Entangled in Scarlet: A Paranormal Vampire Romance (Blood Oath Book 3) Read online

  Entangled in Scarlet

  Blood Oath #3

  J.A. Carter

  Table of Contents

  Also by J.A. Carter

  Blurb

  1. Kade

  2. Calla

  3. Kade

  4. Calla

  5. Kade

  6. Calla

  7. Kade

  8. Calla

  9. Kade

  10. Calla

  11. Kade

  12. Calla

  13. Kade

  14. Calla

  15. Kade

  16. Calla

  17. Kade

  18. Calla

  Acknowledgments

  Entangled in Scarlet

  Published by J.A. Carter

  Copyright © 2022 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.

  Also by J.A. Carter

  Blood Oath Series

  Bound in Crimson

  Tempted by Fire

  Entangled in Scarlet

  Fated in Ruby

  Blurb

  They vowed to own me—body, heart, and soul. I never thought I’d let them.

  The only thing more terrifying than being taken captive by four vampires is falling for each of them. Despite their rocky start, Calla can’t imagine her life without the immortals she’s bound to.

  And when they’re attacked by vampire hunters, they have no choice but to run. While Calla struggles with another life-altering ambush, Kade faces his own in the form of his dead sister. They say the bonds of family are the strongest, but this reunion isn’t a happy one.

  As tensions rise between the vampires and hunters, extreme measures are taken by the oldest vampires in history to ensure the survival of their race. There isn’t a moment to breathe before Calla is once again forced to acknowledge the deal her ancestors made for her life.

  Until she discovers the consequences of the blood oath may not be hers to face…

  This one is for the readers who live for the sexual tension between Atlas and Calla.

  1

  Kade

  Being stabbed hurts like a motherfucker.

  Fire licks across my skin, radiating from where the dagger sticks out of my chest.

  She missed my heart. Barely.

  The sky above me is bright, and I squint at the sun, closing my eyes as the sound of Calla screaming rips through the air.

  Everything happens in slow motion after that.

  Atlas’s sharp voice pushes past the fog gathering in my head. “Open your eyes, Kade.”

  I force them open, only for the world to spin. We’re moving—toward the house, I think. My eyes close again; I can’t keep them open.

  My fangs cut into my bottom lip, and my stomach churns at the taste of my own blood, my head clouding with thoughts of death—the end of my immortal existence—and at the hand of my own sister.

  Meredith.

  Her name punches me in the gut, knocking the air out of my lungs.

  She’s alive. But how? Who made her a vampire, and why? Why didn’t she come to me after it happened? What in the actual fuck was her reason for stabbing me at our reunion? So many questions and so much pain, I can’t breathe.

  I’m vaguely aware of Atlas setting me on the couch in the living room as he says something to Calla. It’s too muffled for me to make out, but a moment later, he grips my shoulder, and white-hot pain explodes in my chest, filling my entire body as he pulls out the dagger, slamming it down on the coffee table.

  I gasp loudly, my eyes flying open as I growl at him before I can stop myself.

  “You’re welcome,” he mutters, his jaw set tight.

  “Is he going to be okay?” Calla’s voice is small and filled with fear. Atlas glances past me; Calla must be standing behind the couch, but everything still hurts too much for me to turn and look.

  “The dagger missed his heart. He’ll live but he needs blood.”

  The room is silent for a moment, replaced quickly by the sound of her footsteps moving away from the couch. When the next sound that reaches me is of her pulling a knife from the block in the kitchen, I force myself into a sitting position, gripping the back of the couch until my knuckles turn white. I peer down at my chest and grumble incoherently. This was one of my favorite shirts.

  Calla walks back to the couch, swallowing hard as her pulse kicks up.

  I eye the knife in her hand. “What are you doing?”

  “Atlas said you need blood.” Her voice is shaky but her grip is steady.

  “There are bags of blood in the fridge in—”

  “Fresh blood will heal you faster,” Atlas chimes in.

  “It’s okay,” Calla assures, perching on the couch next to me.

  Atlas plucks the knife out of her hand, setting it next to the dagger, and Lex walks through the front door before Calla can say anything.

  He looks downright pissed. “I fucking lost her.” He focuses his gaze on me. “I’m sorry, brother.”

  I shrug, still in knots thinking about the target he was chasing. I haven’t seen my sister in over a century, and after months of searching for someone who clearly didn’t want to be found, the authorities gave up hope that she was alive. Weeks after that, our parents did too.

  I need to know what happened. I need to find her and figure out what the hell went down the night she disappeared and the decades that followed. Our parents are long dead, and I’ve made my own family with Lex, Gabriel, and Atlas, but she’s still my sister. Even if she wants nothing to do with me, I need some semblance of closure.

  “You good?” Lex checks, glancing between me and the others.

  “I’ll live,” I tell him before turning my attention to Calla. She immediately offers me her wrist, and I don’t hesitate. I don’t have the control to ease into it or be gentle. My fangs sink into her skin and the taste of her blood explodes on my tongue.

  She winces, pressing her lips together, but doesn’t pull away. Once my venom has a chance to reach her system, she relaxes, leaning against the back of the couch as a sigh escapes her lips and her eyes flutter shut. The sight sends blood straight to my cock, making it twitch in my pants. Despite almost dying at the hand of my supposed-to-be-dead sister, Calla still makes me fucking hard. It’s kind of messed up, but I really don’t have the strength to give a fuck right now.

  “Kade,” Atlas says in warning, and I notice the sound of Calla’s heartbeat slowing.

  I force myself to pull away and drag my tongue over the puncture marks to seal them.

  She blinks her eyes open, smiling softly. “Better?”

  I nod, leaning in to kiss her cheek. “Thank you.”

  Lex walks behind the couch, leaning against the back of it, and lets out a heavy sigh. “What in the actual fuck just happened?”


  Despite the warmth of Calla’s blood flowing through me, a shiver races down my spine, making my muscles tense. “That was Meredith.” The sound of her name leaving my lips after all this time has nausea rippling through me, and I clench my jaw for a moment before I’m able to continue.

  “I thought your sister was dead,” Lex says, raking his fingers through his already messy white hair.

  I blow out a breath, which does nothing to ease the pressure in my chest. “Yeah. So did I.” Part of me wants to get off this couch and go after her. Lex couldn’t find her after she fled, but maybe I can track her blood. We share the same DNA, so there’s a chance I can find her. Though that begs the question of why I never felt her presence before. Excellent. Another fucking question that left unanswered is going to make my head explode soon.

  Atlas gets up, walking to the kitchen and pouring a glass of orange juice, before coming back and sitting on the armrest. He tilts Calla’s face up with a finger under her chin. “You need to drink this.”

  She blinks her eyes open and, surprisingly, takes the glass without protest and drinks until it’s empty before handing it back to him.

  “Good girl,” Atlas says.

  “Fuck off,” she shoots back.

  My lips twitch. That’s our girl.

  “What do we do now?” Calla asks, her brows pinching together with worry.

  “Add this to our ever-growing list of problems,” Lex offers, shrugging.

  Without warning, the entire back wall of windows shatter. There isn’t a moment to process what just happened before half a dozen men and women dressed in all-black uniforms flood into our home with vicious, hateful expressions and daggers raised to fight—to kill.

  Goddamn vampire hunters. Now? Really?

  They rush forward, but Atlas and Lex are faster.

  “Get her out of here,” Atlas barks over his shoulder, his fangs bared as he takes on a hunter. The man, who is at least a foot taller than Atlas snarls at him, swinging his fist toward the vampire’s face. Atlas laughs harshly, catching the hunter’s fist in his hand, and throws him backward, taking out two other hunters.

  I’m already off the couch, hauling Calla up and shielding her with my body as we move toward the garage.

  Lex smirks from where he’s facing off with two female hunters, who apparently thought if they worked together they could take him out. Not likely.

  “We can’t leave them,” Calla cries, her voice pitched high with fear. She tries to dig her heels into the floor to stop us, but I lift her easily and keep moving until we reach the door to the garage. “Kade!”

  “They’re right behind us. Chill the fuck out.” I meet her brown, wide-eyed gaze and smirk. “Please.”

  She stops fighting me, but her heart is still beating rampantly in her chest.

  “Everything is going to be fine,” I tell her, pushing the garage door open, then pulling it shut behind us. I have no fucking clue if that’s true, but the terror on her face is making me feel sick. I want to do whatever is necessary to make it go away.

  The sounds of feet scuffling and bodies hitting the floor inside the house continues as we walk to the Escalade. My gums throb uncomfortably at the scent of human blood hanging in the air. I get Calla into the backseat and slam the door shut, climbing behind the wheel. Atlas’s souped-up vehicle isn’t my ride of choice, but it’s the most practical at the moment. I glance at the bright red Maserati beside us and frown. There’s a good chance I won’t be able to come back for my baby, and that fucking sucks.

  I turn the key in the ignition and start the car just as the door to the house opens and the guys jog toward us, their clothes spattered in blood. Atlas takes the passenger seat, while Lex climbs in the back with Calla.

  “Drive,” Atlas growls, staring forward.

  I pull out of the spot without a word and hit the door opener before peeling out of the garage. Heaviness hangs in the car as we leave the house in the rearview; we all must know we’re not coming back here, to the home we built.

  We’re barely past the Washington city limits when Lex gets on the phone to Marcel. He fills him in on the situation, though Marcel had already gotten a call from our security team notifying him of a breach in the system, they had no idea there had been an attack. The hunters must’ve overrode the tech; our team didn’t even have a chance to move in before they attacked.

  “I’ll have a team go in and clean things up,” Marcel tells Lex. “Keep moving. I’ll text you the address to a safe house a few hours from you.”

  They end the call, and Lex sighs. “You got all that?” he checks with Atlas and me, and we both nod.

  “Yeah, no. I don’t have super hearing,” Calla says. “Someone want to tell me what’s going on?”

  “We can’t go back to the house now that the hunters know about it—about us.”

  Which begs the question of how they found out we’re vampires. It doesn’t make sense. We’ve lived for decades—for over a century—undetected by them. What the fuck happened?

  “Right,” Calla says with a frown I catch in the rearview mirror. “And what about that girl? Meredith?”

  My grip on the steering wheel tightens, and I press the gas a little harder. “I had no idea she was alive… or that she had been turned. She, uh, disappeared from a party a long time ago, when we were both still human.” I merge onto the interstate and speed up to get into the fast lane before continuing. “We searched for months, but once a certain period of time had passed, she was presumed dead.” I swallow hard, surprised at the emotion clogging my throat after so long. “My family, we had a memorial service and buried an empty casket.”

  Calla sucks in a breath. “I’m so sorry.” A moment later, she asks, “Why would she come after you after all this time? Or at all, for that matter?”

  I keep my eyes on the road. “Before everything happened, we were very close. Her… her disappearance devastated me. I can honestly say I have no idea why she would try to kill me.”

  Atlas clears his throat. “Perhaps we should consider the possibility that her attack was a distraction for the hunters’ ambush.”

  My stomach clenches at his words, at his assumption that Meredith could possibly be working with the hunters. I thought I knew her better than anyone else in the world, but I have to look at the facts here. I haven’t seen or spoken to her in more than a human lifespan. I have to face the idea that I have no idea who she is now or what she’s capable of.

  “Well, fuck.” Lex’s voice is low, deepened with anger. “We now know of at least two vampires who are associated with the hunters.”

  “Wait. You think Selene had something to do with this too?” Calla asks.

  “It really doesn’t matter right now,” Atlas says, glancing down when his phone chimes. Mine and Lex’s do as well. “It’s Marcel.” Atlas plugs the address he sent us into the GPS built into the dash.

  I glance at the map on the screen and sigh. We still have a little over three hours of driving to reach the safe house and decide on our next move.

  “You want me to drive?” Atlas checks.

  I shake my head automatically. “I’m good.”

  “Liar,” Lex mutters from the back seat. “Pull over and let Atlas drive.”

  “I said—”

  “Kade,” Calla cuts in with a soft voice. “Please.”

  I meet her eyes in the mirror for a moment before letting out a low breath. “Fine.” I flip the signal on and pull off to the shoulder, putting the car in park. Unbuckling my seat belt, I get out of the vehicle, pulling in a deep breath. The early afternoon air is warm for the middle of April, but it does nothing to combat the chill in my bones. I can’t get Meredith’s face out of my head. Or the burn of the dagger she plunged into my chest.

  “Kade.” Atlas’s voice pulls me back, and I blink at him. He claps me on the shoulder. “Do you need a minute before we keep moving?”

  I shake my head. “Let’s just go.” Walking around the front of the Escalade, I cl
imb into the passenger seat and buckle up, staring out the windshield as Atlas gets behind the wheel and pulls back onto the interstate.

  2

  Calla

  After dozing off a couple of hours into the drive, I come to, blinking my eyes open when I can no longer feel the car moving but instead feel the warmth of Lex’s hand against my cheek. The sky outside the tinted windows is still light, and I glance at the clock on the dash—it’s a little after five.

  “We’re here,” he murmurs in a tired, soft voice. The darkness under his eyes makes me feel bad for sleeping.

  I nod, reaching for my seat belt. Before I can open the door, Kade is out of the passenger seat and opening it for me, offering his hand. Accepting it, I let him help me out of the car, the gravel driveway crunching under my Doc Martens. I sway a little, still not fully awake, and he catches me easily, sliding an arm around my waist.

  A quick glance around lets me know we’re not in any type of large city. Aside from the small, single-level, white farmhouse up the driveway, there are only pine trees for as far as I can see, their muted green color matching the shutters on either side of the windows in the front of the house. The air is warm and fresh, the late afternoon sun beating down on us.

  “Where are we?” I ask as we walk toward the place I imagine we’ll be staying until we figure out what the hell happened back in Washington.

  The wood steps up to the paint-chipped porch creak under us, and I cringe, trying to step lightly. The only modern thing about this place so far is the lock built into the faded blue door. It’s a numbered touchpad that Atlas quickly keys the code into, opening the door.