Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
I don’t want that right now. I’m too tired, too frustrated. Wolf, predator that he is, will pick up on it immediately, and he won’t be able to resist testing me. Testing the bond. It exhausts me just thinking about going a round with him right now.
We might have spent the last month together, but I should know better than to lean on these vampires. Even Malachi, for all his declarations of intent, hasn’t known me nearly long enough to actually mean anything he says. More, considering the possibility of a future together is a far cry from agreeing to a bond that only death will sever.
I am surrounded by men, but I’m just as alone as I was in my father’s compound. Separate. Other. Alternatively a threat and prey, depending on who’s around. The only thing I ever wanted was freedom, and it’s the one thing I’ll never have.
Gods, I’m a little ray of sunshine tonight.
I move through the upper floors of the house that is our most recent lodgings. Despite Malachi’s intentions of losing ourselves in the city, the plan fell through almost immediately. It took my father’s people less than twelve hours to find us the first time. Since then, we’ve had to get increasingly creative, avoiding any properties directly linked to Wolf or Rylan and moving regularly. It still isn’t enough to grant us true peace, but at least we’re staying ahead of my father’s hounds.
Barely.
The air shifts behind me, but I don’t need to look to know who it is. Malachi. When we first met, he had a habit of surprising me by appearing unexpectedly without a sound. Now that we’re bonded, he’ll never be able to sneak up on me again. None of them will. That knowledge should reassure me, should offer some kind of layer of safety, but it’s simply a reminder of how much has changed in such a short time.
“Do you think he knew?”
Malachi doesn’t ask who I’m referencing. “I doubt it. Even if she was like you and tasted different than humans do, there are a lot of monsters in our world. Knowing your father, he wouldn’t have risked bedding her if he suspected she had even a hint of seraph blood.”
She. My mother. The source of my seraph powers that awoke a month ago in a bed filled to the brim with sex and blood, the chain that now binds me to these three Bloodline vampires.
Not every vampire in our world is graced with magic. Those turned might get the near-immortal lifespans, but that’s the best of it. Even those naturally born barely have a leg up over the turned vampires.
No, the true power lies with the seven Bloodline families, each with a specialization they pass from parents to children. There are other perks, including pleasurable bites, but the real focus is the magic. My father can get anyone to do anything he wants as long as they’re in the same room and he’s able to speak. He can also use his glamour to shift his appearance.
And now I have three Bloodline vampires linked to me. Malachi with his fire. Wolf with his blood magic. Rylan with his shapeshifting. Practically an army of three, all vested in keeping me alive because if I die, there’s a decent chance I’ll drag them all to hell with me. Aside from my father, little can touch me now. If I was a different person, maybe I’d be elated.
I never wanted any of it.
Malachi closes the distance between us and wraps his arms around me, tugging me back against his large body. If not for the way he sometimes looks at me, I might allow myself to sink into these little intimate moments. To believe that the future holds even a sliver of happiness for me.
“You’re thinking too hard.” Malachi rests his chin on the top of my head. “You and Rylan have been sniping at each other again, haven’t you?”
“I didn’t want this,” I whisper. I can feel Rylan winging his way farther and farther from the house—from me. Eventually, he’ll reach the limits of our bond just like he has countless times in the last month, and it will snap at him until he turns back. “Why can’t he understand I hate this even more than you all do?”
“He’s got a long and complicated history with the seraphim. When your memory is as long as Rylan’s, it’s difficult to get past old beliefs. Old fears.” Malachi delves his hands beneath my shirt to bracket my waist. I try to resent that the feel of his hands on my skin instantly unwinds some of my tension. I try…and I fail. I want to blame this on the bond, too, but my attraction to Malachi has been there from the moment we met, and only seems to grow stronger with time.