Chapter 29 Lazriel #2
Velra stepped in front of Sylas, partially blocking my view of him as her shadows formed a wall between us.
“I need to do a Blood Trace,” Sylas called over to me. “Like we talked about weeks ago. But it now holds a great deal more weight and immediate relevance to our current circumstances than it did when I suggested it then just for your own peace of mind.”
“What… a… I don’t understand. A Blood Trace… that was to discover if my father was still alive. What would this—fuck—not only do you think he’s actually alive, you believe he has something to do with this protection that’s been put on me?”
“I believe he has a great deal to do with it.”
“Wait… these vampires safeguarding me dropped the codeword my mom and I use, they said she was the one who’d sent them…
but if what you’re saying is true that means she not only knew my father was alive, but she’s actively working with him and protecting him?
” I stepped back from Cassius. “Maybe she’s with him right now.
Maybe that’s what her going to ground act is all about.
I assumed she was searching out other former pack leaders or something through some directive agreed upon during the Shifter Stabilization Unit meeting she’d been immersed in for days on end. ”
“We don’t know any of that yet,” Velra said, coming to me and stroking my arm, then my hair. “Nothing is certain, okay?”
“Yeah,” I murmured. “That’s true.”
“Whatever it is we’ll figure it out together, sweets.”
I nodded. “Okay.” I looked out at Sylas. “Sorry. I see now why you didn’t want to tell me and why you’ve been off lately. I thought… I thought you were pulling away or getting sicker and keeping it all from us again.”
“I will never pull away from you. Not in this lifetime.”
I smiled and held his gaze for a moment.
And then I looked at Cassius. “I’m sorry I ruined dinner and broke that plate.”
He snapped his fingers and then I saw the plate back on the table with the exact amount of food I’d had on it before, and the wall by the cupboards was cleaned of the mess too. “It appears fine to me.”
I chuckled. “Thank you.” I looked at each of them in turn, then at all the effort Cassius had gone to. “But I still ruined dinner.”
“Actually, I would say that you made it oddly entertaining.”
“Wow, the buttoned-up image that I had of you is really shattering all over the place lately.”
Velra smiled and stroked his chest. “How do you feel about that?”
He clasped her hand on him possessively. “Although it comes with its complications, I am rather enjoying it.”
“Good,” she said with a sweet chuckle.
Sylas came over and asked me, “What about the Blood Trace? What are your thoughts?”
“Well, we obviously need to do it.”
“If you don’t want to do it, Lazriel, rest assured that I will find another way to resolve this situation. You’re not boxed in or forced into anything.”
“I know I’m not.” He’d always made that very clear to me and gone to every effort to ensure my agency was protected in all circumstances.
I sucked in a breath as they all awaited my answer. “Let’s do it. Let’s get these answers. It’s the best way to take back control over all of this.”
“All right,” Sylas said. “Finish your steak. I need a few minutes to prepare, then we’ll convene in the living room.”
As he went to move, Cassius clamped his hand down on his shoulder. “First, you will allow Velra to assist you in the way we discussed earlier.”
Sylas started. “Cassius—”
“Really?” Velra cried. “You’re ready now?”
“I mean, yes, but I don’t want you to feel like I’m—”
“I’ve been waiting for you to allow me to do this for you.” She grabbed his hand. “Come on.”
He needed help, but it was so difficult for him to actually ask for it. Of course Velra understood that about him.
She was the fucking best, through and through.
In every way imaginable.
Shit, he looked hot as fuck right now.
Sylas in all his Almighty Necromancer glory.
His chest was bare and he stood there in just his low-hanging pants, his magic flaming on either palm as he held a black and gold fancy-looking knife in his right hand, the magic encircling the handle and all up the blade.
He’d called a whole box of the things here.
His ceremonial blades, he’d named them. I’d never seen them at his house and he’d told us it was because he’d lent them to Kai Hunter.
Apparently that intense sorcerer had been using them for some experiments he’d been doing in his home cave lab.
Yeah, an actual cave that he’d moved to the home he shared with his lovers.
As I sat on the tall stool that Cassius had grabbed for me, also shirtless and without my comfy forest-green hoodie, I looked out at Velra standing just off to my right holding hands with Cassius.
I could feel the intensity coming off them, their pulses a little faster than normal, even though they were flashing me reassuring smiles.
They were worried about what Sylas would find through the Blood Trace and how I’d react, what it might do to me.
Not surprising given my outburst earlier.
That shit had been building though. It’s not like I was some crazed, melodramatic, chaos-bringer. I’d had my reasons.
“As much as I’m enjoying this new take on the Blood Trace, especially with you baring all that hotness right in front of me, this isn’t how I remember the spell when I had that sorceress do it for me.”
“Good, because given how inexperienced she was, she would have killed herself,” Sylas told me.
“He needs to break the Death Seal,” Cassius explained.
Sylas stepped right up close to me. “Now, for most beings, this would be aggravating, unsettling, and painful for them. But for you, it’ll likely be highly arousing. However, under no circumstances can you rise to that or break my concentration.”
“Please. I can control myself.” Off their looks, I added, “When it’s called for.”
I eyed Velra and she gave a nod. “Yes, you can. You did very well with me.”
“Vindicated,” I told Sylas.
He gave me a withering look.
But, despite my words, as he pressed the blade to the center of my chest, I swallowed hard and tensed.
“Ready, babe?”
“Yes,” I breathed. “Do it.”
The blade pierced my skin, earning a hiss from me.
He drew it down and around, carving into me, creating two magical symbols that I didn’t recognize.
Despite not being a magic-wielder, I was suitably schooled in the magical arts—something Wraeven Academy insisted on for non-magical beings as a form of protection—but these were deep in necromantic lore.
And he was definitely doing it differently to how that sorceress had for me.
I guess he was creating something to break that Death Seal first, and then he’d do the actual Blood Trace.
I dug my fingers into the seat of the stool as the burning pain continued on as he cut into me, blood dripping down my torso all fucking over.
While the scent of my own blood didn’t turn me on, the fact that it was him cutting into me was definitely arousing as fuck.
He finally stopped cutting and then he spun the knife and sliced both his palms open with a grunt.
He handed the knife off to Cassius, who returned it to the case after cleaning it of blood with a spark of his magic.
I saw Velra cringing as she looked on.
“All good, love,” I choked out.
Cassius wrapped his arm around her and stroked her hair. Good. She wasn’t squeamish, but she didn’t like us hurting. I’d be the same way if it was her undergoing this. Actually, let’s face it, I’d be way worse.
Sylas’ magic flamed as he held his palms out toward me. “Brace yourself,” he warned. “This will be a lot to take.”
I had a ton of dirty responses to that one, but I forced myself to swallow them down after what he’d told me before he’d started. He couldn’t be distracted.
So, I just gave a nod.
He pressed his palms directly over the symbols he’d carved into my chest.
The moment he made contact, the pain was utterly searing—fucking brutal.
Of course, my cock went rock hard in an instant, even though my mind was still playing catch-up to the pleasure aspect of the agonizing sensation. Confusing vampiric senses.
“Ungh… shit…” I rasped.
I choked as I watched red veins traveling up his arms along with black tendrils swirling around the outsides. It seemed like he was drawing my blood out in some strange way, and something else… my essence… my supernatural signature.
I couldn’t ask as he grimaced, then started uttering an incantation in a language I didn’t know. It sounded ancient and I looked over at Cassius to see him following along, nodding and showing recognition. Velra was like me, frowning, not knowing it either.
He eased his hands away then, and the pain stopped abruptly.
His palms were glowing with a mixture of black and crimson, while my blood was slithering all along his arms, those dark tendrils still in play as well.
And then he took a step back and slapped his palms to his chest.
He growled in pain, his hands shaking, the strain of holding them in place clearly taking a lot out of him.
His voice became aggressive, almost violent, as he spoke his incantation.
He pulled his hands away and I watched as blood and magic swirled as one all over him, forming the same symbols that he’d carved into me.
Moments passed where he grimaced, still somehow managing to carry on with the incantation, and then the tendrils circling his arms shot toward the symbols, snuffing them out, and the tendrils themselves along with it.
Sylas released a long breath.
And then he came back to me and grasped both my hands, those veins still slithering all over his arms.
This was the part I remembered from doing the spell before.
I felt a push into me—his magic.
It was connecting with me, my blood, my energy.
Red light filled my vision.
And then a rush of images inundated me, whooshing across land and sea alike, moving through crowds, thousands of faces, hundreds of places. Just rushing and rushing.
Thanks to my vampiric nature and my ability to speed along, I was able to make out some of them.
None of them meant anything to me, though.
Until then her.
My mom.
I saw her.
It kept moving, more images, moving past her.
Shadows. So many shadows.
Darkness.
Beneath the ground. Deeper and deeper.
A bolt of silver magic shot out, trying to force us back.
I heard a curse from Sylas.
Struggle.
His pulse pounding.
Then blood—his blood.
I almost pulled from the spell, from this rush of visions state.
But then a surge of strength attached itself to us.
I caught a brief glimpse of that familiar white light.
Cassius.
The rushing continued on.
And then it abruptly stopped at the end of an unknown alley.
Somebody had their back to us.
Slowly, they turned.
“Son,” he rumbled. “You shouldn’t be here.”
Blackness engulfed everything then.
I heard a snap, and I blinked to see Sylas, Cassius, and Velra staring at me worriedly.
“Did I… pass out?”
“For mere seconds,” Cassius told me.
I registered that, then stared out at Sylas. “Did you see?”
“Yes.”
“My father. He’s alive.”
“They call him Remnant,” he told me. “The Commander of The Shadowed.”
I swallowed hard. “The vampiric underworld.”
Fucking shit.