Bound in Blood (Broken Bloodlines Book 3)
Bound in Blood: Chapter 27

I flex my toes in the velvety sand as the heat of the late afternoon sun warms my back. Elpis circles overhead, and I watch her, mesmerized. I’m still awestruck over the fact that such majestic creatures exist and that the majority of people on this earth can’t see them. Certainly none of the people in the towns below can; otherwise, I’m certain we would have hordes of curious villagers descending upon the house.

“I never figured you as someone who would enjoy the beach, Axl.” His voice startles me, and I spin around. It’s been over an hour since Xavier told me he was looking for me. I think I’ve walked the entire length of beach and back in that time.

“I like the sound of the ocean.”

He hums softly before he sits down. “How did all those vampire legends get our relationship with sunshine so wrong? I can barely get a tan, let alone burst into flames.”

His attempt at humor is very unlike him, and it makes me uneasy. Still, when he pats the space beside him, I take a seat in the sand next to him without hesitation.

“You are aware I have resecured the bond with Xavier and Malachi, yes?”

I nod, avoiding his scrutinous gaze.

“And you have been eluding me since.”

I stare out across the ocean, the sheer vastness of it making me feel incredibly small and insignificant. “Have I?”

“I will not dignify that with an answer, for you already know it. Do you not wish to bond again?”

I turn and face him now but replace no clue in his expression as to what’s on his mind. I wish I could read him more easily, but he’s consistently closed off to us. I always thought I was special somehow, being the first vampire he turned in over a millennium. Perhaps I was wrong. “Do I get a choice?”

His right eyelid twitches. “I am afraid you do not.”

His response is unexpected, hitting me like a punch to the gut and knocking the breath from my lungs. I wish I could hide my reaction from him, but bond or not, there’s nothing I can keep from him. “I don’t?”

“You seem surprised by my response, Axl. Did you think I would not want to bond with you again? That I would allow you the freedom to leave our family unit?”

“I would never leave,” I insist. How can he even suggest such a thing? The mere thought of it flays me.

He tilts his head. “Well, of course you would never leave Ophelia.”

Is that what he thinks? “I would never leave any of you.” I ball my hands into fists and grind them into the sand. Anger simmers beneath my skin, and I have no idea why this conversation is eliciting such strong emotion. Better yet, why didn’t I simply tell him the truth—that of course I want to bond again? Fear that he wouldn’t want to has been tearing me apart since we got here last night. So what the hell is stopping me from being honest with him?

“If you would never leave, why do you want a choice?”

Tears burn my eyes, and I blink them away. “I don’t.”

“Then tell me why you asked for one.”

I clench my jaw tight and turn back to the ocean. Each wave deposits a white foam residue on the shore, leaving behind the parts of itself it no longer wants.

But Alexandros keeps on. He knows I won’t be able to avoid answering for much longer. It’s a particular skill he has. I’ve seen him use it in the classroom too. A gentle interrogation that always gets to the root of the truth, even if the person being interrogated didn’t realize what that truth was before he dug it out. “Why did you not simply ask me what you wanted to know instead?”

I grind my teeth. “And what is it you think I want to know, Alexandros?”

He holds up a handful of sand and allows it to run through his spread fingers. The silence seems to stretch between us for an eternity before he answers me. Perhaps he’s hoping I will replace the answer myself, but even if I know it, I’m not sure I can put it into words. “You wish to know why I did not come to you first. And if by not doing so, it means I favor you less now than I did before.”

I growl, angry that he’s so easily able to verbalize what I’m feeling when I can’t.

He sighs, following my gaze out toward the horizon. “I still recall the first day I saw you. Sitting on a bench in the park, staring at the water, much like you are now. So handsome and confident in your finery. Catching the eye of every pretty maid who walked by and so sure of his prowess that no one would dare believe him anything less than a man with the world at his feet. Yet those who cared to look directly below the surface, as I did, would have seen a boy. One filled with sadness and self-doubt and a deep gnawing yearning to be good enough.”

Some of that self-doubt creeps in right now; it churns in my gut and ignites a chain reaction of negative emotion that swells inside me. I do my best not to let the memories of my past life take hold and drag me into their abyss.

“I suspected it was to do with your father, but I was not entirely sure. And then I met him, and … Well, I do not need to remind you of the kind of man Alastair Thorne II was.”

That abyss opens up into a soul-sucking chasm at the mention of his name. My old self calls to me, reminding me of my true nature. And I wonder whether we can ever truly escape the lives we were born into. The people we were born as—the ones that are inherent in our DNA.

Alexandros places his hand on the back of my neck and squeezes possessively, and it anchors me back to the present. “I chose you because you reminded me of my daughter Imogen. She was a beautiful, spirited soul, much like you. Your heart had been hardened by a cruel world by the time you and I met, but your humanity has always been what draws me to you. Your passion and your resilience.” He turns my head and presses our foreheads together. “You have always been good enough, Axl Thorne. Much too good for your father. But more than good enough for everyone else. For your brothers. Xavier, Malachi, and Frederik. For Ophelia. For me.”

“I have?” Tears run down my cheeks, and I cannot recall the last time I cried openly in front of him.

“Yes, you have and you are. I cannot choose between the three of you, and I never will. You are all a part of me in different ways, and without each of you, I am decidedly less. So no, you do not have a choice, Axl Thorne. You already belong to me, and I will never let you go.”

I suck in a shaky breath. The memory of being turned creeps up on me unexpectedly, reminding me of the agony I endured to become what I am.

“It was changing that hurt. The bond will not,” he says softly. “Without the agony of the turning to endure, you will no doubt enjoy it.”

He straddles me and pulls me into his arms, and the heat from his skin burns against my flesh. He rubs his nose over my throat, and I close my eyes, listening to the gentle sound of the waves caressing the sand. I feel nothing but euphoria when he sinks his fangs into my throat. My blood hurtles to the spot where his mouth greedily suckles, and pleasure ignites in every cell of my body. I tip my head back, my mouth open on a moan when he presses his wrist to my lips, and I act only on instinct, sinking my teeth in and letting his thick, metallic blood coat my teeth and tongue. And then I feel so much more than the pleasure of bonding.

I feel power. His power. He may be less without us, but that is surely true of us without him. I forgot the feeling of invincibility that comes along with his blood. My strength is derived from him. It was not only the blue poppy that made us weaker.

There is my boy. His deep voice washes over me, and I seem to melt bonelessly into the sand, so relieved to have our bond back in place.

It’s so good to have you back.

He hums while he goes on feeding. It is good to be back. I have missed you.

I’ve missed you too. It was quiet without you in my head.

He stops feeding and laughs. “Even with Xavier, Malachi, and Ophelia inside there? Surely there is never a quiet moment in any of our heads.”

“It’s different with you. Like you’re always there even if you’re not talking.”

He presses a chaste kiss on my forehead. “I will do everything in my power to never leave you again.”

He jumps up and brushes the sand from his pants before holding his hand out to me. I take it and allow him to pull me up. I can’t help but feel there’s something different between us now. Good different.

“So there’s only Ophelia left for you to bond with again?”

He tilts his face to the sky and groans. “I am sorely tempted to bite her right now. Blue poppy be damned.” He starts to walk back to the house, and I fall into step beside him.

“So why don’t you? We’re back to full strength now. Elpis and Anikêtos are here. It may weaken you a little, but surely Ophelia’s blood is worth the risk.”

“Believe me, I have thought the same thing many times in the past twenty hours. But we do not know how long Ani and Elpis will stay. And we do not know what tomorrow brings, Axl. There is nothing worth risking her safety for. Each of us must be at full strength. To purposely weaken myself, no matter how enjoyable it would be, would be dangerous and foolhardy.”

“I guess you have a point.”

“You are aware what passed between Xavier and me earlier?”

I felt it through him, even though I suspect he tried to block us out. Despite how strong his mind is now, Xavier couldn’t mask the strength of his emotion. Which I suppose is unsurprising given how he’s craved that kind of connection with our sire for so long. “Yeah, I know. He’s … He’s wanted that for a long time.”

Alexandros sucks on his top lip and hums. “I am aware.”

“Is that why you and he … Because he wanted to?” I already know the answer. As a rule, Alexandros doesn’t do things he doesn’t want to do.

“I have wanted it too, Axl. I turned you each for different reasons, even if I were not prepared to admit it until now. You and Malachi have always been like sons to me. Yet with Xavier, from the moment I met him, I experienced a strong desire for him. But you wanted a brother, and I wanted a family, and I thought I could treat you both the same. I was foolish. I caused him a great deal of pain by not admitting the truth a long time ago.”

“I always told him he was crazy for thinking you treated him differently, but I guess deep down I knew you did.” The realization settles over me, making me feel guilty for all the times I brushed off Xavier’s concerns and dismissed his feelings as jealousy.

Alexandros rests a comforting hand on my shoulder. “I am the only person who should feel any guilt over my actions, Axl. And I have a lifetime to make it up to him, do I not?”

“Yeah. Although I wouldn’t tell him that, or he’ll hold you to it, you know?” It feels good to laugh after the tumultuous month we’ve all had.

He raises his eyebrows. “I am aware of that also.”

We keep walking in silence for a few moments before he speaks again. “And how do you feel about the change in my relationship with Xavier?”

I look out at the ocean while I consider my answer, feeling considerably more significant now than I did a few moments ago. “It changes nothing for me. It makes Xavier happy, and it’s not like … I’ve just never seen you that way though, you know?”

“I understand that.”

Despite this ease between us now, there is still a niggling doubt in the back of my mind. “I do not know the answers where Lucian is concerned, Axl,” he says, reading my thoughts.

“Giorgios told us he killed you. Why would he make us think that? It’s not like we didn’t already mistrust Lucian after what you told us he did. Although, he did help us out with the blue poppy. Ophelia was able to speak to him while we were in Tibet. So why the hell would he help us? None of it makes much sense at all.”

“He also helped Ophelia in the cave,” Alexandros says, frowning. “He was there when she arrived.”

“He was? I knew we shouldn’t have let her go alone.” The idea of what might have happened to her is too much to consider after everything we’ve already been through. “She’s never going anywhere alone ever again.”

“While I agree with that sentiment, he caused her no harm. Nor did he cause any to me. We cannot be sure of his intentions at all. But it appears Giorgios has told you many lies. As for his or Lucian’s motives, I am afraid I do not have the answers right now. But perhaps some can be found. I think it is time for us to discuss everything that has happened and try to make sense of this insanity.”

“Malachi said he’d make dinner. I think Ophelia would like it if we all joined her. I got plenty of meat.”

His smile is brief but genuine, and it reminds me how much we almost lost. How much we could still lose. We walk the rest of the way back to the house in silence, both of us deep in our own thoughts.

I understand so little of his old life. His old world, filled with dragons and oaths and prophecies. But whatever happens next, I’m all in.