Bound by Blood by Cynthia Eden

vampire stepped forward. “I’m not afraid of—”
    “Death?” Jace finished silkily. “You sure about that? Because one fine dark night, in an alley that smelled of blood and vomit, you sure seemed afraid to me.” Jace wasn’t exactly sure how it had happened. Vampires were the only ones who were supposed to be able to drink memories.
    But when he’d taken Morgan’s blood moments before, he’d seen her life. Seen her transform this one—Paul—even as she cried and whispered her apologies. She hadn’t wanted to make him into a monster, but she hadn’t been able to let him die, not when he’d wanted to live.
    “You asshole—” Paul lunged at Jace with bared fangs.
    “Stop.” Morgan’s quiet voice. Her hand touched Paul’s shoulder. The vampire stilled instantly.
    Morgan tilted her head back and met Jace’s stare. “How do you know about that night?”
    No point lying. Besides, he didn’t want to lie. Not to her. “I drank your memories, princess.”
    Instant murmurs of disbelief came from the vampires. Paul shook his head. “No, no way, that can’t happen. Plenty of humans have tasted our blood and seen nothing. ”
    “I’m not human.” Jace stated the obvious. “Those rules don’t apply to me.” And in their blood past, all those long centuries of hate that stood between the vampires and werewolves, well, his kind hadn’t wanted to spend time tasting a vampire’s blood. Ripping them apart. Beheading them.
    Not sampling the blood supply.
    “The game has changed now,” he said as the vampires and wolves eyed each other. He didn’t know if that was good or bad. Behind him, he heard the snap of bones. Jace glanced back. That snap hadn’t come from one of his own shifting. The demon’s neck was popping back into place. Not much longer.
    “Hold him,” he ordered Louis. “Don’t…start until I get back.”
    Torture would come. Anything, everything that he had to do in order to make the demon talk.
    Then he glanced back at Morgan. “You need me,” he told her.
    “Why?” From Paul again. “Do you really think she needs someone to drain her dry?”
    The bastard was begging for a beating. Begging. But… Morgan cares for him. “The way you did when she changed you? How many days did she sleep after that because you took too much? How many—”
    “ Enough!” Morgan’s shout froze them all. She looked like a breeze would topple her then, but her voice packed a punch of undeniable fury. “ You.” She jabbed her finger at Paul.
    “You were desperate, changing—you had to take my blood. I offered it to you.”
    Paul smirked. Begging.
    “And you.” She exhaled as she shook her head and focused on Jace. “What did you think I was going to do? Let you die in front of me?” Before he could answer, she ran a shaking hand over her neck. “You might be an alpha asshole, but you’re mine, and I wasn’t letting you go without a fight.”
    “And I won’t let you go.” Ever. His hand lifted and rubbed lightly over the marks he’d left on her flesh. “Now you need me… let me help you .”
    Her tongue snaked out and licked over her lower lip. He knew she understood his meaning because her fangs started to grow.
    “The battle’s coming. You have to be strong.” A strength she’d get from him. He eased back and offered his hand. “Come with me.”
    But she was shaking her head. “This isn’t your place, wolf.”
    A stiffness filled his chest. Pain.
    “It’s mine.” She grabbed his hand. “So you come with me.” Then she led him away from the vampires and wolves. Led him up a spiral staircase and into a room without windows. A room that smelled of her.
    Before the door closed, he had her in his arms.
    Five minutes.
    Not even that. Not now.
    His lips took hers. Jace thrust his tongue inside her mouth. She kissed him back with no hesitation, even though the scent of fear still hovered on her skin. He stroked her with his tongue, caressed with his lips, but the scent