Bound in Blood (Broken Bloodlines Book 3)
Bound in Blood: Chapter 28

Ophelia’s smile is so bright I swear it could light up the entire night sky. Happiness radiates from her and from all my boys too as we sit around the dining table about to devour the feast Malachi prepared. Such an ordinary scene, and one so at odds with the turmoil that surrounds us. While we eat, we keep the conversation light and pleasant. Xavier’s joy that the TV here has a sports channel, the surprising array of American foods at the grocery store, how the middle-aged store clerk watched Axl steal three bags full of groceries, staring at him like a lovestruck teenager thanks to the pleasurable bite he gave him. Whom out of Elpis and Anikêtos would be more likely to throw you off mid-flight and actually let you hit the ground if you had sex on their back.

But despite the pleasant food and atmosphere and the feelings of contentment that have settled over us all, there is only so long that we can indulge in this fantasy that our lives are in any way normal. Only so long we can avoid the very obvious topics of Giorgios, Lucian, and Ophelia’s fate.

“What happened to you? That day?” I am surprised it is Ophelia who broaches the subject first. “What did Giorgios do to you to sever our bond like that?”

I set down my fork, having little desire to sample the mashed potatoes Malachi made, as delicious as he and Ophelia seem to replace them. I fight back the despair conjured by reliving that day. “Giorgios lured me to a cave, a place where my powers would no longer work, and thus I had no way to detect any danger.”

She leans forward and rests her chin on her hands. “Like the cave in Peru?”

I shake my head. “No, this was done with powerful magic. A coven of witches cast a spell that prevented my powers from working. They chained me with silver and then an even more powerful witch cast an ancient spell which severed our bond.” I grind my jaw.

“Giorgios told us it was Nazeel. He said she saved his life and because he owed her a debt, she forced him to betray you.”

“Nazeel Danraath.” My hands ball into fists, and I bare my fangs.

Ophelia gasps. “So it’s true?”

My memories are clouded, cloaked in the pain of the silver and their betrayal, and I am not sure I fully trust them where Nazeel and Giorgios are concerned. I cannot be sure what is truth and what is falsehood. “It is true she once saved his life, and yes, she was certainly there. What else did he say of it?”

Ophelia’s brow furrows like she is recalling the details, and Axl answers in the interim. “He said she wanted you dead. That the Order wanted you dead, but that he saved you.”

“Saved me by chaining me with silver and leaving me to rot in a cage?” I lash out, unable to contain all of my rage. But it serves no purpose here, and I manage to rein in my temper once more.

Axl nods. “That’s what he told us.”

Malachi blinks at me, his mouth hanging open for a few seconds before he replaces his voice. “Did she want you dead though? Or did the Order? Because they’re not supposed to interfere, right?”

“They are not. But Nazeel has been involved in Ophelia’s fate since the day she was born, and whilst I once believed her intentions were honorable, now I am not so sure.”

“Not sure?” Xavier scoffs. “She severed our bond with you at best, tried to kill you at worst. Plus made us all think we were going to die, broke Ophelia’s heart wide fucking open … And you’re not sure her intentions are honorable? I’d say they are most definitely fucking not.”

Do not think the recent change in our relationship allows you liberties regarding the tone you take with me, pup.

His throat works as he swallows, the thick vein pulsing with his blood, and he sits back in his chair, his chin dropping a little, but I do not miss the spike in his heart rate that has nothing to do with my chastisement. Yes sir.

I brush aside thoughts of disciplining him for his insolence. As pleasant as it is to imagine how hard I will fuck him whilst feeding from the vein at the nape of his neck, I could do without the distraction for the moment.

I clear my throat and refocus on the after-dinner conversation. “Nazeel left immediately after the ritual. It was Giorgios who transported me to my prison in Peru.” I recall how I fought and struggled against him. But still chained in silver and weakened by the ritual, I was no match for him. Coward. “I recall now how he also told me that he was sparing my life and that the Order wanted me dead, but given the many lies he has told and the Order’s history, I doubt either of those things were true. There were guards stationed outside my cage, but they refused to speak, and I believe I was in and out of consciousness for many days before Ophelia freed me. Certainly I did not witness Lucian dispense with the guards.”

“Lucian got rid of the guards?” Axl asks, surprised.

I look to Ophelia, for this is her part of the story, and she nods. “That’s what he told me, and there were four headless vampire corpses in the cave. At least I assume they were vampires. So if he didn’t kill them, who did?”

Malachi’s green eyes narrow on her face. “Did he say why he was there? Why he killed the guards?”

She glances at me, and a tear runs down her cheek. “He said he was protecting you.”

There is a place on a vampire’s throat, directly below the Adam’s apple, where if one receives a blow, it causes considerable pain and an inability to breathe for at least a few seconds. I have endured such an assault only twice in my long life, by vampires who were much stronger than I at the time, and it both hurt and affected my breathing less than Ophelia’s words did.

He was protecting me?

In order to breathe again, I push all thoughts of him from my head and focus on her sadness instead, for it is much easier to deal with.

Another tear runs down her face. “I hate that you were there all alone. In the dark with no idea of … of anything.” She wipes her eyes.

I beckon her to me, and she pushes back her chair and walks around the table. As soon as she is close enough, I pull her onto my lap and wrap my arms around her. Whilst my time there was spent in more agony than I have experienced in my incredibly long life, I will never let her know that, for it would only cause her more pain. “Do not feel sad for me, little one. What I endured was nothing compared to your heartache. I knew I would see you all again.”

She rests her head on my shoulder, and her hot tears fall onto my bare skin.

Axl is staring at me, his brow furrowed with concentration. “So you never saw Lucian that day when our bond was severed? Even though Giorgios told us it was him that killed you?”

I shake my head. “I have not seen Lucian in over five hundred years.” I cup Ophelia’s chin in my hand and tilt her head up. “You are the only one of us in this room to have seen him recently, are you not, agápi mou?”

She chews on her lip and nods.

“Did he say anything else in the cave, baby?” Malachi asks.

Ophelia explains what happened in Peru and how Lucian helped her focus on her powers. As I expected, this is met with a confusing mix of incredulity, disdain, and gratitude.

“But what I don’t get is why didn’t Giorgios just kill you.” Xavier shakes his head. “Why keep you alive? If his goal was to sever your mate bond with Ophelia and—” He stops speaking and winces. “Hang on, you don’t know about that yet, huh?”

I brush Ophelia’s hair behind her ear and kiss her forehead. I have not yet had a chance to tell her that I read her mind whilst she slept, and I am not entirely sure how she will react. “I know almost everything that happened in Giorgios’s fortress. The pertinent points at least. How he poisoned you all, the lies he tried to make you believe about me, his deceitful offer to bite Ophelia to ensure you would not die. And the ritual too.” The rage I feel whenever I am forced to think about that particular plan is indescribable, burning through the muscles and sinew of my body until they feel like they will ignite. I roll my neck and grind my teeth.

Ophelia places a hand on my cheek, and it does more to calm me than my own efforts. “How do you know all of that?” she asks.

I stare into her bright-blue eyes and feel overcome with a desire to simply take her and the boys and run far away from all of this. “I needed to know what happened to you all. What Giorgios did. And I did not wish for you to have to comb your memories to pick out and regurgitate every piece of information you felt might be useful. It was quicker and easier this way.”

She blinks. “You read my mind? My memories?”

Regret and guilt cloud my thoughts now, mingling with the anger and making me feel like there is a dead weight on my chest. “I did, agápi mou.”

Her lip trembles and tears run freely down her face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t … It was only …”

“Ophelia.” I stop her nervous babbling and wipe the tears from her cheeks. I am confused and more than a little fearful at what it is she thinks she needs to be sorry for. Was there something I did not see? Something I missed? Something she hid from me? “What on earth are you sorry for, little one?”

“I only thought about him biting me to save them. I did speak to the guys about it too because he told us it was the only way to save them. We agreed that none of us wanted to be bonded to him, and I never would have if—” She sucks in a breath and chokes back a sob at the same time, and the torrent of words finally stops pouring from her mouth.

I hold her tighter and, cupping her face with one hand, swipe the pad of my thumb over her lips, brushing away the tears that have collected there. “I did see that memory of you all discussing Giorgios’s proposal, but the only thing it proved was your deep loyalty to me.” I glance up at the boys, who are watching us intently. “All of you. And I am honored to have that from each and every one of you. So please, agápi mou, do not torture yourself a second longer for considering something that would have saved you all. Can I be selfish enough to ask you to forgive me for reading your mind without your knowledge?”

She gazes at me with eyes full of love and strokes her hand over my cheek. “What is there to forgive? There’s nothing in my head I wouldn’t share with you, and you already know that. And I know you’d never read my mind unless you felt you had to.”

I dust my lips over hers. She is far too gracious of my darkness, but I am thankful for her light. “No matter what happens, nothing in this universe would ever sever our mate bond, Ophelia. You have been mine and I yours since time began, and we will remain so until the end of days.”

She sniffs, a soft smile playing on her lips.

“So, what do we do now? Find Lucian? Go after Giorgios?” Axl asks, reminding me there is still much to discuss. “Hide out here or go back to Montridge?”

“I believe replaceing Lucian can give us some of the answers we seek. He appears to know something of Giorgios’s plans given that he was able to replace me in Peru. I do not believe it is safe to return to Montridge yet, neither for us nor any of our allies there.”

Xavier nods, running a hand through his thick dark hair. “I agree. It’s the first place Giorgios will think to look.”

I suck in a deep breath and pinch the bridge of my nose to try to stave off the throbbing ache directly between my eyes. “And as for Giorgios, whilst I would never have breached his trust by reading his mind, I believed he was as guileless as he seemed, but he was able to deceive me. That is of grave concern. I should have been able to pick up on some clue to his betrayal, yet I did not. Perhaps I was blinded by my loyalty to him, or perhaps his powers of the mind are much stronger than I ever knew.”

Ophelia shifts on my lap. “Enora thinks his powers of transportation might be stolen.”

I recall that from Ophelia’s memories. “That makes sense, at least in that it would have allowed him to mask his innate vampire powers by making us believe his was transporting. But it does not make sense that he would be able to steal another’s powers. That requires powerful dark magic.” I screw my eyes closed and wish I could replace at least some of the answers that elude me.

“Not much about anything makes sense right now,” Malachi reminds us all.

“Nothing except this,” Ophelia says with a smile as she looks around the room. “This makes perfect sense.”

Axl smiles at her. “If only we could hide out here forever and nobody would replace us. I think I’d be pretty happy with this life.”

If only it were possible. She nestles her head against my chest and sighs. “Me too. And if Ani and Elpis wanted to stay, that would be even cooler.”

“Pet dragons.” Xavier snorts.

I arch an eyebrow at him. “I would not let either of them hear you even joke about that, Xavier.”

He laughs quietly to himself.

Malachi pushes back his chair. “Seeing as we probably can’t hide out here forever, I say we enjoy it while it lasts.” He holds his hand out to Ophelia. “Fancy a moonlight walk on the beach, sweet girl?”

She nods excitedly, gives me a brief kiss, and then scrambles off my lap. I cannot help myself from swatting her ass when she stands. She is irresistible. I want to take her to bed, but it is selfish of me to keep her to myself. Besides, I have something, or someone, else to take care of first.

Axl jumps up and tosses his napkin onto the table. “If that walk is likely to end in me fucking one or both of you, then I’m in too.”

Xavier is quick to express his desire to join them, but before he can walk out of the kitchen, I am on my feet and blocking his path. “Not you. Not yet. I believe we have some new ground rules to discuss.”

Axl tuts and shakes his head. “Naughty pup.”

Xavier flips him the bird and mouths, Fuck you. Then the three of them leave, and Xavier and I are alone in the kitchen.

Cupping his jaw with one hand, I press him against the wall. Desire ripples down my spine. “Do you think because there has been a change in our relationship that I would somehow overlook your insolence, Xavier?”

He swipes his tongue over his full bottom lip and stares at me, his eyes sparking with defiance. “No.”

“So what was that earlier?”

“I always talk to you like that, Professor.”

That is most definitely true. He has always been adept at pushing me to my limits, never quite doing enough to incur any serious punishment. But that was before the idea of punishing him was so appealing to me. I bring my face closer to his until his heated breath dusts over my lips. His pupils blow wide, his pulse spikes, and he is already hard. But then, so am I.

I swipe my thumb over his full lips. “You will watch your tone when you address me, pup.”

His eyes bore into mine. “Yes. Sir.”

I am certain he said that to goad me into doing exactly what it is I am about to do, but I am too blinded by desire to care. I sink my fangs into his throat, and his rich blood fills my mouth.

“Fuck,” he whimpers, wrapping his arms around my neck and digging his fingers into my scalp.

Will you remember who you are speaking to in the future? I sink my fangs deeper, offering him a little pain to go along with his pleasure.

He grinds himself against me and moans.

I slip my hand inside his jeans and grip the base of his rigid length with a hard squeeze. I did not hear you.

“Yes!” he cries out. “Yes, I’ll remember.”

I stop feeding and trail my teeth along his jawline to his mouth, smiling against his lips as I slide my hand free from his jeans. “Let us go and join the others on their moonlit stroll.” His surprise is acute, his sudden despair almost enough to make me reconsider, but then that would be no lesson at all. “Surely you did not think I was going to fuck you as a reward for your insolence, Xavier?”

He glowers at me, eyes blazing with fire and defiance. My hand still gripping his jaw, I pull him to me and kiss him. My tongue is granted easy access to his willing mouth. If you are a good boy, I may fuck you later.

His muscles tense, but his mouth softens, and there is no fight in him at all. But I am certain the brat in him aches to tell me go to hell.