by K Loraine
“I trust you.” A flutter of excitement laced with fear filled me at the prospect. But when it came down to it, I had to make a choice.
“When did you have my blood last? I won’t be able to compel you if it was this night.”
“When I woke. Before the ball.”
His expression turned somber. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to do anything to ease the pain then. I’m sorry.”
“Callie needs this. A little pain is worth helping her.”
He grabbed a wine glass out of the cabinet near the fireplace, then led me to a velvet chair and motioned for me to sit. In one smooth move, he knelt at my feet. “Take a deep breath and remember how much I love you.”
I did as he instructed, and he dropped his lips to my wrist. “My brave little bird,” he murmured before all I felt was pressure against my skin and his teeth sinking into my flesh. I expected pain but all that followed were warm waves of pleasure.
A low moan filled the air, and I realized it was coming from me. His lips on my skin, fingers clutching my forearm, my pulse thrumming in my veins. I felt his mind touching mine. Every emotion, desire, love, despair, jealousy—all of these things built together to create an overwhelming sensation of euphoria. Climax wasn’t the right word for it. Everything felt good, and I didn’t know why.
He tore his mouth from my wrist, a gasp leaving him as he did, and with shaking hands, he coaxed the blood from the wound and into the glass. Together we watched my life spill into the cup that would give his sister more time. When it was nearly filled and my head was spinning, Cashel looked into my eyes and all I saw in his expression was gratitude. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my wrist, his tongue laving the torn edges of skin and sending a tingling burn through the nerves. When he lifted his head, the punctures were healed and his pupils were so wide they took up most of his amber irises. Feral hunger filled me, a need to have him touching me again pulling me closer.
“Kiss me,” I begged, and he gave me what I wanted. He placed the glass on the small table next to us and moved toward me. His lips were warm from my skin and the rich taste of his blood danced across my tongue. It sent a rush of rightness through me, our connection strong and destined. I was sure of it now that he was kissing me. He loved me. He was mine and I was his. There was no doubt of what we were to each other. There was no one else.
He pulled away, hands still holding me close. “Olivia,” he rasped.
“It felt—”
“Amazing,” he finished for me. “I…it’s never been that way.”
“I could feel you…” I brought my hand to my chest, trying to express what happened when he was feeding.
“I’ve never...this hasn’t happened before.” Brows pulled together, he assessed me. “I can’t. I haven’t ever been able to.”
“What are you talking about?”
Brushing the pad of his thumb over my wrist where he’d bitten me, he whispered, “I heard your thoughts.”
Cashel
How did this happen? I was in her mind, in real time. I could hear everything she was thinking as though she were speaking the words directly to me. Was this what it was like for other vampires? Were they privy to every single thought?
“You’ve been in my head before,” Olivia said, cocking her head to the side and assessing me. “How is this different?”
“I’ve never been able to read thoughts. I can see past memories, but never knew what someone was thinking in this way.”
“I think…this is going to sound crazy.”
I smirked. “Try me.”
“I could hear what you were thinking too. Or pieces of what was in your mind, maybe.”
Confusion swirled in me. That shouldn’t have happened. She was human. Or at least, mostly human. There had to be some witch in her if her blood could carry the sun. “What was I thinking?”
“There was love. Jealousy. The need to protect.”
“All true. I love you and knowing you were with that hunter nearly sent me into a rage at times. And, I hope you know I’d die for you. To protect you.”
“And there was one more thing. I kept hearing the word mate.”
My stomach twisted. In truth, I’d heard that too. It was a strong, instinctive call to claim her as mine. Not because she had the blood of the sun. She was my mate. It made sense now. Her blood was nearly irresistible to me because she was my mate. “Mate,” I whispered.
“Does that mean what I think it does?”
“It depends on what you think.”
“That you have some vampire urge to mate with me. To fuck me.”
I shook my head and chuckled. “No. No, that’s not what it means.” Then I thought better of my response. “I want to have you all the time, but that isn’t what this means. It’s an instinct. Something I’ve been fighting since I first found you. I think…” I dragged my hand through my hair and forced myself to stay calm as I readied myself to take a leap I never thought possible.
“What do you think?”
I swallowed past the tightness in my throat. “We’re a mated pair. You’re meant to be mine.”
Her eyes widened. “Like Laney and Matt?”
I nodded and took her hands in mine, pressing soft kisses to her knuckles. “Exactly like that. Except it doesn’t happen in the same way for born vampires. It’s not as easy to tell. My heart already beats. Mattias’ had been silent in his chest for decades until he met Laney.”
“Why now?”
“I think it has something to do with you taking my blood.”
She touched her fingers to her lips and small lines formed between her brows as she contemplated my words. “But I’ve had your blood before.”
“Not by mouth. I healed you in the past with drops applied to your wounds. Twice now you’ve taken a taste. Both times your response was…powerful.”
“Cash—” she began, but a scream came from Callie’s room. I stood and grabbed the goblet filled with Olivia’s precious contribution to my sister’s care.
“I’ll return. We have a lot to talk about, but Callie needs this.”
She took her bottom lip between her teeth and gave a curt nod. “Go. I’ll be here.”
I didn’t want to leave her. We had a monumental conversation dangling in front of us. One that would shape the future. But my sister was in pain, and I had the one thing that would help her. I strode to the back of the room and down the hall, bracing myself for what I’d find when I got there. I opened the door but Callie was not where she should have been. Chained to the bed, safe, protected.
“Callie,” I whispered, hoping to keep her calm.
“I need to get out of here.” Her voice came from a darkened corner, tight with pain. “I can’t stay in here any longer, Cashel.”
“Come, sit. I have something for you. It will help.”
She whimpered. “You lie. Nothing helps. Let me die.”
Walking slowly, I made my way inside, desperate to keep her distracted. If she got out, she’d go for Olivia. She wouldn’t be able to control herself. “Come here, sister. Please let me take care of you. We’re so close to a cure.”
“No, we’re not. There’s nothing to stop this. It’s useless.”
She crouched in the corner, arms wrapped around her knees. The broken shackles still hung from her wrists and ankles, burning her skin, but she seemed not to feel the pain. “Have faith. Olivia is helping us.”
“Her blood isn’t going to stop this. I would have found a cure if one existed. Sorcha brought me the last of my work. The disease killed your mixed blood. It took it and burned it to a crisp. Didn’t she tell you?”
My stomach dropped. “What?”
“It’s a lost cause. I’ve done everything possible to find a cure. There is none. It’s the only explanation. It’s too late for me.”
I knelt at her feet and held out the cup of blood. “Drink. You need your strength.”
She took the glass and swallowed its contents down in three gulps, a sigh leaving he
r as she let the power of Olivia’s blood rush through her. “Take her. Run away from this place. Let Anne have her crown and be with Olivia.”
“I can’t. There’s so much more wrong with Anne ruling the Blackthorne lands than her desire to sell Olivia for profit like a whore. Anne is a tyrant. She’s classist. She’ll have all made vampires as slaves before long and keep the rest of the bloodlines pure.”
“There has always been a push from some clans for that very thing.”
“And now that she has Olivia, she thinks she can make those clans her strongest allies. She’s mad.”
Callie groans and her back arches. “God, it hurts. My body is screaming at me to go outside and meet the sun. I don’t know how much longer I can hold out.”
“Come on. Back to bed. I’ll do what I can to keep you safe.”
She stood, refusing my aid. “Don’t touch me. You can’t get sick. Olivia needs you. So do the rest of our people, it would seem.”
I walk to the other side of the room, opening a large wardrobe to reveal the remnants of Callie’s research, files upon files, a laptop, vials of blood, and hanging above that, heavy chains and shackles.
A soft gasp caught my ear, the sound sending dread through me. I turned to find Eliana with a silver dagger embedded in Callie’s chest. Callie reached up and stroked Eliana’s cheek with nothing but the deepest affection. “Ellie?” she whispered.
My sister died before I could move, her body crumpling to the floor while my former lover watched on. “Oh, Cashel, you’re in so much trouble.”
17
Cashel
“What did you do?” I screamed and ran at Eliana with a rage-filled growl, bare hands ready to tear out her throat.
“Not so fast, Cashel.” She pulled the dagger from the remains of my sister and held it out toward me. “One knick of this on your skin and you’ll be infected. I did her a favor. I ended her suffering, which is what you should have done instead of bringing her here.”
“She loved you with her whole heart and you betrayed her this way?”
“An unrequited love. I never shared her feelings. You know that.”
“I was finding a cure. She was safe here.”
Tutting, she stepped closer until the point of the blade brushed the fabric of my shirt. “Not safe enough.”
“How did you get in here? These are the King’s rooms. Only I can open the door.”
She grinned and pulled a small vial of blood out of her pocket. Anger burned its way through my body. “You should be more cautious. I found this in your room.”
My blood. I’d been careless when Olivia had reacted to it. It was tucked away, but not locked away. “Why are you here?”
“Oh, you poor lovesick fool. I’m here to exact my revenge.” She walked forward, the tip of the blade dangerously close to my throat. “I thought I might find something to help convince Anne to give you to me and let me make you my slave. Proof of your treachery. Instead, I found something better. You. Harboring an infected vampire and your pet.”
“What did you do to Olivia?”
“Nothing yet. She’s safe. But I’m not telling you where she is.”
Relief mixed with fear and filled my bones. “Let her go and I’ll do whatever you want.”
She laughed, bitter and tragic all at once. “I used to pray for those words. To hear you tell me I could have anything I wanted from you would have been a gift at one time. Now, they’re like ashes. Empty and bitter.”
“I’m yours. If she’s safe, I’m yours forever.”
Her lower lip trembled along with the hand holding the dagger. “You’re a terrible liar. She seems to have stolen that from you too.”
“She’s stolen nothing.”
I needed to get out of here and make sure Olivia was really all right. I couldn’t hear her heart beating. She was far from here. I had to see her and check over her body to ensure no harm had come to her. A buzz in my brain I’d never encountered before built in intensity as I continued my standoff with Eliana. Her thoughts. I could get inside her mind and possibly find out what she needed to hear. I had to talk her off the ledge.
He’s mine. Kill her. Starve her in the dungeon. Caged where she belongs. Give her to the hungry fledglings. Keep him. I love him. Don’t make him sick. He’ll love me again.
Her thoughts were a jumbled mess. Erratic and unstable. But the central theme was that she needed me to love her. “I’m sorry, Eliana. I’m so sorry I hurt you. Put down the dagger. Let me prove how sorry I am.”
“You don’t want me.” She screamed the words, knife shaking in her hold.
“I do. I mourned you for decades. I loved you first.”
“You did. Cashel, we were happy.”
“We were. I know, love. I never wanted to lose you.” I held out my arms, opening my chest in a show of pure vulnerability. “Put the blade aside. Come to me. Take from my vein the way a mate does.” The words made me sick, but it was the ultimate gesture of trust. She knew that as much as I did.
“A mate?”
I nodded and took a step toward her. I saw it the moment she caved. Her eyes softened and those tense shoulders slumped. Then she sheathed the dagger under her arm and walked into my embrace. It wasn’t hard to snap her neck. One well-placed twist did it, and she slumped to the floor. I grabbed the vial of my blood from her pocket and ran.
I rushed outside the rooms and turned back to the door. Using a drop of my blood to seal the lock, I sighed at the knowledge of what I was doing to her. Eliana would be trapped in these rooms until I let her out. But I planned on never releasing her. She’d serve her eternal punishment here with the reminder of everything the Blackthornes were.
My room was not the empty space I expected to find when I walked through the door. Sorcha and Lucas stood near the fireplace, the tension radiating off both of them palpable. Sorcha cocked her head, staring hard, clearly sensing something was wrong. “Lucas and I were looking for you. We have to do something about…wait. What is it? Is Callie…” she asked, a sob in her throat cutting off her words. I tried to hide the thoughts racing through my mind, but I could feel her attempts to invade, pushing at my walls.
I looked to her, then Lucas, the words not wanting to free themselves from where they were stuck in my throat. Bracing myself, I closed my eyes and let the truth out in a rush. “She’s gone.”
“Gone?” Lucas asked.
“She died less than ten minutes ago.”
“How?” His eyes held so much pain I had to take a step back. I hadn’t seen this much emotion from Lucas since…well, ever.
“Eliana killed her. She found her way inside the King’s rooms.”
“Why would she...” Sorcha narrowed her gaze. “Because of Olivia.”
“No,” I said. “Because of me. She is unstable. Her death was violent, traumatic, and I broke her mind before the end. She should never have been made a vampire.”
My walls came down, and Sorcha took the opportunity. I knew it the moment she relived Callie’s death. My sister fell to her knees and let out a gut-wrenching cry. “You failed. You failed us all. She deserved so much more.”
That was a punch in the gut I hadn’t been expecting, but she was right. It was my fault. Callie would be alive right now if I hadn’t been careless with my blood. “She took Olivia. I saw it in her mind. A cell. A dungeon.”
“Here? Surely Anne will simply release her and punish Eliana?”
“Did you witness the display at the ball? Olivia is in worse danger now than she was when Father was alive.”
“Her blood is the target. She’s willingly donating. What’s the problem?”
“Things have changed.”
“What did you do, Cashel?”
I looked behind me at the beautiful creature one step away. “She’s my mate. I have to claim her.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Sorcha said, shaking her head. “Now? Our sister is dead, our family legacy is disgraced, and now you have to take a human as your mate?�
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“I can’t let this go on any longer. I’m going to bond with her.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s the only way.”
“We’ll never be able to cure sun sickness. What if another of us contracts the disease? You’ll just leave us to languish?”
My chest hurt from her accusation. “I don’t know what else to do. Anne is going to sell Olivia’s body as well as her blood. She’ll use her as a whore. I can’t let that happen on the off chance we’ll find a cure with her blood.”
“He’s right, Sorcha,” Lucas said. “They’re mates. Can’t you feel it? The connection we all saw between them was more than him wanting to bond with her and keep her as a pet. It’s a mate bond.”
“Fine. Go get her. We’ll reconvene at the summer house. Make a plan to get our lands back.” She and Lucas were little more than two blurs as they left, the door slamming in their wake.
I strode to my closet, kneeling in the back of the large space and prying up a loose floorboard. There I found my weapons of choice. Leather gloves, a sharpened stake, and a thin roll of silver wire. I didn’t relish killing my fellow vampires, but I wouldn’t hesitate if it meant keeping Olivia alive.
Olivia
My head throbbed, and the cold, dark cell wasn’t helping my situation. Eliana. That bitch had somehow managed to get inside the King’s rooms. Gingerly I touched my fingertips to the back of my skull, wincing when they came away wet with blood. Thank God I was behind silver bars. The last thing I needed was a hungry vampire getting in here with me.
“Liv?” Logan’s voice caught me off guard. Instinctively I looked toward the sound of his voice, my vision hazy in the little bit of light, but I could make him out. Trapped inside the cell with me. Weak, dirty, slumped in the corner.
“Logan, what happened to you?” I scooted closer, but he shuffled away.
“Don’t come too close. I might kill you.”
He was right. I’d seen the hunger in his eyes at the ball. Watched him feed on Knight. He could kill me easily. “Why are you here?”