Find Me When the Sun Goes Down (Forged Bloodlines #3)

  Find Me

  When the Sun Goes Down

  By

  Lisa Olsen

  Copyright © 2013 Lisa Olsen, all rights reserved.

  Cover Image licensed by Depositphotos.com/Kostia Gerashchenko

  This book is sold subject to the conditions that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, copied, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any other format or changed in any way, including the author’s name and title, and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The use of any real person, company or product names are for literary effect only and used without permission. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

  Visit the author’s website at http://www.lisaolsen.net

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to my editing team, Beckie Pimentel, Marilyn Weaver and my James for helping make this book the best it could be! Randi Pandi, thanks for your superfast beta skills, as usual. Thanks to everyone who contacted me through my website and left reviews, I love hearing from you guys!

  Chapter One

  “I’m sorry, what?” I blinked. Maybe I’d heard him wrong? “It sounded like you said you’re…”

  “I’m leaving tomorrow night for the House of Vetis.” Bishop took another deep drink of scotch, dark brows drawn together in a scowl over green eyes that stared at something (or nothing), deep in thought. Wherever that was, it didn’t sound at all pleasant. I waited expectantly on his couch for a little more by way of explanation, but he sat there doing his best imitation of a thundercloud. Not that Bishop was given to smiley hugs and rainbows on most days, but this took brooding to a new level.

  “Okay, sweetie, you’re saying that like I should know what it means. Where is the House of whatsits?”

  “England.”

  “Oh, that is far.” Did planes even go to England from San Francisco without stopping? I didn’t think so.

  “It’s the seat of power in Europe. It’s a good opportunity for me,” he said woodenly, his inflection leaving it clear what he thought of said opportunity.

  “So, when you say transferred, that means…”

  “Worst case scenario, that’s my new permanent location.”

  After everything we’d been through, the attempts on my life, all the rigmarole to be together, the transfer couldn’t come at a worse time. “How could something like this happen? I thought you were the boss of the West?”

  “I keep coming back to Kursik.” He rubbed absently at the scruff on his cheek; he’d forgotten to shave. “He said something as much to you, didn’t he?”

  And Bishop had been quick to dismiss the threat. “I thought you said he didn’t have any pull in the Order.”

  “I never should have underestimated him. I should have known he’d want me out of the way for a clear path to you.”

  Apart from the initial shock of the news and the rapidness of the transfer, I wasn’t quite clear why he looked like he’d been delivered a death sentence. A trip to England didn’t sound all that bad to me. It sounded kind of exciting. Then again, I hadn’t done too much in the way of traveling outside the United States. My life experiences as a newbie vampire didn’t give me the same perspective as a four hundred sixty year old who’d spent the last couple hundred years enforcing vampire law for the Order.

  I didn’t like the way he wouldn’t look at me, and I laid a hand over his. Bishop’s thumb passed over mine, but he gave no other reaction. “I’m sorry.”

  “This isn’t your fault, Anja. I’ve always known my life isn’t my own. A transfer like this isn’t unheard of, it’s just lousy timing.”

  I shook my head, still processing. “It’s so sudden. Do you always get such short notice?”

  “No.” His jaw tightened perceptibly. “The Order is a bureaucracy at its heart, like any other organization. There’s usually ample time to find a replacement before a transfer of this level is put through. That, and someone of my position is usually consulted,” he replied bitterly.

  “Alright then…” I gave his hand a squeeze, my mind made up. “That doesn’t give us much time, but that’s okay. I’ll make a list of what we need to do before we leave. I’ll need to make a list of what to pack too…” I’d already quit school at the Central Coast Academy of Fine Arts and moved in with Bishop, so I didn’t need to give notice to anyone.

  It might actually come in handy to announce those changes to my restrictive parents from another continent, come to think of it. I hadn’t had time to look for a job yet, it was probably the best time in my life to pick up and move so abruptly. Already spinning a mental list of what to take care of with only one night to make preparations, Bishop’s objection caught me completely off guard.

  “You’re not going with me.”

  “You don’t want me to come with you?” I couldn’t keep the hurt from my voice. He turned to look at me for the first time, and I saw the anguish behind his eyes. There was my Bishop, the man behind the rigidly controlled vampire cop. The one who loved me as much as I loved him, no matter what asinine thing came out of his mouth half the time.

  “It’s not that I don’t want you with me.” His voice softened and he reached up to draw his thumb along the line of my jaw. “But I don’t know what I’m walking into. Let me go check things out, see what’s brewing. I’m hoping I can get this straightened out and I’ll be back inside of a week.”

  That didn’t sound so bad, but I couldn’t help but take on a worst case scenario stance. I had to know if it might really be goodbye for us because he didn’t want me stirring up questions into my forged past and his involvement in their manufacture. “What if you can’t?”

  “Then, we can talk about you coming out to join me. If that’s what you want.”

  “Of course it’s what I want,” I answered unreservedly. “I love you.”

  Bishop pulled me into the shelter of his embrace, holding tightly to me for long seconds before he seemed to realize he might be crushing me to death. Personally, I didn’t mind, it wouldn’t be such a bad way to go.

  We sat together on the couch, wrapped up in each other, lost to our own thoughts. It had only been a few short weeks since I’d met Bishop, but I already couldn’t imagine my life without him. The identity I’d cobbled for myself in the vampire community showcased me as a cool, sophisticated vampire of around four hundred or so, capable of killing on a whim, thanks to my Ellri Sire and his powerful blood. But deep down inside (okay, not so deep) I was still the same slightly geeky, mostly shy, sometimes naïve, girl I’d been before I woke up in the morgue.

  Could I survive without Bishop? Sure I could. I wasn’t the type to immolate myself just because a guy left me, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t miss him awfully.

  His fingers sifted through my hair, studying the golden strands caught there. “It won’t be for long, I’ll be back before you know it. You’ll see,” he assured me, and I took him at his word, enjoying the comfort even if it proved to be false.

  “Bishop?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, but why don’t you want to go to England? Not that I want you to leave, but why is this such a terrible thing? You’ve been transferred before, right? And there’s nothing specifically tying us here to San Francis
co.” Apart from my parents and my sister, Hanna. But I was twenty-one, not twelve, it wasn’t like I couldn’t stand to get out and see the world a bit, especially with Bishop at my side.

  “Because it represents everything I chose to leave behind. All the politics and power plays… I spent hundreds of years surrounded by their petty scheming. Those people… I wanted nothing more to do with them.”

  It occurred to me that I’d get a real window into Bishop’s past by traveling with him to Europe. Was that why he didn’t want to take me along from the get go? Sure, he was secretive about his past, but I felt like he’d really opened up to me recently. That couldn’t be it, could it? “I can understand that,” I said carefully. “But you don’t have to get caught up in it again, do you? You’re not under Carys’ thumb anymore. You’re a big muckety muck in the Order. You can still stay out of politics if you want.”

  Bishop let out a snort of laughter. “You have a lot to learn about vampire politics.”

  *

  Unfortunately, we couldn’t spend Bishop’s last night in town snuggling the night away because he had a ton of preparations to make for leaving on such short notice. I offered to help him get packed while he went down to the Order HQ to have an emergency pow-wow with his team. It wasn’t hard to do — most of his clothes tended to be black or shades of gray, it didn’t need much color coordinating.

  I hesitated over the lone suit I found hanging in his closet, remembering the one time I’d seen him in it, on the night of my performance at the college. My Sire had certainly thrown a monkey wrench into the works by showing up out of the blue, expecting me to follow him when he beckoned. Could Jakob be responsible for the sudden transfer? He’d given his word to leave us alone, hadn’t he? I’d been so relieved at the time that he hadn’t carted me off or killed Bishop for fighting for me, that I wasn’t exactly sure what the ancient vampire elder had agreed to.

  Would Jakob show up at my door the moment Bishop left town?

  Bishop came back about an hour before dawn and completed the rest of his packing, stowing more guns in the case than underwear.

  “I’m pretty sure they have guns in England too.” Didn’t they? It seemed like the Order would have toys for him to play with there.

  “I like to be prepared,” he shrugged, laying his 9mm on the breakfast bar next to the case.

  I was tired, feeling the sun creeping higher in the sky even though the shutters were locked up tight, but there was one thing I still wanted to talk to him about before he left. “You know, we’ve never really talked about what it means that you’ve claimed me.”

  “It means what it sounds like.” Bishop stripped off his shirt and I watched the ripple of muscles in fascination as he undressed the rest of the way. “I’ve claimed you as my woman, you belong to me.”

  The words cut through the haze of hormones surging at the casual striptease. “Like a Buick?”

  Bishop chuckled, tossing his clothes away into the hamper in the closet. Neat until the end. “You’re under my protection. I’ve publicly proclaimed that you’re off limits.”

  That didn’t sound so bad. “As in off the market? Like going steady?”

  “It’s… a little deeper than that.”

  “Like… we’re married?”

  Bishop swallowed. “It’s… different from marriage. It’s its own thing. The ties that bind us together, they’re not so lightly broken.”

  No complaints from me there.

  “Also, no one else can taste you without my permission.”

  “Interesting.” I quirked a single brow at him. “Any other body parts of mine you have ownership over besides my blood?”

  “I’d be happy to show you,” he grinned wolfishly, sweeping me up into his arms. I barely felt him lay me back against the bed; I was too distracted by all the other interesting sensations going on atop the cool sheets.

  Bishop seemed bent on leaving me with a lasting impression, and I had zero complaints with him claiming ownership to any part of my body when he treated it with such reverence and delight. I had a feeling it might have gone on much, much longer, but I was so tired after the sun rose that I could barely keep my eyes open.

  I snuggled up beside him, falling into our natural sleeping position with my head tucked against his shoulder, fingers tracing the light dusting of hair across his chest. “You belong to me too, right?” It seemed an important distinction to make before sleep took me for the day.

  “Definitely.” Bishop sighed contentedly, his fingers trailing across my back.

  “And Jakob… Do you think he’s really accepted this?”

  Bishop stiffened at the mention of my Sire. “He said he did, but… he could change his mind at any time. The Ellri have no laws to bind them.”

  “Then you think there might be a chance Jakob could be behind the transfer?”

  “No, I don’t.” I relaxed at his reply. If Bishop wasn’t worried, I wouldn’t borrow trouble over it either. “He’d kill me if he changed his mind.”

  Cool beans. Nothing to worry about at all…

  *

  It was early evening when I awoke. Instead of an empty space beside me as I’d come to expect, I felt Bishop lying beside me, his arms wrapped around me as though we’d never parted in sleep. Moving carefully so as not to disturb him in the unlikely event he was still asleep, I found him gazing up at the ceiling.

  “Hi,” I whispered, not wanting to break the cocoon of stillness surrounding us. Bishop seemed to feel the same way, pressing a kiss to my forehead by way of a response. In the end my inquisitive nature couldn’t leave the empty space though. “Whatcha doing?”

  “Just thinking.”

  “About what?”

  “Doesn’t matter. Anja, you know how much you mean to me, don’t you?” A furrow appeared on his brow, bringing the tilt of a smile to my lips at the naked emotion I saw there.

  “I like to think I do.” He hadn’t said the “L word” yet, but I knew he felt it.

  “I would have fought Jakob to the death for you if he hadn’t stepped aside, you know.”

  “I know.”

  “Whatever happens, we’ll be together again, if I have to move Heaven and Earth to get back to you.”

  “I love you too.” I leaned down to steal a kiss and Bishop didn’t let me get away with a perfunctory peck on the lips. Knowing he had to leave soon lent a note of urgency to our kiss, but instead of taking the usual course, he pulled back, eyes sweeping over my face as if committing it to memory.

  “I want you to feed from me before I leave.”

  Not the proclamation of undying love I’d expected, but not a bad suggestion either. “Won’t you need to keep your strength up for the flight?” I couldn’t help but ask.

  “I’ll eat on the plane. I’d rather you have something potent in you before you have to try and fend for yourself.”

  “Oh, right.” I’d have to hunt on my own or risk getting sick again from bagged blood. That meant I’d have to overcome my natural aversion to hunting in the first place. So far I wouldn’t call my previous attempts successful, even though I had managed to stop in time the last time I’d fed without supervision. Too bad Evan had died anyway from the cocktail of anticoagulants in his blood designed to kill me. Bishop must have seen the way my thoughts had turned, and he tilted my face up by the chin, drawing my attention back to him.

  “I’ve been thinking about that, and I’ve already asked Mason to take you out hunting a few times, until you feel like you’re ready to be on your own.”

  “Thanks, that does make me feel better.” Plus, Mason was one of the few people who knew my secrets, so I wouldn’t have to pretend around him. “Are you sure he’ll have time with you gone, though?”

  “He’ll make time. And if you have any… accidents, call him. He’ll know who to contact to clean it up.”

  He meant if I accidentally killed anyone else. I’d rather go hungry than risk it, but at the same time I knew the best way to avoid causing perman
ent damage was to feed before I got so hungry I noticed it. “Thanks. It sounds like you’ve thought of everything.”

  “I’ll always take care of you, Anja.” Dark lashes fanned across the top of his cheeks as his eyes lowered, head dipping to press a kiss to my collarbone. A soft breath hissed between my teeth as his tongue laved over the hollow there and I felt my fangs descend in anticipation of tasting him. But first he laid worship to my body one last time, as though it might be years before we saw each other again.

  It was only after he’d brought me to a shuddering release that Bishop led me to the bluish veins at his neck, and I remembered I was supposed to be feeding. My lips parted eagerly to find the salty-sweet taste of him, savoring the texture of his skin and the way his body tensed in anticipation of the pleasure mingled with pain. Ever so slowly, I pierced the skin, letting my hands roam freely, guiding him to take me even as I took him. I drank and drank as he moved within me, relishing the way his muscles bunched and shifted under my hands as we strained against each other, loving the sounds he made that reverberated through me with each pull of my mouth against his flesh.

  I felt the scrape of his fangs at my shoulder, and I knew what he wanted, but Bishop held back, putting my needs ahead of his own. Didn’t he know I had another hunger that needed satisfying?

  “Do it,” I murmured against his skin, tongue sweeping out to collect the pinpricks of blood that formed.

  “No,” he groaned. “I shouldn’t…”

  “Do it,” I commanded, my fingers sifting through his hair, pulling tight when I felt the sting of his teeth and the unbearable pleasure that bloomed from his first drink. Drowning in a sea of sensation, I clung to him as it went on and on. Our bodies pulsed together as we found the sweet spot between life and death, collapsing in a tangle of limbs.

  It still felt weird not to feel my heart pounding against his, reminding me I wasn’t human anymore. Despite the fact that neither of us needed oxygen, we were both breathing hard, and I might have felt crushed beneath his weight without my vampire resilience. Bishop seemed to realize I was trapped beneath him in the next instant though, rolling onto his back and bringing me with him. We lay that way for long minutes, neither of us feeling the need to speak.