Chapter 69
Chapter Sixty-Nine
SEBASTIAN
“She is hiding something.” A muscle ticks in my jaw like a heartbeat.
“Hiding what?” Marcus squares off with me, his fists clenched at his sides. It seems like Marcus and Andrei have taken it upon themselves to be April’s liaisons.
“You are pushing your luck, amico.” My voice sounds tired, even to my own ears. “I have no strength to fight with you.”
“She told you to feed,” Andrei chirps in from behind the bar.
It’s where I hide now, so I don’t go insane from April. The damn dog growling at me as soon as he sees me is not helping either. The rest of our people steer clear from both of us, sensing the tension in the air.
After she dragged me into the reception hall, April looked around as if searching for someone, power radiating from her in waves. Pushing away from me, she settled in one corner, and she’s been ignoring me since.
“I don’t know what I have done.” Centuries old and I’m lost on how to handle a woman. “Pathetic!” Exploding from the barstool, I pace the length of the bar. “She reduced me to a pathetic, lovesick fool.”
Marcus coughs, Andrei chokes, but they wisely keep their mouths shut. Anger bubbles up like lava in my gut. My claws sharpen, digging into the skin of my palms while I clench my fists.
“You want some whiskey?” Andrei waves the bottle at me.
“No.” Continuing my pacing, my nostrils flare with each harsh exhale. “What I want is to know what’s in her head. She found a way to block the bond. She is planning something. I know it.” An idea struck me. “Can you two feel her through the bond you have with me?”
“They can’t.” April is leaning on the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest.
Drinking in the sight of her, my gaze scans her from head to toe.
Her dark hair cascades over her shoulders, grazing the top of her breasts.
Rounded hips and beautifully shaped legs are wrapped in jeans that she must’ve found somewhere in the hotel.
My cock hardens, pressing on the pants I took from Marcus.
I still haven’t washed or found something suitable to wear.
I’m a mess.
“You need to feed.” That’s all she ever says to me now.
“What I need is to know what is going through that head of yours.” Taking a step towards her, I halt when her eyes sharpen.
“I took too much blood from you.” Holding me captive in her dark gaze, she presses on.
“Aren’t you wondering why you are losing the hold on your control, and why you’re so irritated?
” Stepping inside, she lets the door close shut behind her.
“In a few hours, we will need to be in full control of ourselves. Especially you, if you want to be done with those old fools once and for all.”
And that’s the problem right there. I don’t want to feed from anyone else.
My eyes flick to her neck with a mind of their own, and I clench one fist. Showing weakness is not something I do.
Well, not something I’ve done, until she came running headfirst into my life.
I was looking for her, but it was April that found me.
Pushing at the new bond between us, frustration eats me inside when I hit the impenetrable wall she placed between us.
“You know that’s not possible right now.” Her gaze softens for a moment before she catches herself. “Not yet.”
“I can find someone that will be happy to bleed for you.” Determined, Marcus moves to leave. “I’ll be right back.”
“Not Sara.” April’s words freeze us all where we stand. So softly spoken but such a strong command, we all feel it like a punch to the chest.
With a nod, Marcus disappears through the door, leaving the three of us standing in the silence.
I fight the smirk that wants to lift my lips, barely managing to keep my face impassive.
It warms my dark soul that she shows jealousy.
However, I doubt that what I find endearing will be welcomed as teasing at the moment.
Even with her calm demeanor, April seems tense and coiled up.
What I wouldn’t give to be inside her head. She is plotting something. I know it.
“We will need to split up tonight.” Her comment yanks me out of the warmth I was basking in just a second ago.
“Absolutely not!” Slicing my hand through the air, I ignore the pained groan coming from Andrei.
She has both him and Marcus wrapped around her little finger.
“If you walk in there with me by your side, apart from giving up our surprise, we will get the woman killed,” April says pointedly, as if I should care about the human.
I don’t.
“The woman”—which none of us asked her for a name, and I’m glad— “agreed to this of her own free will. No one forced her.” Ignoring April’s glare, I keep making my point.
“She knew it was dangerous, and that it would be at the cost of her life. That is the least of our worries.” A shiver runs down my body when April’s eyes flash a golden color.
“If we don’t succeed, all of us might join her. ”
“Let me make one thing clear, Sebastian.” April’s voice is soft and sweet like a slow killing poison.
“If that woman, risking her life to save mine, dies tonight”—coming to stand in front of me, she cups my face, and I nuzzle her palm, unable to stop myself— “everyone in that room will join her, including all of you. This, I promise you, tesoro.” She pulls away after placing a soft kiss to my lips, leaving me bare without her touch.
My heart thumps hard once right against my ribs as I watch her turn her back on me and walk away.
I’m eternally grateful her words keep Andrei in muted silence so I don’t turn on my old friend like a wild beast. Fear for her life—for the lives of many others depending on me—mixes with the anger at those dishonorable murderers calling themselves gods, pulsing like a living thing inside me.
April walks past Marcus, who has returned in time to hear her parting words.
He stands a few feet inside the bar, holding a tall glass of thick, warm blood while staring at her wide-eyed.
She reaches her hand out, patting him gently on his chest twice, then she is gone, leaving the tension-compressed air choking us all.
“She spoke the truth.” Shocked at how calmly she threatened our lives, threatened my life, after she bonded me to her, makes me speak out loud.
“April doesn’t even know the woman.” Andrei frowns, confusion and hurt clouding his face.
“I think both of you are idiots.” At my scowl, he lifts an eyebrow. “With all due respect, Sire”—snapping, he comes to hand me the glass— “it’s like both of you haven’t paid attention to her at all. Don’t you know April by now?”
“What’s that supposed to mean? And tread very carefully now, my friend. I’m not in my right mind.” Snatching the blood, I gulp it down, twisting my mouth in distaste. “It tastes like shit from a glass.”
Marcus simply stares at me. Pressing my forefinger and thumb at the bridge of my nose in hopes of relieving the pressure behind my eyes, I sigh heavily. The glass thumps on the wooden bar where I place it, my fingers sinking in my hair when I sit tiredly on the bar stool.
“Speak.” With my head in my hands, my fingers yanking on my hair, I keep my eyes closed. “As I said before, when it comes to her, I feel less than human.”
“That’s one problem, right there.” It’s a good thing I can’t see Marcus through my closed eyelids because I have a suspicion he is looking down his nose at me, and I’ll rip his head off if that’s the case.
“You keep saying human like it’s a vile thing or a vermin, not understanding that regardless of her being reborn and now remembering everything, she still sees herself as one of them. ”
My head jerks up, and I stare at him in utter shock.
Andrei, who was apparently lifting his drink to his lips, drops his hand with a heavy clink, almost breaking the glass and sloshing whiskey everywhere.
The smell of alcohol permeates the air around us.
Apart from the knowing glint in his eyes, there is no smugness on Marcus’s face.
“She pushed her fear and hatred of our kind down to come and save you from the Council because you are the only one who kept your promise to her.” His jaw clenches for a long moment before he unlocks it to keep talking.
“No matter how deceptive and selfish your promise was—our promise was—what mattered to her was that you kept your word. She looked up to that. To you. She died and was reborn to return it in kind. Even to monsters that have hunted her almost her entire life.”
I feel like my gut is full of lead. Sinking to my feet, Andrei’s gulp is too loud in my ears.
Numbness overtakes my irritation, leaving me watching my oldest friend in disbelief.
Was I so wrapped up in myself, in the plans I had made, to have missed everything that’s right in front of my face?
But Marcus is not done; he keeps talking, adding nails to my still-dead heart.
“I have watched her every dusk standing in front of the mirror, reminding herself who she is. Reminding herself that she is human, no matter what lurks inside her.” I watch, dismayed, when his eyes shimmer with unshed tears.
I have never seen him like this in all the centuries I’ve known him.
“Even now, when she is fully aware of what she is, her heart holds mercy, compassion, and honor to those that see her as someone worth saving. Someone worth fighting for. I will meet the sun and eternal sleep before I turn my back on that, on her. If the two of you can’t see that, there is no room for me here anymore.
” He turns and leaves us both, staring unseeing at the space he occupied.
“What have we done?” Andrei’s words echo my feelings exactly.
“What have we done, indeed.”