Blue Blooded: Jessica McClain Book 6 Read online

  BLUE BLOODED

  Jessica McClain:

  Book Six

  Amanda Carlson

  Blue Blooded

  JESSICA MCCLAIN: BOOK SIX

  Copyright © 2016 Amanda Carlson, Inc.

  ISBN: 978-1-9444-3100-6

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, events, and places portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination and are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Table of Contents

  BLUE BLOODED

  Copyright

  Other Books by Amanda Carlson

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Three months later…

  The BLOODED WORLD Continues…

  About the Author

  Other Books by Amanda Carlson

  Jessica McClain Series:

  BLOODED

  FULL BLOODED

  HOT BLOODED

  COLD BLOOED

  RED BLOODED

  PURE BLOOED

  Sin City Collectors:

  ACES WILD

  ANTE UP

  ALL IN

  Phoebe Meadows:

  STRUCK

  FREED

  EXILED (coming Spring 2017)

  For Billy. My always.

  1

  “I don’t sense anything.” Rourke turned from his place in the front seat. All eight of us gazed out at the apartment building, situated on a quiet street in Baltimore, trying to figure out if we were walking into a trap. The only thing wrong with this undercover operation was our current ride. We’d been forced to do our recon in a bright orange van with the charming words Everglades Tours. See Dem Gators Up Close emblazoned across the side in bright green letters. It was less than ideal if we wanted to keep a low profile, but it couldn’t be helped.

  We’d just driven up from Florida, with a brief pit stop in Georgia, where Juanita had instructed me to head to Baltimore. There hadn’t been time to swap the van out for a new, less conspicuous model.

  “I don’t sense either,” I said.

  “Anyone else picking up on anything?” Rourke asked.

  “My window’s cracked and nothing seems amiss,” James commented from the driver’s seat.

  “I got nothing,” Marcy quipped from the backseat. “Enid’s magic is as stealthy as a ghost and leaves no residue. Dang, I wish I had a pair of magical cojones like hers. If I did, I’d be spelling the crap out of everything. Those stuck-up witches would never know what hit ’em.”

  “Does everything look normal to you?” I asked Kayla, the necromancer we were currently trying to help. Her younger brother was in trouble, possibly taken hostage by the Hag who was trying to kill me. The location of this apartment building was the only information we’d managed to glean from her on the ride today from Georgia to Maryland. “Can you see or detect anything out of the ordinary?”

  “Everything seems fine,” Kayla answered in a flat tone. “My brother should be at school, but we won’t know until we get inside.” She made a move to open the door.

  “Wait,” Rourke ordered, his voice firm enough to still her hand. “We’re taking this slow. Enid has left us alone thus far, but that’s only because she knows where we’re heading. We have no idea what’s waiting for us inside.”

  I’d recently learned that Enid was Juanita’s sister, and she was after me for killing the host who would’ve given birth to her long-lost sister, Bianca. It was a tangled web, which I was trying to untangle. I’d taken away the potential for her sister to be reborn, via an incredibly evil host in the Underworld by the name of Ardat Lili, without knowing it.

  Now Enid was out to get me.

  “I don’t care if it’s a trap,” Kayla huffed. “I need to know if my brother is safe. I’ve waited long enough.”

  “You’re not going to help anyone if you die,” Marcy pointed out, leaning over the seat. “Listen, we all have family. We know what you’re going through. My aunt, and possibly my baby cousin-niece, are missing right now. It’s driving me batty. But we have to be smart about this. If we’re stupid, Enid wins, which is what she wants. We have to outsmart the smarty. That means you can’t go in there with both guns blazing. We have to go in stealthlike. Think puma under the cover of darkness. Not elephant in broad daylight.”

  I peered at my friend. “Pumas and elephants?” My voice cracked.

  Marcy sighed. “Pumas are stealthy predators, elephants just stomp around and make annoying noises.” I made a face. “Never mind, it makes total sense in my mind, and that’s all that matters.” Marcy swished her hand, dismissing me. “We go in like predators, not elephants.”

  I refrained from pointing out to her that most of us were predators.

  “Pumas are wusses,” Rourke muttered from the front seat.

  “Fine,” Marcy huffed. “We go in like big cats and wolves. Better?”

  “Much,” I agreed. “And vampires and witches.”

  “Way to get technical on my awesome analogy,” Marcy said.

  Kayla shot us both searing gazes. “You don’t understand. We have to get to him right now, before it’s too late.”

  There was no doubt Kayla was hiding important details. “Too late for what?” I prodded. “You’re going to have to be more specific, Kayla. What’s going on?” None of us wanted to go into the apartment cold if we had a better option.

  Her amber irises danced, color shooting every which way, but she refused to answer. Her skin had gone from pale to light bronze since we’d plucked her out of the cemetery, where she’d been using her necromancer skills to raise the dead against us, on Enid’s orders, to protect her brother. She’d been close to death before I infused her with a jump-start of power. Now she was as good as new.

  “Ray,” Rourke ordered. “Go check it out from above. See what’s on the roof. We’ll meet you on the ground.”

  “Got it.” The van was so beat-up that when Ray opened the door, it sounded like metal crunching on metal.

  “What floor do you live on?” I asked Kayla. “Surely you can tell us that much.”

  “Fourth,” she answered.

  “Can you see your windows from here?”

  “No, our place faces the alley.”

  “Once we exit, we fan out in groups, just like at the cabin,” Rourke instructed, coming up with a plan. “Irish, Marcy, and Nick, take the street in front. Jessica, Tyler, Kayla and I will take the back. Everyone is on high alert. Move slowly.”r />
  We nodded as we piled out, the doors creaking to various degrees. It was hard to be “stealthlike” in a van that screamed, Look at me! I didn’t think anything could be worse than a canary yellow Hummer. It appeared I was wrong.

  “Marcy, can you detect any spells?” I asked once we were clear of the van.

  “Nope, but that’s not saying much. Like your mate growled earlier, Enid’s not giving away anything if she can help it.”

  I turned to Rourke. “We should all enter the building at once. Strength in numbers is all we have.”

  “Agreed,” he said. “We split up for now, examine the building from the outside, and wait for a signal from Ray.”

  We broke into two groups, and the four of us circled around, Kayla in the lead. We cut into an alleyway halfway around. There was a large parking lot situated behind the building.

  As we neared, I grabbed Kayla’s shirtsleeve, tugging her to a stop. “Which is your window?” I asked in a low voice. “Point it out to us.”

  She gestured toward the middle of the top floor. The shades were drawn.

  “There’s a fire escape near their unit,” Tyler said. “I can climb up and check it out.”

  “Do it,” I said. “But don’t enter the building. Once we get an all-clear from Ray, we’ll decide what comes next.”

  Tyler made a move to leave, but before he could go, Kayla placed a hand on his arm. He stopped immediately, giving her his full attention. “If he’s in there,” she whispered quietly, “you should be able to sense him. If he’s in distress, please call me first. I will have to…calm him down before we can enter.” Her voice held urgency. “Please.”

  Tyler nodded. “No problem. If he’s there, you go first.”

  My eyebrows rose as I glanced at Rourke. Calm him down? This kid has to be a serious threat. That’s probably why she’s so protective. She’s worried we’re going to freak out when we find out what he is.

  I understood protective siblings.

  She’s going to have to come clean sooner or later, my mate reasoned. Either way, once we catch a good scent of him, we’ll figure it out. Her secret will be out soon enough.

  Somehow I don’t think it’s going to be that easy, I answered. It almost never is. Juanita said I had to find this kid to fulfill my destiny. But is my destiny really located in a tiny apartment in Baltimore? My guess is he’s not here.

  Rourke shrugged, his eyes pinned on Tyler as my brother climbed up the ladder. Stranger things have happened. Maybe there’s a portal up there? Who knows?

  Hah, I laughed. Well, if there is, we’re not going through it.

  Famous last words.

  If the kid went through a portal, chances were we’d follow him.

  Tyler made it to the top in less than a minute. He crouched low as he investigated, trying to seem like he wasn’t casing the joint. It didn’t work. He stuck out like a loitering thug up to no good. He turned to us, his hand up in a wave. I don’t sense anything, he told me internally. No movement or sounds coming from inside.

  Ray landed next to me in a whoosh, so fast no human could track.

  I startled, like usual. Dammit. “Feeling a little jumpy there, Hannon?” He chortled at my discomfort. He was never going to give up calling me Hannon, the name he knew me by on the police force all those years ago. I’d made peace with it.

  “I hate it when you do that,” I grumbled. “It’s unnatural to be able to do what you do. I know you revel in sneaking up on me, but you need to control yourself. There’s going to be a time when my fist reacts before my brain does, and I hope, for your sake, your neck is not in its path when it happens.”

  “If I went any slower, I’d risk being spotted. And, please, shifting into a wild animal is normal?” he scoffed. “You’re right up there with me on the list of things that go bump in the night.” He crossed his arms, legs splayed, steel-gray flattop unmoving, looking the picture of a cop.

  “What’d you find?” I asked, watching my brother as he continued to search for any signs of supernatural life.

  “The roof’s clean. There’s a door, but it’s locked from the inside and doesn’t seem to have been tampered with lately. I didn’t smell anything fresh. But”—he raised an eyebrow—“something’s been up there on more than one occasion, and its scent is strange as hell. Smells like an animal—but not really. Definitely supe. Like a cross between an animal and a rock or something. I couldn’t figure out what the hell it was, but that’s not saying much since I haven’t scented that many things. But whatever it is, it hasn’t been up there in a few weeks.”

  “You don’t say,” I said. Switching to internal, I told Tyler, Ray smelled something strange on the roof. An old scent trail. Head up and see what you think. When you’re done, come down and we’ll meet the others.

  Will do, Tyler answered. We watched as he scaled the rest of the ladder to the top, jumping cleanly from the fire escape to the roof.

  “Where’s he going?” Kayla asked, turning toward me.

  “He’s checking out your brother’s scent signature on the roof. He goes up there sometimes, doesn’t he?” I said. “Maybe to get away from it all?”

  “That’s none of your business,” Kayla answered, her face set, her long black hair swaying in agitation.

  I sighed. “Kayla, we’re here to help you.” This was the seventeenth time I’d reiterated that particular fact. “I get being a protective sibling, I am one, too, but we need information so we know what we’re dealing with. It’s obvious you’re keeping his identity from us on purpose.” She turned away. “But with all the clues we have, it’s not that hard to put the pieces together. Tyler is known for his nose. He’s going to find what we need up there. Your brother is young and likely unstable with his magic. When it goes wrong, or he gets upset, he puts people at risk, right? Your fear is apparent. You already told us your mother was from Iceland and your father was Greek. We’ve deduced you got your necromancy from your father. Rourke mentioned in the van that Iceland was known for two things: elves and trolls. Elves don’t smell like animals or stone, as far as I know, so that leaves trolls. Would you like me to keep going?”

  She whipped around to face me. “You can’t hurt him! Promise me!” She grabbed on to my forearm with both hands. “He’s just a kid. He’ll get the hang of his abilities soon enough, and once he does, he can and will destroy anyone who seeks to harm him. But for now…he’s vulnerable.”

  Ray whistled. “So, a troll, huh? That sounds intense. Does he morph? Or is he always in his troll form?”

  Kayla looked like she wanted to ram a fist into Ray’s face, so I gently restrained her, walking her backward a few paces. “I need you to calm down. No one is hurting your brother.” I put as much emphasis on my words as possible, hoping my power would have some kind of effect on her. “None of us care what he is, or what he can turn into. He’s an innocent pawn, caught up in a very complicated game. We will find him—alive—and once we do, we will keep him safe. You have my word, Kayla. I’m not sure why you’re choosing not to trust us after all this, but it would be beneficial for you to start doing so now. We’re standing in front of your apartment, and if this isn’t proof enough of where our loyalties lie, I can’t do much better.”

  She openly assessed me, her heartbeat elevated as she tried to gauge how much of what I was saying was true. I spread my arms wide to show her I wasn’t hiding anything. She and her brother must’ve been on the run for some time, subsequently building up a lot of trust issues. “He’s not a regular…troll,” she finally conceded. “He’s an…ice troll. But he hasn’t fully come into his powers yet.” The rest of her words came out hasty and rushed. “He can only shift sometimes, but it’s unpredictable, and when it happens…it’s messy.”

  Messy? It sounded chaotic.

  “It’s okay, Kayla. We’re going to help him.”

  2

  “Ice troll?” Rourke commented after Kayla was done. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of one before.” That was sayi
ng something, because Rourke was old. His Pride had died out long ago, leaving him the sole survivor.

  Kayla stuck out her chin. “The proper Icelandic term is blár risastór, which translates to ‘blue giant.’”

  “So, are you telling us your brother turns into a blue Hulk?” Ray asked incredulously, ending on an appreciative whistle. “That might be the single-most-awesome thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “I’m not familiar with a shifter who turns into a giant either,” I said.

  “He’s not technically a troll or a giant.” She rocked back and forth on her heels, agitated. “Once he shifts, he resembles…a large gargoyle, his body coloring slate blue.”

  Rourke nodded. “I’ve met a few gargoyle shifters in my time. They’re among the strongest and most powerful of any shifter, their skin tough as stone. Though, I haven’t seen one for centuries. I thought they’d died out.”

  Kayla shrugged. “My mother’s ancestors were giants, said to be interbred with gargoyles. My brother’s abilities were…a surprise.” She cleared her throat. “We were told his genes…are unusual. He’s not a troll or a giant, he’s a blár risastór.”

  A necromancer married a giantess with latent gargoyle genes.

  It was actually quite astounding.