by K Loraine
Cashel wobbled on his feet, his brows pulling together in pain. “I can’t…my legs…I’m…” he fell to the floor and began seizing in front of us both.
“Fucking hell.” Lucas settled beside his brother, pulling his head into his lap and attempting to hold him still. “Martin!”
I was shaking all over, adrenaline jumping in my blood so quickly it was as though my veins were electrified. “What’s wrong with him?” I asked, finally getting to my feet. I had grabbed my shirt off the floor and was holding it to my breast which ached from the mauling Cashel had dealt me.
“He drank from you. He’s sick because of it. God damn him, we don’t have time for our king to be incapacitated.”
“No. That’s not what I mean. He…tried to kill me, Lucas. Cashel has never done anything like that before. And earlier. He…he wanted you dead. Something’s wrong.”
Lucas turned sad eyes on me. “This is who he is, Olivia. He’s just as much a monster as the rest of us. You’ve never had to see him like this. I have. I lived with it most of my life.”
I shook my head. “No. This is different. This is insanity. He’s…he’s like your father was. I’ll never forget how viciously he’d bite me. Like he had to have me or he’d die. Lucas, I think Cashel has sun sickness.”
“How? When could he have been infected?”
“I’m not sure. Any time. He was with the hunters. Who knows what they did to him during the time they had him.”
“She’s right.” Martin’s soft voice filled the room. I looked up to see him standing in the doorway, gloved hands holding silver shackles. “I’ve been keeping an eye on him these last few nights. It’s getting worse.”
Cashel’s body was still now, but I could sense him stirring. His mind reached out for mine, begging for some kind of contact. “If he’s sick, he’s only going to get more dangerous to us all. We’ll have to chain him up somewhere safe.”
“The King’s rooms. That’s where we kept Callie until…” I trailed off, unable to finish the sentence because it was too real, too raw.
“Until she died. Yes. It would have worked if Eliana hadn’t sabotaged it all.” Martin’s statement broke something inside me, and watching him lock the cuffs to Cashel’s wrists, hearing the sizzle of my vampire’s skin as the silver burned it, had me swallowing back bile.
How had Eliana gotten inside those rooms? She’d been a vampire. There was no way she should have been able open the doors with his blood. “How did it work? How did she get in? If there’s some secret way to circumvent the lock system, we need to know. Drinking his blood wouldn’t have worked on her, would it? She was a vampire.”
Lucas picked Cashel up and carried him toward the stairs, not answering me. “We’ll have to chain him better than this. It won’t be pretty when he wakes. And he’ll need to feed nearly constantly while he works your blood out of his system.”
“Anne must have my blood stored somewhere, my unbound blood.” He nodded and continued walking, me trailing behind. “So, no one should be able to open this door but the King, correct?” I asked.
“In theory.”
“That’s not entirely true. It’s the King’s blood that will open that lock. You’ve seen it yourself, Olivia.” Martin stared at me as though willing me to understand something he didn’t want to say.
“What are you getting at? Eliana had Cashel’s blood inside her?”
“It worked for Cashel’s mother during and after her pregnancies. The King’s blood had become hers.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Is that…the only way? For a vampire to share blood like that?”
We reached the door and instead of breaking Cashel’s skin, Lucas wiped a smear of blood off my chest and pressed it to the wood. The door unlocked and we walked inside, everything looking just how we’d left it.
Martin followed, keeping his distance. “It’s the only way a bloodline can be passed on, yes.”
“So…Eliana…”
Lucas laid Cashel on the bed where chains were already attached to each of the posts and bolted to the walls. Then, with practiced ease, he locked his brother up and handed me the key. “Was either pregnant at the time she broke into these rooms, or had once borne Cashel a child.”
I felt sick. My entire being hurt. Had Cashel fucked her that recently? Had he made a child with her as a way to work me out of his system? I couldn’t think about that for longer than a moment before nausea clutched at my throat. I turned my gaze on Lucas, then to Martin. “Do you remember her having a baby when she was alive? Surely you’d all know about that. You wouldn’t let a Blackthorne be born without stealing it away from its mother and turning it into a monster like you.”
Lucas stared at me in shock. “Well, by all means, don’t hold back how you truly feel about us.”
“You know it’s the truth. Elias would have taken that child and made it a foot soldier for the Blackthorne name before it could walk.”
“Yes, you’re right. But I don’t know if that was the case because I’d been away quite some time before her death. I didn’t hear a word about it. The only other person we can ask is Sorcha, but she’s gone. Might be best to let it alone.”
“Martin? What do you know? What hasn’t Cashel told me?” I trained my gaze on him and waited for the butler to tell me what I already suspected.
He shook his head. “It’s not my story to tell.”
Frustration got the better of me and I grabbed a vase filled with branches and dried holly. Throwing it across the room, the glass shattered in the corner with a satisfying crash.
“Feel better?” Lucas asked.
“No.”
“Martin, that’s enough for now. Thank you for your help.”
The butler bowed and left the rooms nearly silently.
I stared at the vampire I’d fallen so hard for and wondered who he truly was. Had he gotten Eliana pregnant and abandoned her all those years ago? Had he been unfaithful to me as recently as a few months ago? But then, I’d moved on from him, spent time in Logan’s bed. Could I really be angry about something I’d also done?
I left the room and went into the study, very aware of the fact that I still had nothing covering my torso but a blood soaked shirt held across my breasts. Grabbing a blanket off the leather chair near the fireplace, I wrapped it around my shoulders and gingerly pulled the cotton shirt away from my ravaged breast. I winced as the wound pulled and ached.
“Let me see to you,” Lucas said, kneeling at my feet. He bit his own wrist and touched his fingers to his blood before tracing them across the savage bite. Heat swelled around the injury, but it healed quickly, and before long, I knew there would be no trace of Cashel there. Not even his original mark. Part of me cried for the loss of that. I’d wanted a reminder of our connection.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “I should go get cleaned up.”
“I’ll stay here with him. Once you return, we should take shifts watching over him. But you have to be prepared, Olivia. If he breaks free, he’ll kill you. Never go near him if you’re not armed.”
I thought of the necklace Sorcha had left for me. The one I’d stopped wearing after Anne was taken away. I needed it again. But this time it was because Cashel had become my nightmare. He’d become his father. “I have something. I’ll bring it with me.”
“I’ll have Martin search the house for Anne’s stores of your blood. Perhaps we can still find a cure using what they took.”
Panic ran along my nerve endings. “Oh my God, there’s no cure if we run out. My blood is ruined. Cashel can’t be healed.”
“It’s going to be fine. We know Anne took more than enough to last a lifetime. She likely put it in the cellar, and if she’s as greedy as we think, she would conserve it in order to sell it off drop by drop.”
I swallowed back the fear threatening to take control of my emotions. “Okay. How long will he be sick from my blood?”
Lucas settled in the chair opposite mine. “I don’t know. T
he sun sickness changes everything.”
A guttural groan filtered from the bedroom, the sound of rattling chains following on its heels. “He’s waking.”
“Olivia!” Cashel called, but his voice was rough and pained. Desperation laced his tone. “Olivia!”
I wanted to go to him even now, but Lucas stopped me with a hand pressed to my sternum. “Stop. What do you think you’re doing? You’re still covered in blood. Would you take a fresh steak into a lion’s den and expect to survive?”
My stomach clenched. He was right. “Take care of him.”
Hurt flashed in his eyes, but he tried to hide it by looking away. “Of course.”
The sound of retching reached my ears, sending panic through me. Lucas left my side and rushed to his brother. I had to hurry. I had to get back here before Cashel’s blood left my system.
20
Olivia
I watched my blood wash down the drain, the swirls of red a reminder of the fact that Cashel had nearly killed me. Hot tears burned their way up my throat ,and I had to press both palms to the wall to keep myself together. I couldn’t lose it now. Not when Cashel was so sick.
After I was clean, I dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweater. I couldn’t seem to stay warm in this drafty house. My fingers were ice cold no matter how much I tried to warm them. I wandered the halls, searching for the vampires loyal to their sovereign, no matter whom. They wouldn’t harm me, not with the risk to themselves if they fed from me, but I had to make sure they knew Cashel would return to them shortly. If word got out the new king was ill, the council would return. I had no doubt in my mind.
“Miss, is there something you require?” Martin stood at the mouth of the hallway I knew led to the cellar. In his arms he held two bulging leather satchels.
“What’s in there?” I asked, hoping he’d found my blood donations.
“Everything we have. None of it yours.”
My heart sank. Where had she put it all? “Will it help him?”
“Once we purge him of your tainted blood, we’ll be able to judge the severity of the disease. It’s my plan to essentially, transfuse him. I’ll take out the poison of his brother’s bond, then replace it with this.”
“And it’ll work?”
He nodded. “I’ve done this twice before. Both vampires recovered within two nights. The sun sickness is another matter.”
“Maybe I was wrong? Maybe he doesn’t have it and the bond is driving him insane?”
“It’s possible. He was fighting the urge to bond with you from the moment he brought you to us. His instincts may be taking control of his judgment.”
For the first time since he was taken ill, I felt a spark of hope. “You think so?”
Martin sighed. “I don’t know what to think.
“Let’s take this one step at a time. He was awake when I left. Screaming. And Lucas was trying to help him.”
“Then we have no time to waste. He’s suffering needlessly. I’ll do what I can for him.”
We made our way together back to the King’s rooms, my heart racing with every step closer to the door. Martin looked to me to open the lock, and alarm unfurled in my chest. I didn’t have anything to cut myself with. No blade or needle. Only the necklace filled with liquid silver.
“Allow me,” Martin said, producing a small knife from a sheath at his hip. He nicked my palm and I pressed the blood to the door as soon as it welled to the surface. I saw the flash of hunger pass over Martin briefly and wondered when he’d last fed.
The door opened to a terrifying scene. Blood spilled from the doorway to the bedroom, rough grunts and harsh growls filling the air. “Get these off me, you traitor.” Cashel’s voice was nearly unrecognizable.
“Sorry, I don’t think I will. You keep pulling on those chains and you’ll lose a hand. I won’t help you put it back on either.”
“Some brother you are.”
“Olivia needs you whole, not broken and battered.”
“Then release me so I can show her how whole I am.”
“Not a chance.”
I knew he wasn’t himself. That he was trying to get at Lucas in any way he could.
“You know she spread her thighs for me the moment I found her in the garden? After you walked away, I had her on her back within heartbeats of you leaving.”
Lucas didn’t respond.
“She let me fuck her in the same bed she shared with you while you were gone. So much for wedding vows.”
The only thing I heard next was the crack of bones and the clink of chains. Then Lucas came out of the bedroom, bedraggled and exhausted.
“Your turn,” he said. “Perhaps he’ll be kinder to you, though I doubt it.”
Martin followed me as I walked into the bedroom, the blood on the floor proving to be spilled from a bag that Cashel seemed to have ripped open with his teeth. Cashel lay silent and still on the bed, his wrists burned and raw, ankles at least protected by his clothes. “Oh, Cash,” I whispered, reaching out to push the hair out of his eyes.
“Careful,” Martin said, but he didn’t stop me.
The dark strands were silky and thick under my fingers. “Is he…”
“Lucas snapped his neck. He’ll be incapacitated for a few hours. Now’s the time for the transfusion.”
“Will he be in pain?”
He shook his head. There was nothing but truth in his eyes. “He won’t even know it’s happening. Honestly, Lucas did him a kindness.”
Pulling up a chair, Martin motioned for me to sit near the bed. “You’ll need to do this. If he has sun sickness, I can’t touch his blood. You’re the only one who can’t be infected.”
Swallowing hard, I sat and stared at the man I loved. His arms were pulled above his head, neck turned at a slightly unnatural angle. Martin handed me the needle and I fought a wave of nausea. I couldn’t do this.
“He needs you to be strong for him, Olivia. See the vein in his arm, just at the bend of his elbow? That’s where we’ll draw out the poisoned blood.”
Taking a deep breath, I nodded and stood so I could reach Cashel’s arm. Then I inserted the needle and deep red blood began running through the tube and into the large glass reservoir Martin had set up.
“When do we give him the clean blood?”
“You’ll see it. His pallor will grow nearly gray. Then we will replace what we took with these.” He gestured to the bags of blood in his satchels. In the corner I saw what looked like an old-fashioned IV rack, and realized he’d done this before in this very room.
“Who else did you do this for?”
He swallowed thickly. “King Elias. Once after he took the bonded human of a clan leader. And another time after he fed from Callum’s bonded mate and killed her.”
My eyes widened. “What? Callum had a wife?”
“They never got past the bonding. The King took her as his to spite Callum and prove his control. He knew I’d be able to heal him.”
I shook my head and sat back down, not taking my eyes from Cashel. His family was twisted, but he fought through all of it, and I had made it even more difficult. “If Lucas turns me…”
“No.” Cashel’s voice made me jump, the hard edge of it stinging my heart.
My gaze went to his now open eyes. “Cash, you’re awake.”
“Lucas will not turn you. I forbid it.”
“But, you won’t be tempted by me again if I’m a vampire. It won’t be a problem.”
“If he turns you, you’ll never want me again. I’ll lose you for good.”
Martin stood behind me, nervous energy radiating from him. “Your Highness, are you…lucid?”
Cashel took his gaze from me and settled it on Martin. “As lucid as I can be with my life’s blood draining from my body.”
“We have to remove the tainted blood,” Martin explained.
“I understand.” He flicked his focus back to me. Reaching for me even though the chains wouldn’t allow him much motion. “Olivia, are you all
right? I lost control. I don’t know what happened.”
I didn’t back away or hide from him. “Lucas healed me. But, Cash, you almost killed me. I’ve never seen you like that. It…hurt.”
“It’s the bond. It’s driving me mad. I still feel the need to be with you even though I shouldn’t.”
“Are you sure that’s what it is?”
He leveled his gaze on me. “What are you saying?”
“This is the way your father was acting. When he was sick. Erratic, frantic, out of control, then lucid and his normal self.”
“No. No. That can’t be the case. I’d be much worse off if it were. The disease didn’t take hold when Eliana tried to pass it to me. I would have felt it in my veins.”
“What are you talking about?” Dread twisted in my belly.
“When I was trying to get to you, in the dungeon. Eliana used the same blade she killed Callie with. She tried to infect me.”
Lucas stood in the doorway with a solemn expression on his face. “It’s safe to say she succeeded, brother.”
“No. Get me out of these chains. I’ll prove it to you. I’m not a danger.”
Lucas crossed his arms over his chest. “Cashel, tell me where Olivia’s donations are. Tell me that, and we can let you go as long as we can keep you from burning.”
Despair clouded Cashel’s features. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“They’re gone.”
“What?” Disbelief had my tone high and panicked. I knew he’d been using some of my donations, but they shouldn’t have been gone. Anne had taken so much. There should have been enough for him to have a drop each night for years.
“I’m sorry. I needed you. I was so hungry and nothing tasted right except for you, little bird. It’s only ever you.”
My focus snapped to Lucas. “It’s all gone? He took it?”
“I needed you,” Cashel repeated before his eyes rolled back in his head and he lost consciousness.
“It’s time.” Martin wheeled over the IV rack and mounted four bags, one on each hook. Then he handed me the first of the tubing and instructed how to change out the one taking blood for the one which would give it. “This will help him for now. But if he’s already ravenous for your blood, the disease is advanced. We don’t have much time.”