Blood Bound Prequel Read online

  As the words left my mouth, a persistent and elevating beat reached my ears. My hand landed on Kendrick’s that had tensed on my thigh. His pulse now throbbing against my palm was gaining speed—and it matched the thudding in my ears.

  “I always wondered if it would happen. I guess I always hoped. I mean, if you knew how alike we really were… It’s the only thing that has kept me from acting on my feelings…”

  Kendrick was still talking, rambling on and on. But I’d stopped listening. All I could hear was that thudding. Breathing faster, that metallic scent flooded my mouth, burning its way down my throat and into my lungs. My mouth watered. My eyes were laser focused, traveling from the pulsing vein in Kendrick’s arm and following it up past his Burton T-shirt to his neck. Watching the throbbing blip was mesmerizing. I licked my lips.

  “Maybe now we can be more… Hey!” Kendrick released my thigh quickly, snatching back the hand I’d been clinging to. With a deep breath in, he touched my chin, tilting my face up. “Amelia, are you listening to me? Have you heard a thing I’ve been saying?”

  The punch of that amazing smell soared, becoming all I could think about. I snatched his hand back to see a bloodied crescent across one of his knuckles. Licking my lips, I brought his hand closer, desperate to—

  “Amelia!” Kendrick tugged his hand away. “What are you doing?”

  The piercing look he gave me shook me out of my transfixed state. I shook my head, willing the smell of him and the sound of his pulse to melt away. Forcing my eyes not to stare at the cut I’d inflicted with my own nail. What was happening to me? “You’re…you’re bleeding.”

  Kendrick brushed over his knuckles and the blood wiped away. There was no cut to be seen in its place. “It’s nothing.”

  Now I was imagining hurting my best friend and seeing blood? How could I tell him that? I scrambled for something normal to say. “I’ve, um…been having trouble concentrating. What were you saying?”

  Kendrick shook his head, the hope in his eyes fading to resignation. “Nothing. It was nothing.” He returned his attention to the steering wheel and clutched the leather. Flexing his fingers out he sighed and started the engine. Out of park, he backed up fast, doing a hairpin turn on the road. “I’ll take you home.”

  I said nothing back to him. That shiver returned to my spine, and it wasn’t even mostly caused by his bipolar mood swing, which was totally warranted. Aside from flat-out ignoring him, I’d been staring at my best friend like I had stared at those deer yesterday. Like they were a meal. Like they were to be hunted. I’d been a second away from licking his freaking hand. What the hell was wrong with me?

  Chapter 5

  Kendrick pulled into my driveway without saying a word, turning the headlights off as he parked in front of the garage. The rest of the drive home had been tense. I didn’t know what I missed when I had zoned out, but it seemed to have really hit a nerve with him. Either that, or like everyone else he now thought I was a freak. I sighed and stared out the windshield. It wasn’t snowing but the white accumulation from yesterday stood out in clumps around the red clapboard exterior and on the edges of the roof. The lights were on at the entry and a yellow glow emanated out from the lounge room. We’d been gone long enough for it to become dark.

  “I’m sorry, Kendrick. I don’t know why I’m so distract…” I trailed off as voices reached my ears. They were quiet but their identity was clear. Mom and Uncle Caius. “Um…”

  They were arguing inside, my mom speaking fast and Caius trying to get a word in before she spoke over him again. I stared through the window, seeing the lounge room with its worn green armchair and matching three-seater couch. The view of the blazing fireplace was unobscured, and I swear I could hear the crackling and spitting flames. They had to be standing on either side of the room.

  “Amelia?”

  I jolted at Kendrick’s voice, remembering that I was outside in my mom’s car and he was sitting right next to me. “Sorry, what?”

  Kendrick covered my hand with his and frown lines scarred his face. “Are you okay?”

  I barely heard his question, instantly zoning out from his voice and zeroing back in on the argument inside that was rising in volume.

  “They can’t know. They’re not ready for this. I’m not.”

  I couldn’t understand how I could so clearly hear Mom’s voice, but the shrill desperation in it was something I’d never heard before. My free hand crept to the door handle, and cool air swirled inside as the door cracked open. “Can you…” I stopped before I could ask if Kendrick could hear what I was hearing. Of course he couldn’t. We were outside, yards away from my mom and uncle and separated by walls and windows, not to mention howling wind.

  “Look, Amelia, I have to go.” Kendrick’s hand snapped back from mine like I’d stung him. The tenor of his voice had changed and there was a sense of urgency I felt as he handed me the car keys. “We’ll catch up later. Call me, okay?”

  I looked at him for a second, wondering why he seemed nervous all of a sudden, wondering why it seemed like he was asking permission to have me call him later. “Yeah. Sure.”

  I stepped out of the car right after him and watched as he left, hands deep in the pockets of his cargo pants. My hair swirled around my face and obscured my view of him, but not before I saw the way his jaw clenched. Before I could worry about our drive, what I’d missed him saying, his mood swings, and how I’d tried to lick him, the voices inside became crystal clear.

  “You heard what Dorian said before he went out. About what’s been happening at school. And who knows where she went when she didn’t come home on the bus yesterday.”

  Through the open drapes to the lounge room, I saw Caius. Dressed in a suit, as he almost always was, he crossed the room and clutched my mom’s arms. Even from this distance, I could see the strain across his aged face, and I couldn’t miss the way his tight grip wrinkled her white blouse.

  Despite being a stickler for iron-free silk, Mom didn’t pull away. Instead, she glared up at him. “You can’t let this happen. Not after all we’ve done.”

  “Lamayli, we have done all we can. They have had almost sixteen years.”

  They? They were talking about me and Dorian.

  “It’s not enough! It’ll never be enough!” Mom pulled free and paced back and forth. “She caught me last night. I meant to wait, but it had been too long and my stocks were gone. Then she asked me about her father. She’s suspicious.”

  Uncle Caius scrubbed a palm over his mouth. Then his hands dropped to his sides and he sighed. “Then I will keep trying.” He patted his breast pocket. “This new one should mask it. Bury what she is beginning to experience.”

  Without noticing, I’d crept closer to the house. I was almost at the front door, just able to see them from this angle through the window. Apart from needing to know the truth about myself, I felt a strong need to protect my brother. How was he part of whatever this was? Unable to stop myself, I opened the door without making a sound and crept into the entryway. Bypassing the kitchen that sat to the right, I tiptoed to the left, nearing the stairs without any intention of taking them.

  “Lamayli,” Caius’s voice was just as clear in here as it had been outside. Except now there was a tinge of warning to it. “Stop talking.”

  “No. I will not stop talking. And I will not change my mind when there’s still another option. Amelia and Dorian can never know where they came from. They will never know their father. I will not risk my children.”

  “My father?”

  I removed myself from the shadows and stepped into the light of the lounge room. Mom squeaked at my presence and whirled, her face white. And then Uncle Caius moved—like the wind. I dropped the car keys. One second he was across the room, standing on the rug between the couch and coffee table, the next second he was right in front of me, holding something thin and sharp that glinted in the firelight. He caught my arm with one hand. The other stabbed a syringe needle into my bicep and dispensed
the contents.

  I struggled as warmth flooded from the injection site and up into my shoulder. “Let me go!”

  Caius caught my face with his hand as he pocketed the syringe, his touch soft and yet unyielding. My eyes widened as I stared at my uncle in shock. “Amelia, you will forget what you heard us discussing in this room. You will forget everything you have seen, heard, or experienced that was abnormal as of late. Nothing is going on here. There is nothing to be suspicious of.”

  All the fear in me subsided and a strange calm took over as if I were being drowned by water I didn’t even know I was inhaling.

  “Is it working?” Over Caius’s shoulder, Mom’s eyes were glassy. When she got a nod in response, she sighed. “I love you, sweetheart.”

  Still holding my face, Caius brought his lips to my forehead for a brief second. When he released me and looked down, I wondered why I was standing here.

  “After dinner, I would like it if you went to your room and searched for some tickets to your favorite band.” Caius nodded down at me. “We can make it my birthday gift to you.”

  I couldn’t think of a better gift or way to spend my evening. In fact, the thought of waiting until after dinner seemed too far away. “Can I start looking now?”

  A warm smile parted Caius’s lips. “Of course, my dear. Anything for my favorite niece.”

  “Favorite because you only have one.” With a teasing smile, I spun away and jogged out into the darkened entryway and up the stairs, but as I reached my door, I paused. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I had this strange feeling deep down in my stomach, almost like I was forgetting something vital. I shrugged. If I couldn’t remember, it couldn’t be that important. Could it?

  Epic Books With Bite – Amelia’s story starts in…

  What Lies Inside – Blood Bound #1

  * * *

  My mind screamed for me to move. To fight the monster who trapped me with its arms. But my body remained paralyzed, a prisoner of flesh and bone. It wasn’t fear. I knew that much. Inside I was striking out with limbs, nails, and teeth. But any connection to actual movement was lost. My whole body felt like it was filled with cement.

  Parted lips closed in on my neck. My eyes darted around, desperate to find a way out of this. Darkness stretched beyond the waning light of a naked bulb. There was a single door, then nothing but damp stone and shadow. The stink of death and decay hung thick in the air. Horror seeped through my veins.

  There was nothing I could do. No way to stop this. No way to save my life.

  The sound of labored breath rasped. Not my own. Not this monster’s. In the shadows it was impossible to see where it came from. Was someone watching? Fear snaked through my soul. The fear wasn’t for my own life, not really. I was afraid for someone else. But who?

  Any thoughts vanished as fangs punctured my flesh. A gasp escaped my lips.

  Flames bloomed from the punctures, swarming across my skin. The monster clutched my body tighter and tighter with every sickening gulp.

  As the flames began to dull, my internal screams and my drive to fight faded. Without the current of blood filling my veins, violent shivers took hold of my entire body.

  My body was giving up.

  With shallow contractions, my heart slowed. My mind wavered as my body began to fail. The crushing pain of imminent death faded. As my eyes fluttered shut, a memory of the boy I loved floated across the backs of my eyelids. I saw his dejected expression. I felt the moment he had crushed me against his body, covering my lips with his. Then I heard the words he had spoken for the very first time. “Amelia, I love you.”

  An icy tear escaped my eye. Now he would never know the truth. Never know that my feelings for him were still as irrefutable and irrevocable as ever. Never know that I would give anything just to be in his arms and feel the warmth of his kiss one last time. The realization was more agonizing than knowing my fate now, more agonizing than any lingering pain.

  I love you too. The memory faded, dissipating like a cloud of smoke.

  The room began to blur and spin. Unable to blink, my eyes stared up at the dusty light bulb. Blood loss pressed in on me. I was so deathly cold. The edge of my vision turned black, light being eaten away by a stain like blotted ink. Then empty darkness took hold.

  This is it, I thought. I’m dying.

  * * *

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  About the Author

  Jessica L Myers’ vivid imagination and quiet demeanor as a child led her to the imaginary worlds of books. Even at a young age, her love for the supernatural was prevalent, with her first loved books being R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series. Following that she took an interest in other non-fantasy fiction, including Virginia C. Andrews series Flowers in the Attic.

  In her teen years, Jessica spent many school hours writing poetry and dark short stories and took up sketching some of the terrifying things that came from the graphic night terrors she’d grown up with.

  As an adult and after meeting the love of her life, Jessica got married and started a small construction business with her husband. With the birth of her son, Jessica suffered PPD and found escape in her books and their fantasy landscapes. It was during this time that her need to write flourished. In 2009 the decision was made and the first words to her YA novel What Lies Inside were written.

  When Jessica isn’t immersed in writing about extraordinary characters with dangerous and deadly obstacles to overcome, she likes to spend time with her two kids and husband, curl up with a good book, or watch anything and everything supernatural.

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