, and just the place for wolfbloods to hide, or set up. If the wolfbloods had work, had money, then Blackwater’s people wouldn’t say a damn word. They were too poverty stricken to turn down any work. Lupa didn’t blame them, but she wished... ah, no point in wishing. Wishes didn’t come true.

  Lupa half listened and jotted down what Karl would want her to. It sounded pretty standard for a nest. Protectors in first, map out the nest, lighting the mix of herbs they used to try counteract the wolfbloods’ power, Hunters follow and fuck the wolfbloods up. Ok, that was it simplified, but she’d done this before. They all had. No novice would be allowed on a nest run. Especially not one so quickly put together.

  Slasher finished up and handed out the papers. Everyone would have to sign, when working in groups the paperwork was more detailed. The Protectors had to watch for everyone, not just their own, because while they were connected to their partners for the first part, the connection mostly broke as soon as any of the wolfbloods in their vicinity transformed. With all the rancid beast stench in the air, and the power in their blood, it fucked with any kind of magickal connection. Fucking bitch of
a thing that was. But not for Lupa, she was part wolfblood after all; it never screwed with her and Karl’s connection, not even a little bit, that’s why they were so damn good at their job. One of the other big reasons Karl hated working in groups, he was too connected to her to watch anyone else, and that pissed people off. Apparently The Organization was trying to find a way to stop everyone from losing their connection, but years of research hadn’t come up with anything yet.

  As everyone left to try and get some sleep before the nights hunting, Lupa and Karl stayed where they were. Karl knew she’d want to talk to her surrogate mother, even if he didn’t want to sit with Tank while she did.

  “Little Red,” Slasher came over and kissed her forehead. Slasher was at least a foot taller than Lupa. Fuck, everyone was pretty much was. “It’s been too long since we hunted together.”

  Lupa grinned. “It sure has. I don’t think I’ve done a nest in at least a year,” out the corner of her eye she saw Tank and Karl go to the kitchen, no doubt Tank would try get Karl to do some shots with him. “You know how Karl gets.”

  Slasher laughed “That I do. But I also know you don’t like big groups much yourself. I’m so glad he decided to put you guys forward, we are going to need some power on this one. We are going to need you two. If he hadn’t have volunteered you guys forward, I was going to call you and ask you to join. I’m a little worried we won’t have enough people with us as it is… this case is making me nervous…”

  Lupa raised an eyebrow, it wasn’t often she’d heard Slasher say things like that. Not in years actually. Probably not since she had first joined The Organization’s school; when Slasher's father still ran Black City. Shit. What wasn’t Slasher telling everyone?

  “This is some tough shit, Little Red, I got some pretty good information. We have at least fifteen pure bloods in the nest. I’m going to need you in front with me. I’m going to need that nose of yours.”

  Shit. Fifteen purebloods. Purebloods were strong. Fucking strong. Most of them were controlling cities further up the north, it wasn’t often they were in a small, city nest. Most of them were together; controlling the people, controlling the streets, big fucking operations. The Organization had tabs on them all, but they needed armies of Hunters for that. Armies they didn’t have. Armies they might never have. But they did what they could, picked off the weaker ones. Picked of those who bred with humans. Tried to stop the spread. Rumours were the Dark Squad was becoming pretty hard-core, getting ready to take back some of the smaller cities. But Lupa didn’t really pay much attention to that shit. She did what she did, and where she did it. They were just as important here as the others were in their cities.