Chapter Fifteen - Sen
Vidar’s fist darts out to wrap around Elio’s throat. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t snap your neck.” He leans closer to Elio. “And make it quick.”
Elio gasps, swiping at Vidar.
I push in front of Teagan, and he allows it. Maybe he’s starting to trust me. Or he’s so tired of all this bullshit, it’s the easier path. I don’t blame him.
I’m tired of this smell, too.
More importantly, I get to feel the heat of him against me.
My thirst for Teagan’s closeness is an ache far greater than I’ve ever had from a sharp sip of sake, a luxurious sangria, or the burn of pure vodka.
Or even the unfiltered seduction of blood.
I could blame the soulmate bond, brush this aside as an odd interlude in my marvellous life and be on my way.
But when Teagan’s fists tug at my t-shirt as if looking for security that I’m here and real, and his beautiful scent coats my lungs with every inhale, I know I’ll never be able to walk away.
I suppress a conceding sigh, inwardly tipping my chin to Fate for winning this round. I can just imagine the know-it-all smirk she must be wearing.
“Vidar.” Kai throws his hands up. “The kid can’t speak if you’re choking him out.”
“And we can still kill him if he says something we don’t like,” I add, smirking at Elio.
Vidar grunts.
Silence.
Elio sucks in a sharp breath as Vidar frees our scentless blood mage.
“Fucking hell!” Elio coughs, shoving away from Vidar. “I didn’t have a fucking say in giving her the tome, alright? I fucking hate the lot of them. Emma included! I’ll prove it, just don’t try to kill me again when I show you my belly button.”
Teagan snorts a little laugh. I want to capture that sound and listen to it on repeat. “I wasn’t expecting the word ‘belly button’ to be used,” he remarks.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.” Elio slides up his skin-tight thermal to show us the belly button in question, ringed in dark red symbols.
I let loose a sigh. “Well, that has complicated matters.”
Vidar moves back to Kai’s side with arms crossed, half his attention going back to Bran, who lounges with his elbows up against a dresser.
“What does that even prove?” Kai snipes. “Emma was a liar; he could still be lying.”
“You aren’t wrong, Kai.” Vidar cups his mate’s chin, stroking soothing circles into the scarred side. “But in this, Elio isn’t lying.”
“What’s happening?” Teagan asks, poking his head around my arm. His black curls fall away from his sweet face.
I curl my fingers into fists to stay focused on Elio. Otherwise, I’d lose myself in the beautiful depths of Teagan’s obsidian gaze, framed in long, silky lashes.
I work not to roll my eyes. Next, I’ll be putting posters of Teagan’s face on my walls.
“Something you’re probably familiar with, Teagan,” Bran remarks while examining his short nails. His interest wanes now that the juicy gossip is out. “It’s a control spell.”
Elio’s lips purse, gaze hot.
“Oops, did I spill a secret?” Bran quips, brushing an invisible speck of lint from his sleeve.
Elio throws a look of angry disgust at Bran. “Don’t worry. I’ve never been allowed to keep anything to myself, anyway.”
“I wasn’t worried.”
“You’re kind of a dick,” Teagan says, his raspy voice quiet as usual, but all bravado. My brave boy.
“I’ve been told,” Bran replies smoothly.
Teagan comes around me. I whip my arm out, but he just rolls his eyes and shoves me away.
“Elio, right?” Teagan asks. Elio nods. “Listen, you’ve given enough, and you’ve helped. Summer…she took a choice away from me. It sucked. Fuck everyone else, they’re all dickheads anyway.”
“Teagan,” Kai groans, dropping his head into his hands.
I grin. My soulmate is absolutely delightful.
Teagan pays no attention to his brother. “So if you wanna walk away now, do it. They won’t stop you.”
“I will if I have to,” Vidar states. My jaw ticks at my Maker’s stubborn, unrelenting attitude.
I’ll have to remind him that while Teagan might one day join our vampire family, my mate will never be his to command.
Teagan is mine. “To keep Kai and you, Teagan, and the others safe, I’ll do whatever is necessary for this family. ”
“And I’ll never speak with Kai again. Never.” Teagan glares at Vidar, and Kai looks up, eyes flashing with hurt. “I ain’t forcing anyone to do shit just because you can throw your weight around.”
“Well said,” I drawl, lifting an eyebrow at Vidar, daring him to argue back. I couldn’t give a shit about Elio, but if my mate wants it, then so be it.
Bran laughs. “You’ve got yourself a lively one, Sen.”
Vidar growls low in his chest.
The rage in Elio’s expression recedes the longer he stays connected to Teagan. His shoulders remain tucked under his ears, but his mouth relaxes into what some would even call a smile.
Or a friendly grimace.
“They really are dickheads, aren’t they?
” Elio drops his shirt to conceal his belly button.
“It’s a spell Emma carved into my stomach when I was…
” An emotion flickers, but is quickly shaken away and replaced with a scowl that’s fast becoming familiar.
“It doesn’t matter when. All you need to know is that anyone related to me by blood can force me into doing whatever they want with a single word. ”
Teagan steps forward. I grind my molars to resist pulling him away. He asked me to trust him, and I’m trying to do that. Kai, on the other hand, grabs his bleached braids and looks like he’s seconds away from exploding.
“Teagan! Stop getting closer to the fucking mage.”
“Your Mum did that shit to you?” Teagan gestures with his chin to Elio’s stomach, not even offering Kai a backwards glance. “That’s fucked.”
“That’s one way of putting it. She didn’t do it to my older siblings, though. Just me.”
“You’re a little brother, too?”
They both side-eye Kai, who’s turning a very interesting shade of purple, then share a laugh.
Kai huffs, rolling his eyes.
“The old Sovereign controlled me, too,” Elio adds. “He forced me to give the tome to Emma. I tried fighting against his hold, but I wasn’t strong enough…” Elio chokes back the bitter shake in his voice. “The First Tome is a blight on this world and should be destroyed.”
Bran smiles. “It definitely has caused trouble.”
“Emma’s commanded me never to harm her, so I bided my time. Then I heard Summer got her hands on the fucking thing. Finally, I thought I had my chance.”
“Why didn’t you go to Astra?” Vidar questions. “Or did she command you, too?”
“No.” Elio grits his teeth, his annoyance once again rising. “But my aunt thinks she can save all the blood mages, and it’s made her desperate. Desperate people make stupid choices. Summer being a prime example.”
“And how do you come into this, Bran? Did your little prophecy tell you?” I ask.
Kai and Teagan share a look of confusion, but that’s an explanation for later.
The yellow shards in Bran’s gaze seem to sparkle when he says, “I saved Elio.”
“That’s the strangest thing I’ve heard all day,” Vidar remarks offhandedly.
Bran crosses his ankles, the perfect picture of smug arrogance. “Still upset I didn’t save you from being burnt at the stake three hundred years ago?”
“Now that you remind me, I am,” Vidar snarls, “It. Fucking. Hurt.”
Bran’s grin sharpens.
I clap my hands to get their attention to avoid the inevitable fight. “Before we travel down memory lane, why don’t we finish listening to Elio so I can get back to doing what I do best—hunting.”
Teagan’s big eyes scan me over. “I thought you were a detective.”
I wink. “Something like that.”
My heart warms when he offers the tiniest smile.
Maybe a poster of his face wouldn’t be so outlandish…
“I’d been trailing Summer,” Elio continues, louder this time, “and managed to track her to a tattoo studio, King’s.
I waited days, but the moment I was about to give up, she pulled up in the middle of the night and tried to sneak in.
I thought it’d be my only chance and went for her. Didn’t exactly go to plan.”
Elio rubs the back of his neck as if prodding an old hurt.
“I knew she was a powerful shadow mage, but I didn’t expect how talented she was at blood magic. If Bran hadn’t shown up, I would’ve been split in half.”
I raise an eyebrow at Bran. “Convenient.”
Bran shrugs as if saving people is something he does on the regular, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
“Elio told me about his mission, and I was duty-bound to help,” Bran drawls.
“Duty-bound? Help?” I laugh. “Since when?”
Bran flashes his bone-white teeth. “Since I plan to destroy the tome.”
I’ve spent my life learning to read when someone is lying. Bran has always tripped me up. Not because he’s a good liar, but because he’s always hiding something and makes no secret of it.
“Can it even be destroyed?” I ask, knowing full well the First Blood Mage Tome might as well be indestructible.
But when there’s a flash of laughter in the corner of Bran’s eye, Vidar and I exchange a millisecond-long glance.
As always, the ancient vampire is keeping his cards close while teasing us with glimpses of his true intentions.
That’s to be expected with Bran, yet what concerns me more is the feeling in my gut that he’s holding another card behind his back.
“I keep telling him no,” Elio snaps. “It was made thousands of years ago by skinning a powerful creature who agreed to the torture. The magic and pain poured into it are immense. You could drop the tome in lava, and it’d find a way out.”
Bran doesn’t appear bothered by this news.
The soulmate bond trembles like a flicked piano string. I shoot a glance at Teagan, find him anxiously running a palm up and down the arm Summer cut. “Teagan?”
He’s silent, lips moving like he’s trying to find the words. Then, finally, he whispers, “Is that why spells hurt so much?”
Elio nods slowly, eyes gentling for Teagan. “She was drawing on your pain, as well as your blood.”
Kai puts his arm around Teagan’s shoulders and draws him close.
I should’ve protected him, and when Teagan whispers, “I thought Summer was my friend,” each word hammers into my chest.
“I need a minute…” Teagan murmurs.
I keep my arms locked at my sides.
Teagan doesn’t want my comfort now.
And it hurts.
It hurts knowing Teagan craves me just as much as I crave him.
As does the small, easily bruised desire I have for companionship—maybe love—that I’ve neatly tucked away.
It hurts to know that if I insisted on shielding Teagan from this world and its many colours that my soulmate so revels in, I’d only do more harm.
So I don’t whisper his name like Kai does as Teagan rushes towards the ensuite. I simply stare at his retreating back, all the while promising that one day I’ll show him every wonder imaginable.
“He’s been through a lot,” Vidar whispers to Kai, gently rubbing between his shoulder blades. “Give him time.”
Lucky bastard.
Frustrated, I run my tongue along my teeth. “The others need to be told what we’ve learned. Apollo, too.”
After a beat, Kai sighs when he realises Teagan isn’t coming back out and replies, “I called Apollo already. He’s closing the studio for a few days so he can clean up all the—” Kai shivers “—the blood. He told Luuk that a pipe burst.”
“Good. I need…” I linger on the bathroom door. “I need to find Summer and end this.”
“But you need to cut the tether first,” Elio argues as I storm out of the room.
“I am aware,” I answer by slamming the door.
Coming home always brings up complicated emotions, and then Fate really said, ‘You think so, bitch?’ and upped the ante.
A dark shape moves at the corner down the hallway, and I’m there in a second, slamming a familiar figure against the wall. “You know breaking and entering is illegal, right?”
Kate pushes me off, her sensible grey coat flapping around her.
“How much did you hear?”
She glares.
I move back. “Ah, so everything.”
“Pretty much,” she snides, tucking her hands into her pockets and relaxing her shoulders.
“Pretty much,” I repeat, scoffing. Could this day get any longer?
She cocks an eyebrow. “It’s fucked up.”
“You have no idea. I’d be impressed you snuck inside, but for a mansion full of ancient vampires hunting crazy mages, we’re surprisingly lazy.”
“I’ve known you a long time, Sen.” Kate eyes me up and down. “You think I find that surprising?”
“I know you, too, Detective Kate Donovan,” I reply, sharper than intended by the way her brow furrows. “You think you need to help Teagan. But this isn’t your business.”
“If he’s human—” Kate pokes her chest, “—then it is my damn business.”
“You’re gonna get yourself killed.”
Like a storm cloud, she grumbles and turns away to glower out the window.
Kate has, of course, thought about the possibility of an untimely demise. Just like every shape, angle, and direction of this mess has occurred to the detective. Yet Kate’s still decided that if someone has a blade pointed at humanity, then she’ll be the one putting her neck on the line.
Giving up and annoyed I’ve somehow surrounded myself with people who refuse to do what’s good for them, I say, “I’ll message you everything I know about Summer.”
Kate nods, as if this was the logical conclusion and was just waiting for me to give in. Then throws me a sceptical look. “Soulmates, huh? What a load of shit.”
“You don’t believe in it?”
She scoffs. I smirk.
“You’d like him,” I tell her, “trust me.”
“Oh, I know.”
I raise an eyebrow, waiting for her to explain.
She nods towards the window. “If I’m not mistaken, I just saw a cute kid jump out of a bathroom window and run across the garden.”
“Shit.” I start making my way down the corridor to chase after my wayward mate. “Get out of here, detective.”
And just before I turn a corner, I hear Kate say, “See you around, Sen.”