Forged in Blood: A Dark Paranormal/ Fantasy romance (Broken Bloodlines Book 1)

I said I’m on my way, jackass, I tell Axl as I leave Ophelia, tamping down the rage simmering beneath my skin.

You got a crush on the cupcake, Kai? Xavier teases me, and I shrug off his comment. Pair of goddamn assholes. A crush? What am I, twelve years old? All because I enjoy making conversation with her. Fuck! I wish I could have one goddamn moment without two fuckwits in my head. I’ve never been good at blocking them out. No matter how much time Alexandros spends teaching me how, I can’t do it. And ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, I don’t want to. But now, well, there’s a girl with pink hair and radiant blue eyes who smells like fucking heaven that I’d love to get to know a little better without those jackasses acting like teenage boys about it.

Just get the hell over here, Axl orders.

Shaking off my frustration, I move quickly and a few minutes later, I reach the field behind the Opal and Ruby Dragon Society houses. Axl scowls at me. His eyes, usually the color of melted milk chocolate, are dark with annoyance. “You decided to grace us with your presence at last?”

“Since when do I have to explain myself to you? Just because you’re the oldest doesn’t make you the boss of us.” I don’t normally bother pushing back against his tendency to pull rank and order me around, but I was enjoying talking to Ophelia.

He shakes his head. “You know the first few weeks are the most intense. There’ll be plenty of time to fuck around with our new toy once pledges are finalized.”

Xavier wraps an arm around my neck. “Yeah, we got Trials to plan for.” He flashes me a wicked grin, and I can’t help but smirk back. I do love the Trials.

I shrug out of Xavier’s grip. “How many pledges do we have this year?”

“Only thirty-two.” Axl frowns at the house where all pledges eat and sleep for the first six weeks of term, until we’ve successfully weeded out the ones who aren’t strong enough to be turned. Becoming a vampire isn’t a gift that can be bestowed on just anyone. Only those with a strong mind and spirit can survive the agony of the transformation.

I grimace. “That’s less than last semester.”

Axl pinches the bridge of his nose. “So let’s hope they’re all fit to be here and we can keep most of them.”

Xavier snorts. “Unlikely.”

Axl punches him in the arm. “Stop being such a dick.”

Xavier snarls and returns the favor by slamming his fist into Axl’s jaw. A split second later, the two of them are rolling around on the lawn, punching the hell out of each other. I fold my arms and wait, accustomed to their constant bickering.

“Hey, are they okay?” A Ruby Dragon member with long black hair and a nose ring whose name currently escapes me stands beside me, her gray eyes alight with fascination and her lips curved in an appreciative half smile.

Xavier straddles Axl, holding him down by his wrists. Axl’s huge biceps strain the seams of his T-shirt as he tries to buck his assailant off, but Xavier tips his head back and laughs triumphantly, showing his pristine white teeth and perfect fangs. Sweet motherfuck, he’s going to bite him right here.

My cock jumps in my pants, and I adjust myself while the girl goes on watching my buddies. As hot as their whole pissing contest is to watch …

I clear my throat. “Don’t we have shit to do?”

Xavier dips his head and licks the column of Axl’s throat, letting out a low hum of satisfaction. Axl growls and throws Xavier off him, launching him a few feet across the grass.

“Those two are so fucking hot,” the girl next to me says with a dreamy sigh.

I roll my eyes while Axl and Xavier wipe the grass off their clothes and join us, their fight already forgotten.

Xavier snarls at her. “Who are you?”

Her heart rate spikes. “I’m Jay. Professor Jackson said you could use some help with the Trials.”

Axl’s narrowed eyes roam over her body, drinking her in. “Professor Jackson is your sire?” Professor Jackson is Alexandros’s cousin and the dean of the economics department. He always gets his pick of the Ruby pledges to turn at the end of the Trials, and he only chooses the best. In our seventy plus years at this college, we have met and lost far too many pledges to remember them all. But I recall Jay from the Trials two years earlier, particularly the Hunt. She covered herself in rotten duck eggs to win.

She flashes her fangs, flicking her tongue over the tips and batting her eyelashes at him. “Yeah.”

Axl snorts, seemingly unimpressed by her obvious interest in him, which is very unlike him. Ordinarily he’ll fuck anything with a pulse. “I thought he was sending me his best.”

She rolls her shoulders back. “I am his best.”

Xavier takes a step closer to her, and she visibly shivers. He curls a lock of her dark hair between his fingers. “Forgive Alastair here. He’s something of a misogynist. Doesn’t think women can be the best at anything. It’s not his fault though, he’s a product of his time.”

Axl growls, training his glare on Xavier—not because he cares about what anyone thinks of him, but because he hates his birth name. Weary, I roll my eyes and step between the two of them. I really don’t have time for any more of their competitive bullshit. There’s a certain pink-haired girl I’d much rather be spending time with right now. “Let’s do what the fuck we came here to do and get out of here, yeah?”

I tip my chin at Jay. “You too.” I head into the house, and the three of them follow close behind.

“Pledges in the den. Now!” I shout as soon as we step into the entryway. There’s a stampede of feet from every direction, and I appraise each pledge as they file past us. Some are here because they know what we are and have been persuaded by their older family members to follow in their footsteps. Others have been recruited by the criminal organizations all over the world that fund this college. Vampires have infiltrated all of them. From the Yakuza to the Cosa Nostra, they all have some of our numbers among their highest-ranking members. An immortal with the strength of ten humans is a much more effective soldier.

Xavier steps into the room first, and the vibrant buzz of chatter stops dead, like someone switched off the sound in the room. A wicked grin spreads across his face as he scans the collection of potential recruits. His reputation as a sadistic fuck who will tear out a pledge’s throat if they so much as look at him funny is well established and entirely founded in historical fact. Although, the last occurrence was almost two decades ago now, when the supply of pledges was more plentiful, thus making them more dispensable.

We have four girls in this group, double the number from last year. They usually opt for one of the less challenging vampire societies, Lapis or Opal. Excitement ripples through the room like a current of warm air, even from the stony-faced pledges who think they’re too tough or too cool to show any emotion.

I lean close to Axl while the recruits find places to sit. “How many did the other houses have?”

“Only seventeen for Lapis and fourteen for Opal.”

Wow, so few. I ignore the seed of worry that wants to take root in my gut. “And Onyx?”

“Thirty-five.” His voice is barely more than a growl.

I squeeze his shoulder, acutely aware of how offended he is by the fact that our biggest rivals have more new pledges than us. “Doesn’t mean they’ll win, okay?”

He turns to me, a snarl twisting his lips. “We barely beat them last year, and we had four more pledges than they did.”

I resist rolling my eyes. The Trials are fun, and I enjoy them, but Axl takes the whole thing way too personally. I get that the honor of House Drakos and Ruby Dragon are at stake, but it’s not like we’ve ever lost before. If he paid as much attention to our world as I do, he’d realize that the real concern is the dwindling number of pledges and turned vampires as a whole, not whether we have enough to win the Trials. “Doesn’t matter how many pledges they have,” Axl says. “They’ll never beat us because we always have the best of the best, right?”

“Right.” Xavier pats Axl on the back. Just like that, their earlier disagreement is nothing more than a memory. Always a united front when they need to be.

Axl cracks his neck, and the sound makes me wince. He fixes our potential recruits with a fierce glare. “The first of this year’s Trials will be held two weeks from Saturday. That gives you just over two weeks to prepare.”

An eager beaver shoots his hand up to ask a question, but Axl ignores him. “There are four trials. The first is Fight Fest. You will each be matched to an opponent of similar stature and strength. No weapons are permitted. This isn’t about not getting knocked down or who hits the hardest, but who can keep getting up again. Fight Fest is designed to test your strength, but also your resilience and your courage. It’s the only trial where you will compete alone, so it’s your chance to demonstrate what you’re capable of. But make no mistake—there is no honor in this fight. Your opponent will play dirty. They will use any means within their power to beat you. Be prepared.”

The eager beaver puts his hand down. Axl indicates for Jay to step forward, and she stands beside him, hands on her hips and a stubborn tilt to her jaw. Axl keeps his eyes fixed on the group in front of us. “Jay here will teach you the basics of what you need to know.”

“We’re supposed to trust a woman with this?” a guy says, standing up in the back of the room. Before he can take another breath, Jay has him hauled up by his throat and pinned to the wall, all two hundred pounds of him.

“You wanna repeat that, dipshit?” she says, offering him a saccharine smile.

I stifle a snicker while the guy being manhandled by the woman half his size tries to shake his head. “N-no.”

“No what?” she asks.

He glares at her. “No, ma’am.”

Tilting her head, she laughs darkly. Then she licks a trail along his jawline and hums. “I’m going to enjoy playing with you.”

She lets him go, and he rubs at his throat before taking his seat again. A soft murmur runs around the room, and Axl holds up his hand, silencing them all once more. “Lesson number one, pissants. Never underestimate your opponent.”

Jay arches an eyebrow and smiles at him. My brothers rarely pass up an opportunity to get laid, so it looks like she’ll be staying over at our place tonight. They try to stay away from our own house vampires when possible, given the potential to piss Alexandros off if they do something stupid. But Jay is a gift horse, and Axl will definitely not be looking at her mouth. I glance at Xavier and roll my eyes, but he grabs his dick and winks at me. Fucking fantastic. Looks like I’ll be listening to them both fuck her.

I give Jay a once-over. She’s pretty enough, but too cocky for my liking. I prefer them sweeter, less aggressive. With pink hair and creamy white thighs …

Xavier’s voice interrupts my thoughts. Stop dreaming about the cupcake and get your head in the game, dickface.

I’m not thinking about her.

He smirks. Even if I couldn’t hear you thinking loudly, I can see it written all over your face, sap.

I glare at him. Fuck you!

He licks his lips, and I look away, refocusing on Axl and his speech to the new pledges.

“We are the Ruby Dragons. The strongest society on this campus. We remain undefeated after seven decades. Do not let this be the year we fail.” He points at them. “Do not be the weak fucking links. Because there is no fucking place for weakness here. If you feel even a little uneasy about what you’re about to go through, there’s the door.” He points toward it, but they all stare at him in silence.

He gives a similar speech every year, but never once has anyone walked out. They all think they have what it takes while they’re sitting here, but half of them won’t be lucky enough to make it to the final Hunt, and only a quarter will prove themselves worthy of being turned.

After giving the recruits a few last instructions, we step outside into the sunshine. “So, you guys wanna”—Jay runs her tongue over her bottom lip—“hang out?”

I suppress a sigh and glance in the direction of the library, wondering if Ophelia is still there.

“Nah. I have shit to do,” Axl replies coolly, making my head swivel in his direction. I’ve never known Axl Thorne to turn down a blowjob, because that’s surely where their hanging out would be headed.

“Aw,” she purrs, before turning her attention to Xavier. “You’re free though, right?”

He smirks. “No can do.” He throws an arm around my neck. “Kai and I have some stuff to take care of.”

Well, I fucking do. And her name is Ophelia.

“Besides, you’re going to be busy teaching the new recruits the fundamentals of the Trials,” Axl reminds her.

Jay rolls her eyes and flashes me a smile. “You want to help me?” She’s obviously open to fucking any one of us, which isn’t unusual. If they’re not mate bonded, most vampires will—and do—fuck anything that moves. But I’m not most vampires.

“I just told you he has plans with me,” Xavier says, and warmth flares in my chest at the possessiveness in his tone. I love belonging to him and Axl.

“Fine. I guess I read the room wrong.”

“I guess you did. Now, back into the house and deal with the fresh meat, little girl,” Axl says, not even bothering to look at her. His gaze drifts toward the library also.

“Fine, I’m going. Just wanted to burn off a little energy first. I’ll find someone else to scratch the itch. Catch you guys later.” Jay heads back to the house, giving us a casual wave over her shoulder that belies the sexual frustration rolling from her in waves.

“You two feeling okay?” I ask with a smirk. Horny female vampires are ordinarily a weakness for both of them.

Axl scowls. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

I suppress a snicker and shake my head.

Xavier gives a disinterested shrug. “He thinks we’re into the cupcake as much as he is.”

“Into fucking with her as much as possible.” Axl’s scowl disappears, and wicked intent makes his eyes twinkle.

Xavier grunts his agreement, and I press my lips together and say nothing. There’s no reason to refute their claims when I know their thoughts and feel their emotions. And I know that they think about our little pink-haired problem as much as I do.