Riptide: Betrayal of Blood

Riptide:

Betrayal of Blood

Book 3 of the Maura DeLuca Trilogy

Claudette Melanson

Copyright © 2016 by Claudette Melanson

All rights reserved.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

A special thank you to Sherri Wingler for the inclusion of text from Wings of Darkness, with the author’s permission. Copyright © 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Wave & Snowflake

Chapter 2 Resurfacing

Chapter 3 No Longer

Chapter 4 Wax & Wane

Chapter 5 The Last Place You Look

Chapter 6 Intervention

Chapter 7 Family Extended

Chapter 8 Now You See Me…

Chapter 9 Astral

Chapter 10 Squall

Chapter 11 Recovery

Chapter 12 Discovery

Chapter 13 The Bitter with the Sweet

Chapter 14 Virtues

Chapter 15 Tick Tock

Chapter 16 No Stone Unturned

Chapter 17 Venture Forth

Chapter 18 Into the Rainforest

Chapter 19 Hope Fades

Chapter 20 Of Moonlight and Memory

Chapter 21 Devine Creatures

Chapter 22 All As It…Mostly… Should Be

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my four furbaby bunnies, Tegan, Pepper, Beckett & Butters—my constant writing companions. Hubby, Ron, who is a formatting whiz. All the indie authors I call friends, who lend me their constant support. My bestie, Sherri Wingler, who has helped me through the worst of times. And most of all, my readers, for whom this book was written in very large part. I hope you will enjoy reading the fruits of my labor.

Chapter 1 Wave & Snowflake

I should have realized something was amiss before she laid a finger on me. A minute before, the air had swirled with snow. Snow was rare in Vancouver. Snow in September—an impossibility.

The iron solidity of my fear prevented an answer to her question from escaping my lips.

I asked you a question, Changeling! she hissed out into the silent, cold air. Do you realize what a mess you have made of everything?

I scarcely managed a Y-y-yes, in response to that. Aldiva lingered just at the edge of my peripheral vision, her pale-blonde hair shining like sunbeams through icicles.

H-h-h-how...

Did I find you? she finished for me.

I gathered every fragment of courage within me, drawing it up from the very tips of my toes, and turned to face her.

She’d been so very young when she’d been turned. She could be no older than I and, perhaps, had been even younger. Her huge ice-blue eyes had probably been innocent at one time…when she’d still been human. Her pale, finely-chiseled features would have been angelic, excepting those cold, inhuman eyes. I didn’t miss the fangtips extended to light on her baby-pink lower lip. Surely, she feared my father’s wrath too much to eat me?

Have you nothing at all to say, Changeling? Her grip at my shoulder became frozen needles in my skin.

I tried to be brave. Does my father know you’re here…with me? I countered.

One side of her mouth turned up in a coy sort of way… Could she be attempting a smile? "That matters not at the moment. Would you not agree? I do not find your father in my line of sight. Do you?"

I felt it imperative to remind her of my father’s protection, anyway. Maxwell…ummm…Dad…

I know what you did to your friend, she stated, throwing my tenuous hold on my mental axis to the stabbing wintry wind.

My defenses kicked in, brought purely to light by some unfamiliar instinct. I didn’t… It was Susie… Shame flooded my entire being.

You turned her. It was your doing, ultimately, she articulated with icy absolution.

It hadn’t been I alone who’d turned her, but I wouldn’t have mentioned my lost friend, Valdamir, for a pint of fresh, warm blood. I feared for his life and safety enough already. Still, her words gave pause to the blood in my veins and reminded me of my part in the murder of one of my best friends, Amanda.

Aldiva stalked after me, toppling me over with the smallest push of her slight index finger. Her eyes blazed at me… I’d never known blue could hold such fire.

I scrabbled backward like an upside-downed tortoise—ineffective—my palms scraping over the thorny rocks. The saltwater’s sharp sting was barely registered by my mind. Her gaze was far more cutting.

If there had been anyone around to watch such a ridiculous display, I’m sure they would have been left bewildered—me, scuttling backward like the world’s clumsiest crab—backing away in horrified haste from a young girl of such slight stature, who appeared much more angel than demon from a distance.

YOU broke our peace. You disrupted the harmony of my family. She pointed her icicle finger at me as she hissed out her rage. "Maxwell can keep his mate, but I will deny him his daugh…"

The chilled idea of sudden, unavoidable death assaulted me with a cold unlike any I’d ever felt before—even the preternatural touch of my father’s skin—and it permeated me long after the threat had been nullified.

Aldiva’s words were cut short, and she disappeared from my line of sight, her ice-blue cloak becoming a blur which perfectly matched her irises, as she was propelled a safe distance away.

Every relieved cell in my body bubbled, Gregor, his name sliding up through my throat to escape as a gasp of gratitude.

Aldiva! What are you doing? Gregor’s usual calm was lost as he hovered above her, struggling to hold her arms to the ground while she lay amidst a sharp jumble of rocks—which appeared not to trouble her in the least.

Let me go, Gregor! You have no right!

And you have the right to tear our family apart? Maxwell would never forgive you. He most likely would not allow you live. My uncle—for all intents and purposes, in actuality my cousin…by marriage—drove these last few words through clenched teeth.

He has already torn this family apart! Adding members and feeling no need to share the fact with the rest of us. We, who were loyal companions for centuries! He knows what he did was forbidden. The decision was not his to make alone.

Even I realized how precariously loud she was shrieking out these atypical words at him, and I found myself, like Gregor, looking about while hoping to find no ears they might’ve fallen upon.

Is there something lacking in your hearing? Do you think I would be so foolish? There is no one to be found within earshot.

Gregor relaxed his grip on her slightly. True, you would never be so rash… Aldiva used his momentary lapse to escape. In the next moment, she’d flashed to her feet, though I’d missed the action which carried her there. I clambered to mine as well, knees knocking, never taking my eyes off her. The fact Gregor no longer held her spurred me into full retreat.

Aldiva wasn’t only faster than me, but far more agile as well. There was no escape from the lash of her hand. Her nails weren’t very long, but they were hard as diamonds and sliced through the skin of my cheek like it had no more substance than a pat of half-melted butter. It was lucky my regenerative abilities were switched on, or my face would have borne an enormous scar—from mouth to eye corners—for all of my eternity.

Gregor was only a millisecond behind her lunge. I didn’t actually perceive him take hold of her, only saw a moment later he’d restrained her in his iron-clad grip by her elbows, his face a mask of horror.

Maura! Are you…alright? Is it healing?

I nodded while wincing at the burn from cells knitting my face back together. I felt like a mute—too shell-shocked to utter a word. I wanted to go home, wanted my father and Caelyn, my mother. I couldn’t help the tears that sprang up against my will, though I was forbidden to cry in public places. My knees refused to support my tall frame any longer. I sank to them as if my bones had all gone soft.

Aldiva stopped struggling so she could better pin me with the contempt in her eyes. Ughhh, she spat in disgust. A fine addition to our race she will make.

I simply lowered my eyes. I felt no desire to defend myself in the least. I had no fire inside with which to do so. I’d been beaten down and stripped of anything that felt remotely Maura DeLuca to me.

She is the daughter of your king, Alexandru Aldea…a princess of Wallachia. And you would do well to remember that, Aldiva. This was a new voice, one I’d never heard before.

Millicent?! Gregor sounded exasperated. I refuse to believe I am that easy to track!

The new female in our midst chuckled with a sound too heavy for a woman. I gaped at her in wonder as she strode forward in dark perfection. If Aldiva were a blinding winter’s day, Millicent was the soft velvet of a starless night. There would still be moon on this night, embodied in the pallid luminosity of her skin. Her oversized, black-as-death eyes were set in her face like two sparkling pieces of obsidian. The makeup accentuating them had an overdone gothic flair to it, deepening her eerie beauty. Her perfect, full lips were painted the same color as her hair, undefined in length as it melded into the black of the shirt she wore.

I could see Aldiva’s cold fire dampen a bit with the arrival of this newcomer, who made her way over to me so she could lift my chin with her cool finger, gauging my looks with that confident gaze of hers. There… She traced the fading wound with her other fingertip. "You are almost as good as new. My, my, my, but you do favor Maxwell." She smiled at me—a reaction I wasn’t expecting—and the terror permeating my bones eased off just a touch.

She turned away from me and wagged her finger at Aldiva. No, no, no, Aldiva. You will bring no harm to Maura. The Romanian flair to their words still lingered in all three. It made me feel like maybe I wasn’t in Vancouver anymore…and my head was so full of light and fluffy already…far too much excitement of a brand I did not enjoy. A voice which was becoming all too familiar these days whispered a reminder that I deserved whatever malice came my way.

Come, come, Maura. I couldn’t help but shiver at the cold touch of the hands lifting me so easily from my puddled state upon the uneven shoreline. Millicent appeared to be a friend; I hoped she wouldn’t take offense.

I suppose Elias is right behind you? Gregor huffed.

"Unlike you, dear Gregor, I am not so easily followed." She chuckled darkly once more. Gregor simply rolled his eyes. Even if she hadn’t defended me against Aldiva, I found Millicent impossible not to like, immediately.

Just how are we supposed to keep the fact that the two of you have seen Maura from Maxwell? I am supposed to be the only one to contact her. You know how intuitive he…

Gregor, Gregor, hush now. Millicent seemed intent on waving his concerns away with her hand, still raptly studying my face. Ah, there is your mother, too! You have her chin…and bottom lip. She makes that same expression when…

Cae—Mom! You’ve seen my mom! How is she? I implored, desperate for news of my missing parent. Caelyn, my mother, had collapsed, gravely ill from kidney failure brought on by the advanced symptoms of lupus. I’d feared for her life, and now I feared for her state of mind since she’d been turned into a vampire by my father nearly eight months ago. I’d seen a video of Vampire Caelyn on my birthday…and she hadn’t been faring so well.

Do not fear, Maura Dear. Your mother grows into her new self more every day.

I wasn’t precisely sure what she meant by this, but strangely enough, her words did comfort me. Then, my worry shifted to another I loved. M-Millicent… I tried out her name on my tongue. Do you know the members of the other coven? The one where Susie and…where Susie went? I was still anxious about calling undue attention to Val.

Oh yes, but of course! We have all been friends for many, many years.

Aldiva had remained silent this entire time. She didn’t advance on us any further, but the scowl she wore told me she’d very much like to. She is not to see them! she growled. You remember well, Millicent; Maxwell means to punish her.

My new friend didn’t seem unsettled in the least by her hateful tone. She waved it away, a look of wearied disdain written into her expression. Yes, yes, Aldiva, but that does not mean I must hide every detail from the poor girl.

Look at the trouble she caused already! Before she has even become vampire. She deserves…

Millicent cut her off. To hear a few words which might ease her worry over her family. Must you be so heartless, Al?

If Aldiva had been capable of flushing beet crimson, she would certainly be doing so—there was such anger chiseled into her every feature. "Do not call me that! she spat. And you know what she did. She murdered…"

Enough. Millicent halted the other vampire’s tirade with a single, calmly-spoken word. She is all alone, My Sister. That is a misfortune I myself had to endure. Her eyes swarmed with pity when they fell on me. It only served to drive the melancholy mixed amongst her words deeper into my heart.

My face must have shown the depth of my suffering, for Millicent set to rubbing her frosty hand across my back immediately. "Oh, Maura, there, there. Now, you just focus your mind’s eye on the day your mother and father can return to you…and then you will inherit an extra-large family. You will have all of us by your side."

I churned that idea around inside my head. I hadn’t even met all of them yet. I wondered if any of those remaining three possessed a temper like Aldiva’s. She held such animosity for me. The thought made my teeth chatter with fright.

Come now, Child. Allow me to take you home.

I will take her, Millicent, Gregor growled at her.

Why not allow me? Aldiva suggested sweetly.

No!—from both Millicent and Gregor.

All the stress of the incident had cost me a vast amount of energy, and my stomach roared like a T-rex in protest. Come, Maura. I shall find some protein for you along our way. Millicent led me toward home with a firm but painless grip, waving away all protests from Gregor as we headed toward the bus stop. They’d all arrived here on foot…from wherever it was they made their residence. I wondered how brief a journey it might have been for them, astounded by the thought of such speed and endurance.

"I will see you later, Maura," Aldiva promised darkly. Millicent and Gregor both turned eyes screaming warning on her.

"Do not, My Sister," Millicent spoke in a tone that pushed frozen pinpoints of fear through my skin so they could float freely throughout me, carried by the circulation of my blood. I quickened my pace, hoping to inspire Millicent to do the same. I refused to glance in Aldiva’s direction as we moved past, and only when her line of sight could no longer reach my face, I used the back of my free hand to clear away any telltale crimson tears that might trigger the bus driver to slam the folding door in our faces. I could always use the hem of my dress if need be…

Oh! Clear saline slicked over my white skin. The red tears had been a constant for so long now. It was one aspect of the change which had seemed to stick a few months ago, one which didn’t fade away and return at random, like my enhanced hearing or ability to heal. Perhaps, my shameful fear and bottomless guilt were driving away everything which, in time, might have become special about me…

Chapter 2 Resurfacing

I wanted to cry again at the end of my first day of classes. When I was three weeks in, the desire intensified. It wasn’t enough for me to be a full-time, twelve-credit student. Maxwell had enrolled me in an overload of eighteen credits—six three-credit classes to engage with all the lonely hours of my life.

*You should be grateful,* that bitter voice—one I’d heard over the course of the remainder of the summer—scathed at me. *You get to go to college, unlike some people.* Guilt washed over me, yet again, with the heady force of a tsunami.

In the middle of the summer, swayed by my best friend’s desire to remain by my side forever, I’d turned her, Susie, into a vampire—with a little help from my impromptu vampire tutor, Valdamir. Together, our trio had enmired ourselves in the sucking depths of trouble aplenty, turning Susie without benefit of permission from my father, Maxwell…a sort of king of all vampires…the original…the first. This not-thought-out-at-all decision of ours had resulted in the radically-untimely death of one of our best friends, Amanda, who’d happened to show up at our house on the worst possible night for a visit. Susie, a newly-made, out-of-control vampire, had drained our friend of nearly every drop of blood contained in her body. Amanda would never graduate college as she’d dreamed—this thought made me suddenly, violently nauseous. And Susie was stuck living with a coven that wasn’t my father’s, undergoing vampire tutelage instead of Bio 101, but we’d pretty much prepared ourselves for that outcome. Val had been cast in the role of babysitter and supervised instructor for our little creation—forcibly—by my father, in favor of slow, agonizing starvation, which was pretty much the only means of dispatching one of our kind. Well, once one of us had turned, anyway. I was still trapped in the midst of my excruciatingly-slow transformation into a Born vampire, forced to rattle around our excessively-too-large house alone since my father was living with his coven now, teaching my mother how to get her own thirst under control. And I couldn’t see either of them until that happened as Aldiva wasn’t to be trusted where my mother was concerned—and I now had a firm grasp on the reason behind this unfortunate necessity. Caelyn might very well find herself in a box at the bottom of the ocean, never to be seen by my father—or me—again.

Ron, my Cuplare Sânge, or blood-bonded, mate had been coercively sent away by my father to whereabouts unknown. Excepting the occasional visit from Gregor, I had remained utterly alone for weeks.

Perhaps, my father could sense, from however far away he might be, my manic restlessness—hence the mountainous heap of coursework thrust upon me. I could see that every moment unoccupied by class-time would be filled with homework. My ever-expanding memory and critical thought capacity would be needed now more than ever.

I had two English classes, Human Biology, Beginning French—since it was one of our country’s official languages, Gregor had explained—and Introduction to Philosophy. My schedule of courses also included college-level Algebra, since that had been my weakest subject in school, and Maxwell had worried that Introduction to Calculus might be too much to take on. With so many credit hours ahead of me, I agreed! The biology and French classes were accompanied by weekly three-hour labs, and both Philosophy and Approaches to Literature added an extra Discussion hour each, in addition to the three regular lecture hours every week. The biggest insult of all was the time and days during which Algebra occurred—Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:00 to 8:30 PM. Today was, sadly, a Wednesday, and now that I was home, after the nearly hour-long transit trip, complicated by a skytrain/bus combination, I couldn’t decide if I was more exhausted or ravenous.

Maxwell had wisely included a meal plan in my tuition, but I still often became quite famished. There was plenty of time to pack in the protein between the end of my class at 2:00 and the beginning of Algebra at 6:00, but that had now been hours ago, and I would gladly have melted a slab of cheese on my accursed algebra textbook and devoured it in a few large bites. I’d learned from my father that my changeling body would require nearly triple the calories an average human male might consume…and I found myself beyond willing to consume more.

I glanced morosely at the crockpot as I entered the kitchen, cursing my inability to remember its culinary convenience as I’d headed out the door at 6:30 AM. As if I could have pieced that much thought—or ability—together at that hour of the morning. Vampires were naturally attuned to the night, so I’d cursed Maxwell, knowing the ungodly-early classes were part of his punishment for me. Four days a week too, thanks to my 8:00 AM—uggghh—biology lab on Thursdays. *You had it coming,* echoed inside my head. I may have been able to dump something from a can into the slow-cooker as I’d run out the door, but in my zombified morning-state, that would have been the extent of my capacity for meal prep. Even in its tired and overtaxed state, my brain told me to fill the crockpot at night, place it in the fridge while I slept and pop it into the heating base before I left the next day.

And exactly why was I so tired? With all the changes I’d been experiencing since my vampire-transformation DNA had been triggered, there had come a renewed sense of energy. It wasn’t that I didn’t get tired—just never this tired. But then, I’d never before been forced out of my bed at 5:00 AM…nor remained at school until long after the sun had crept away from the sky. Nor crammed so much information into my head all at once—including the location of several spread-apart classrooms scattered across such a large and unfamiliar space.

In my highly-unmotivated state, I rummaged through the kitchen cabinets, my fingers freeing a delicious boxful of Milk Pocky. Though I preferred protein, this was my favorite treat of the sugary variety. I stuffed the small box into one of the oversized pockets of my goth cargo-y-style pants and moved to forage through the refrigerator.

I really needed to go to the grocery store. There wasn’t much in the tall, cold box besides condiments. I’d finished off the last of the ice cream when I’d arrived home the day before. That I even jerked the door open to peer hopefully inside spoke volumes about my level of optimism. Maybe there was hope for me yet. The emptiness within was quick to reveal a T-bone steak of massive proportion, smack dab in the center of the middle shelf. Its bright-red color drew me in, making me forget momentarily that it should not exist in this space. I’d never ventured into Safeway to fetch this beauty. But had it been Millicent or Gregor? Both stopped in with staggered regularity to check on me.

That was a question for another time. My stomach’s violent, ravenous protests guided my hands eagerly along. The thin film of plastic standing between me and my meal the slightest of inconveniences. I was tearing away hunks of the bloody raw goodness in milliseconds, barely troubling myself to chew before swallowing and feeding my greedy tummy.

I’d have to force myself to stop by the grocery on the way home tomorrow. Going a couple of days with very little meat and too many quick meals on the go was allowing my appetite to completely take over. I begrudgingly saved a small portion for my breakfast, promising myself to at least sear the outsides in a frying pan in the morning, while wrapping it back up with fingers that wished to perform the opposite motion of their current task.

I padded off happily up the stairs and to the bathroom, like a satisfied jungle cat after the kill, licking every remnant of blood from my hands as I moved along. On my way, as I always did, I took a wide berth of the spot where Amanda had been drained of her blood…and her life. Even though the carpet had been ripped out and replaced by skilled vampire cleaners, I still couldn’t bring myself to walk over the maddeningly-pristine spot.

After washing up and bundling myself in soft fleecy pajamas, I entered my room, yawning just as big as said jungle cat. I stopped in mid yawn-and-stretch, my mouth remaining open in shocked disbelief. My eyes were in fine vampiric form tonight, and I knew, unfailingly, I’d just caught the dance and sparkle of Christmas tinsel outside my bedroom window.

Val! I squealed in delight, dropping my precious Pocky in my hastened movement toward the window.

The silvery strands disappeared rather suddenly as if they’d been jerked away in one quick motion, either by fall or yank. I tore the window open frantically while the voice of reason inside my head questioned how he might have snuck away from his new coven.

Val! Are you there? I called out into the too-silent night. I thought I heard rustling—perhaps, the sounds of a small scuffle?—in the line of hedges behind the apartment building next door. But it was my sight which was highly attuned this night, not my hearing—at this point, they very rarely visited me together. So, I couldn’t really be sure it hadn’t just been my imagination.

Val, is that you? I questioned louder, with more volume but less resolve.

Will you shut up?—from one of the lightless windows across the way.

I scanned the dim space visible from my window, my butterflies of excitement falling away into lifeless cocoons that filled the space inside with their seeping disappointment. Alone again. Millicent? I tried one last time, more desperate than hopeful.

Geez, lady! Some of us have to be up at 5:00 AM!

Sorry, I whispered meekly, realizing a second later how futile that last add-on was. I lingered at the window, hoping for a glimpse of anything vaguely familiar. Even after several minutes, nothing moved—I knew this even with