Bound in Crimson: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Blood Oath Book 1) Read online

  Bound In Crimson

  Blood Oath #1

  J.A. Carter

  Table of Contents

  Blurb

  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

  Acknowledgments

  Bound in Crimson

  Published by J.A. Carter

  Copyright © 2021 by J.A. Carter

  www.authorjacarter.com

  Cover Design: Keylin Rivers

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Blurb

  I should hate them, yet there’s no denying my body reacts to their every touch.

  When my ancestors lost everything in a business deal gone wrong, they were forced to make a sacrifice—a blood oath, promising the firstborn daughter of their bloodline to a league of vampires.

  And now they’ve come to collect.

  Atlas.

  Kade.

  Gabriel.

  Lex.

  All seductively sexy and unimaginably dangerous.

  Torn from everything I've ever known, they take me captive in their Washington, D.C. mansion.

  Each is determined to own me—body, heart, and soul. I’d be lying if I said the thought of that didn't make my skin tingle in anticipation. Still, the alluring immortals are in for a surprise, because ancient debt aside, I’m not going down without a fight.

  This one’s for me.

  1

  There are four vampires in my living room.

  The space is blanketed in darkness save for the dim light cast against the aged hardwood floor from the one window in the room. It’s closed—painted shut by the previous tenant—but the chirp of a car horn in the distance still rings through the silence.

  None of them move. One leans against the exposed brick wall near my flat-screen, while the others occupy the light gray L-shaped couch I saved up for months to afford.

  Do they think I can’t see them? Surely they can hear the thundering heartbeats in my chest.

  I stand frozen in the entryway, my key still in the lock. My eyes shift to the clock on the stove in my kitchen. It’s almost one in the morning. Tonight has already been long, full of studying at the campus library, but the pit in my stomach tells me it’s about to get a lot fucking worse.

  My right leg shifts back.

  “Don’t run.”

  That smooth, deep, siren-like voice tries to trick my brain into keeping my feet anchored in place, but I know better. I whirl around, dropping my book bag in the doorway as I bolt for the bank of elevators at the end of the hall.

  My heart slams against my chest in time with my white Doc Martens hitting the polished floor with each stride.

  “Calla.”

  I swallow a yelp, turning to look over my shoulder as I keep running, only to find the hallway empty.

  I slide to a halt and slam my fist against the elevator button, throwing myself inside the second it slides open. It’s only once the door has shut that I let out a shaky breath. I inhale slowly, fighting the urge to scream until my throat is raw.

  This can’t be happening. Not yet.

  Pressing the button for the lobby, I fall back against the wall, my eyes burning with exhaustion. Panic floods in when I realize what a terribly stupid move that was. They’ll head straight for the lobby. I chew my lip for a second and press the button to the sixth floor. The elevator descends as the numbers count down 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 and it slows to a stop. The soft ding makes me push off the wall and step out into the quiet hallway.

  I have no idea what the hell I’m doing. All I know is that I can’t go back to the fifteenth floor and I can’t go to the lobby. I’m trapped.

  Unless…

  They likely took the stairs down to the lobby and are waiting for the elevator—and my dumb ass.

  I walk toward the door to the stairwell. I can take that down to the parking garage and slip out onto the street from there.

  The door slams shut behind me, echoing off the concrete walls and stairs. I grip the cold metal railing as I race down the flights, noting the floor number painted in bright yellow on the wall at each landing.

  My deep brown hair clings to the back of my neck. I suck in a shallow breath as my feet hit the landing on the second floor and the door to the hallway flies open.

  I don’t have time to scream. In the time it takes me to blink, I’m against the wall. Hands grip my shoulders, pressing my back into the concrete. My dull brown gaze flies up and collides with swirling silver irises.

  I immediately turn feral. I fight against his grip, kicking and scratching at his chest with my chipped emerald fingernails. It doesn’t faze him. And when I open my mouth to scream, he quickly clamps his hand over it before I can make a sound.

  He exhales slowly. “Atlas told you not to run.” His voice is low, tinged with amusement. He’s enjoying this.

  It takes every ounce of strength I have to rip his hand away from my mouth. He returns that hand to my shoulder, tightening his hold on me.

  “I don’t give a shit. Let go of me,” I say through my teeth, trying to escape his grip as my heavy breathing makes the world spin around me.

  He cocks his head, and his dark brown hair falls into his face. “If I do that, you’ll run again.” The twitch of his lips has me thinking that’s exactly what he wants. They love the chase.

  “I’ll scream,” I warn, shoving against him again. I’m no match for his strength, though knowing that doesn’t convince me to stop. If anything, it makes me fight harder. It’s what has kept me motivated every single morning to wake at the crack of dawn and spend at least an hour at the gym. Training regularly to build my strength for this exact moment. I’ve managed a bit of muscle on my sadly curve-free figure but compared to these guys, I’m tiny. I was kidding myself that I’d stand a chance against a vampire—let alone four. Years of training, and it was all for nothing. My stomach plummets at the thought; I’m not ready to admit it.

  “You will,” he agrees, “though it’ll be my name before it’s anything else.” The vampire in front of me pushes me back, lowering his face to mine. “But by all means, give it a shot.” He knows as well as I do it won’t get me anywhere.

  “Who the fuck are you?” I growl instead, ignoring the way his words made my heart race. It’s a dumb question, but if I can keep him talking maybe I can buy myself some time to figure a way out of this mess.

  The guy smirks, a subtle twist of his lips that would make the purest of angels desir
e sin. “You know who I am. You ran because you know exactly who we are.”

  I grit my teeth when his fingers flex against my bare shoulders. It doesn’t hurt, but his proximity is making my knees shake. Though that could also be from sprinting down the stairs. “I ran because it’s the middle of the night and you broke into my apartment.”

  Those silver eyes snare me without effort and sparkle. “Calla, Calla, Calla.”

  I scowl when he tuts his tongue, and swallow the bile rising in my throat. “Stop saying my name.”

  He grins. “Are you going to play nice if I step away now?”

  “That depends,” I say, “if you consider me punching you in the face playing nice.”

  He whistles softly. “You’re going to be quite the handful, aren’t you?”

  That catches my attention, and I stiffen.

  “Kade, that’s enough.” The voice comes from above, and my head turns in time to see another silver-eyed guy walking down the concrete stairs toward us. This one isn’t as muscular as the guy holding me against the wall—Kade apparently—and he has wavy copper hair with strands that appear pure gold in this light. It’s a mess of waves that I can’t stop staring at.

  “Relax, Gabriel. She’s fine. Aren’t you, Calla?” He hooks my chin with his finger and turns my gaze back to him. The moment our eyes meet, a pleasant warmth floods through me, washing away the tension in my muscles.

  I nod without a single thought. Of course, I’m fine. I can’t even remember what I could have possibly been upset about.

  Kade smiles, and I find myself smiling back… until he blinks, severing the glamour.

  I stare at him for several seconds, horrified by my complete loss of control, and then I lose my shit. Tension grips me again as my eyes narrow, and I curl my fingers against my palms. “You fucking pr—”

  Gabriel pulls me away from him before I can start throwing fists. “All right, angel, let’s go.”

  In the brief moment he lets go of my arm, I duck under his and run. My grip on the railing slips from the dampness of my palm, but I manage to grab it again before falling. I make it to the next landing and collide with Gabriel’s chest.

  My head whips back toward the level above where he’d just been, and I shake my head as I struggle to catch my breath.

  “Stop running,” he says in a voice so soft, so gentle, I pause. He isn’t glamouring me.

  I take a step away, and I’m about to tell him where he can go when my back hits a solid wall of muscle. I turn to find Kade grinning at me, and my eyes burn with angry tears.

  There’s no way out.

  “Calla.” Gabriel’s smooth voice makes me look back at him.

  I shake my head, cursing myself as one awful word leaks from my lips. “Please.”

  “Oh, come on,” Kade says, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and holding me against his side. “Don’t start begging now. I much prefer your sharp tongue.”

  My brows knit as anger crackles through me once more, and I grit my teeth. “Fuck you,” I seethe, shoving away from him.

  Gabriel steps in, placing his hand at the small of my back, guiding me toward the hallway. The warmth of his hand surprises me, though I’m not sure why, and all of a sudden, it doesn’t matter. We’re moving out of the stairwell, back into the hallway to the elevator bank.

  “See? That’s much better,” Kade says from behind us, and I inhale slowly to keep myself from launching at him again. Theoretically, I know it won’t get me anywhere, but that sure as hell doesn’t mean I’m restrained enough to ignore the urge.

  We get into the elevator, and Gabriel presses the button to my floor as the door slides shut, then he leans against the wood-paneled wall. He rakes his fingers through those copper curls, and my eyes roam over him, taking in his formal appearance. Dark slacks and a starch white collared shirt make him look as if he came here from some sort of business meeting. Especially compared to the distressed jeans and the T-shirt that is barely containing Kade’s insane muscles. Gabriel looks to be a few years older than him, though both have at least a century on me. Despite that—and the reason they’re here—I can’t help but notice how attractive they are. Would I prefer to not have them in my life? Of course. Perhaps if we’d met in a bar instead of my apartment in the middle of the night, I might’ve let them buy me a drink. But that isn’t our circumstance.

  I’d like to think I can chalk up my physical attraction toward them to their vampiric allure. All humans are drawn to it despite—for the majority of the population—being oblivious to the existence of vampires, so how could I possibly think I’d be immune?

  I stare at the stubble along Kade’s defined jaw, watching as a muscle feathers along it. Despite his outward amusement to the situation, he’s tense too. And if that doesn’t put me on edge even more... What the hell does he have to be worried about?

  Kade hums under his breath—a Pink Floyd song, I think—as the elevator ascends, and my jaw is clenched so hard my molars are throbbing by the time we step off on the fifteenth floor. When we reach my apartment, Kade opens the door and walks in as if he owns the place. I follow him inside with Gabriel behind me and faintly notice my book bag is hung on the hook next to my jacket. Someone has turned on the light above my kitchen island as well as the few lamps around my living room, blanketing the relatively small space in warm light.

  The other two guys are still sitting on my couch. Waiting. They knew Kade and Gabriel would have no issues returning with me, and I hate that.

  Kade walks over and drops onto the end of the couch. It’s unsettling how comfortable he seems in my apartment. Like maybe this isn’t his first time here… A chill runs through me, and I push the thought away. I can’t think about that now.

  “Calla Montgomery,” a new voice says, and another of the guys gets off the couch and walks toward me.

  My breath halts as I take him in. He’s dressed in black from head to toe in wrinkle-free pants and a button-up shirt that makes him look as if he’s about to attend a charity banquet. His hair is a deep brown, cropped on the sides and slightly longer on top, but styled expertly, not a piece out of place. His face is all sharp angles, paired with dark brows and thick lashes. He’s tall and built like Kade, and definitely not the kind of person you’d want to meet in a dark alley—or anywhere for that matter. My body tenses, recognizing the vampire before me as a predator. Everything about him warns me away and pulls me closer in the same breath. It’s a contradiction that makes my head spin. He’s different than the others. I don’t know why or what it is about him that makes me realize it, but there’s something about him… I reel my thoughts in. Now is not the time to debate this.

  I press my lips together for a moment. “If I say you have the wrong person, will you leave?”

  Kade chuckles from the couch, but the guy standing in front of me doesn’t so much as crack a smile.

  He watches me thoughtfully for a moment, those silver eyes darkening and slicing right through me. “You understand why we’re here.” It isn’t a question.

  “Of course she knows, Atlas,” Gabriel chimes in.

  “For me,” I say anyway. My voice is flat, emotionless.

  “Are you afraid?”

  I almost laugh at the audacity of his question. “No. No, I’m super thrilled to have four strangers in my apartment for the sole reason of stealing my future.” I clamp my mouth shut as stiffness ripples through my muscles, but it’s too late. The words are out there.

  Out of nowhere, the fourth guy appears in front of me, making me jump back in surprise. His hair is white, but what really catches my attention are the black ink tattoos covering his arms and what I can see of his chest from the black V-neck he’s wearing. Vines of differing sizes wind around his left arm with thorns spaced along them and incredibly detailed roses, shaded in such a way they appear as if they’re on fire. I’ve always wanted a tattoo, but I’m not sure what. That, and the idea of undergoing that amount of pain on purpose… I don’t really understand it. T
hough I get the feeling that’d change after my first one.

  “Perhaps not the sole reason,” the tattooed vampire muses, and my eyes snap to his face just as his smoldering gaze trails the length of my body.

  Heat floods my cheeks, and I stare at him, wide-eyed. I want to look away, to run far, but I have nowhere to go. I won't make it past these guys—I need to be smarter, which likely means I need them to think I’ve given up. At least for now.

  “Don’t freak the poor girl out, Lex,” Kade says, pulling himself off the couch and approaching the small group we’ve made in the middle of my apartment.

  My stomach feels heavy as my gaze bounces around the room. I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from saying something that definitely won’t help my situation.

  I shouldn’t be in this mess.

  These guys—these vampires—are here because my ancestors promised them the first-born female of their bloodline in exchange for saving their lives. To help them out of some shady, very much illegal business deal they got wrapped up in on Wall Street. Long story short, they sacrificed my life to save themselves, sealing the fate of an unborn girl before she even had a chance.

  You’d think that might deter my great-grandparents or my grandparents or even my parents from having children. But no. In my mom’s defense, she didn’t know about the deal the Montgomery family made with the vampires until she was pregnant. My father kept it from her and prayed—like his father and grandfather did before him—that the child would be a boy.

  When the doctor told my parents I was a girl, they were heartbroken. My mom was beside herself with anger—toward my dad and the cruelty of the fate her family had been given. They wanted to protect me, of course, but how were a couple of humans supposed to fight four hundred-or-so-year-old vampires? Any possibility would’ve been laughable at best. That’s the problem with blood oaths. We are bonded on a level I’ll never be able to outrun. Though that certainly isn’t going to stop me from trying.