Saint
After Aurora finished signing all the necessary documents needed to officially take over her late father’s estate, we embarked on an early evening of sight-seeing.
And after three feeding sessions from Aurora, I ventured to the volunteer feeder building in need of sustenance.
Her appetite is almost as insatiable as mine, which only makes me adore her that much more.
And as much as I’d love to only feed from her, I need to supplement.
Luckily, the house is warded, so I felt fine leaving Aurora to rest for a few hours, especially after I cleared it upon our first arrival, ensuring the wards were intact.
I fully plan to wear her out again. And again.
As many times as she wants me, needs me.
I’m done pushing her away, and despite our conversation the other night, I know there’s no getting away from the gruesome end I’m careening toward.
She accepted my reasoning, and that’s all I can ask for.
Despite her pleas for me to cling to hope, she promised me she understood.
It’s the only way I would continue to be with her, because the last thing I want to do is break her heart in the end.
I drink from the volunteer human’s wrist, taking just enough of his blood before pulling back.
It’s the first time I’ve fed without Dagon watching from a dark corner, ready to haul me off should I drink too much.
It’s not hard to pull away now. The human didn’t taste bad this time, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s because I’ve fed from Aurora, which would lean toward that mark on her neck being mine.
“Thanks,” the man says as he takes the cash from my hand.
I nod to him, and head out, sucking down the warm night air.
Part of me feels content and settled in a way that no hunter in the midst of a war his brother started should feel.
The other part is doing its best to remind me in all the ways in which I’m fucked.
What kind of sadistic world do I live in where I’m mated while also most certainly approaching my death?
No, it’s not my mark. It can’t be.
Even the thought tastes like a lie.
I don’t want it to be Samuel’s mark either. I just hate that we’re fucked either way. She’s fucked if it’s Samuel’s mark, because why would fate do that to her? And I’m fucked if it’s mine, because I’ll likely die before I can give her everything she deserves from a mate.
I’ve read extensively on twin bonds between vampire children. It’s powerful as hell, and having it severed by one or the other is assumed to have dire consequences, even if there are only a few recorded throughout history.
I turn down an alley between two ancient buildings, lost in my thoughts as I make my way back toward Aurora’s home.
She deserves a life with without war, without constantly worrying Samuel will crash into her world and uproot her again.
She deserves peace. But if that mark is mine and we fully accept the bond?
She’ll suffer when I die killing my brother.
“I knew it was the San Gimignano towers you saw earlier.” Samuel’s voice stops me dead cold. I blink a few times, checking to ensure my racing thoughts didn’t conjure him before me.
Samuel steps out of the shadows, wearing an immaculate black suit, his hands in his pockets, his eyes almost entirely blood red.
Nope, he’s definitely real. Adrenaline spears through me, but I stand like a statue, not wanting to trigger his flight response he’s been so reliant on.
“Have to love Italy,” he continues, smiling at me. “The people here taste better, don’t they?”
“How the fuck are you here?”
Samuel taps his temple. “Your shields are down.”
Fuck my life. “You’re spying on me through the twin bond?” I growl. “You haven’t done that since we were adolescents.” And he’d been the only one of us who could do it successfully. I was always jealous of that. I’d tried and failed multiple times in using it to track him down since his betrayal.
Samuel shrugs. “Desperate times.”
“If you wanted to meet up, all you had to do was ask.” Instincts have my eyes flashing to thermal.
I’m fully fed and armed with four blades.
I can take him down. I don’t reach for the weapons, not wanting to scare him into running again.
I have to get closer, get my hands on him so that if he wends, I wend with him.
“Oh, come on, Saint.” He tilts his head. “Don’t pretend like you didn’t let those shields down on purpose. You’ve kept them in place for centuries. You did it as a peace offering. And I’m so glad you’ve come around. I miss you,” he says, sincerity coloring his features. “I miss my brother.”
I feel his last words like a knife to the heart. “We haven’t been brothers for a very long time. You imprisoned me. Starved me—”
“I did what I had to.” Samuel rolls his eyes. “You needed to understand my plans for us. For our future. You’ll get over the few months you lost when you have a sparkling eternity stretching out before you. Especially when I get my way.”
“Okay, fine. Forget what you did to me.” I have to keep him talking. Keep him here. I’ve never been so angry for not letting Dagon or Ajax tag along on a trip with me. “It doesn’t erase the fact that you joined forces with our enemy. With the people who want to eradicate our kind.”
Another shrug. “The Sons are useful to the cause. Things need to change. We need a new king. One who will shift things back to more familiar ways. Bring strength and purity back to the bloodlines. Put an end to the Conclave business.” He scoffs.
“How many times has Alek made you work with lycans or demons or witches since you joined his side?”
I shake my head. “Who the fuck are you?”
“You know exactly who I am. I’m half of you.”
Ice crystalizes on the back of my neck as he plucks at one of my biggest fears. “I’m nothing like you.” I take a step closer to him.
He takes a step back. “You are, brother.” His features shift to a softer, more familiar shape. Reminding me of the bond we used to have—the way we always had each other’s backs, never letting true harm come to the other. It burns.
“Aren’t you tired?” he asks. “Tired of fighting it? Tired of pretending humans are anything other than sustenance? Tired of bending a knee to a vampire king who would sooner put you back into stasis or stake you than sever his loyalty to the humans and other supernaturals?”
“I am tired,” I admit. “Tired of trying to redeem you. You’re beyond saving.
I wasn’t able to see it before, but now I realize your thirst for power is the exact reason for your downfall.
” I knew as much after he kidnapped the princess Avianna and imprisoned me, but I couldn’t admit it.
And after we found Aurora…after everything he’d done to her, I knew the brother I’d known had died for good.
Samuel laughs. I take another step toward him. He doesn’t move back this time.
“You know, I’ve been busy. Tainting your blood supply wasn’t the only item on my agenda.
But after you and the others put up such a fight, I made backup plans.
You know how organized I am.” He tilts his head.
“The vote is coming up. You’ve never paid enough attention to the political side of our world, but you should know, I’ve gathered almost all the votes necessary to throw Alek from his throne and claim it for myself.
” He smirks. “I only need one more. And wouldn’t you know it, a new duchess has been appointed who I happen to know quite well. ”
My stomach bottoms out. Alek sent Aurora and me here to claim her inheritance, ensuring her vote counts in the upcoming election.
“She should be easy to sway next,” he continues. “Fragile little thing, but who better to make her come to heel than the vampire who made her.”
“You’re dead.” I lunge at him, knives in my hands, aimed at his heart.
Nausea hits me like a sledgehammer and my legs go numb beneath me. I drop to my knees, my bones cracking against the cobblestone road. I double over, hurling up my guts.
“Ah ah,” Samuel taunts. “We’re going to play nice.”
I retch again. “This is nice?”
The nausea ebbs, but the numbness remains. Samuel crouches down, just out of my reach, but enough to catch my gaze. “She’s with you, isn’t she?” He inhales deeply. I know he can smell her on my skin.
Panic streaks through me as I try to get my limbs to work. I have to get to Aurora. I can’t let him find her.
“Your shields are down again.” His eyes flare.
I check them, finding the weak spot and patching it up one second too late, an image of Aurora springing to my mind.
“Ahh, Rory,” he says, and the sound of the name she hates makes my skin crawl. “She wears our mark.”
“You stay away from her!” I thrash against his power, lashing out with my own. Trying to grip his reality and send him to the hell he deserves.
He laughs, deflecting my attempt. “You know I always see that coming.”
I growl.
“She’s not your mate,” he says with a confidence that threatens to kill me.
Does he sense something I don’t? “As much as you’d like to pretend she is, she isn’t.
I made her. She belongs to me.” He crouches to my eye level.
“Her body. Her mind. It’s all mine. My creation, mine to bend. Just like her vote.”
Pain spears into my bones, his power gripping my soul and wringing it out. My shields drop, images bursting down the twin bond I can’t stop. Aurora’s kiss, her fangs dripping with my blood, her smile—
“Oh,” Samuel says, the pain easing enough for me to breathe.
“That is interesting. Her obsession with you must be tied to me. To the fact that we, too, share a bond.” He tilts his head, smiling widely.
“I won’t even have to torture her to get her to obey.
I bet she’d hand herself over willingly, if I promised to keep you alive once I’m on the throne. ”
Oh, fucking hell. “I’ll kill you.”
“You keep saying that,” he says. “I’m starting to think you have no real intention of even trying.
Use this number when you’ve come to your senses.
” He slips something in my pocket before rising to stand.
“The lack of true effort is what gives me hope.” He looks down at me, his power waning.
I don’t know if it’s because he believes what he’s saying or if it’s because he’s taking more steps away from me, but I take it.
Gathering my power with each breath. “You’ll remember we’re brothers,” he continues.
“Real brothers. Not like the flimsy bonds with the hunters. You and me, we shared a womb. You’ll remember your place at my side soon enough.
” He grins down at me before looking off to the distance.
“I remember the Somerhaul’s estate,” he says.
“I’ll get there easily enough. I certainly would rather we go together though. As a team. Like we used to be—”
I wend.
It’s sloppy and chaotic, but it’s enough. I crash into the ground just outside the warded home. The distance from Samuel’s power restores my full abilities and health, and I race through the mansion at vampire speed.
“Saint?” Aurora squeaks my name as I throw her over my shoulder and wend us to the airport before she can get a question out.
We’re on a plane within thirty minutes, our luggage all but forgotten at the mansion.
I don’t take my eyes off her the entire flight, my mind flailing and broken as I try to regain control.
Samuel knows my weakness. I showed him when I saved Aurora the night he broke into the palace.
And now he’s exploited me. Because as much as I hate to admit it, he’s right.
If he pitted my life in exchange for Aurora’s vote, I’m certain she’d give it to him.
She cares for me that deeply. It’s wholly unfair to her.
I can’t let him near her. I have to kill him first. But he’s bested me at every turn, and I’m starting to wonder if I’m strong enough to put an end to him at all.