Chapter Twenty-Eight
Marcus stared out the window, willing Winifred’s carriage to reappear. His instincts urged him to find shelter, but he didn’t care. The pain of knowing he’d hurt her was worse than the glare of the sun.
Why hadn’t he just bitten her?
He closed his eyes. He knew why. If he gave in and drank too much, he would be forced to let her die or turn her.
As the former was impossible, the latter meant she might come to hate him as he hated his own maker.
There was love in his heart for Marguerite, but it was small compared to his resentment that she’d robbed him of his mortality and allowed him to kill so many innocents.
Winifred was upset now, but her anger would fade.
He wrenched himself from the window and reached out with his senses for his brothers. They might not have approved of his marriage, but he hoped he wouldn’t have to command them to follow Winifred and guard her against hunter attacks.
“You have really done it this time,” Cordon said from behind him.
Marcus sighed and turned to face his siblings.
Cordon wore a silver-and-black plaid suit jacket and matching trousers. The colors and slim fit suited his tall frame looked as if he hadn’t rested in days and met Marcus’s look with a scowl.
“Winifred has gone to Glasgow,” Marcus said.
“I want one of you to follow her.” The words sounded weak, even to him.
He wondered if this was how Cordon had felt when he’d thought he’d been dying.
That made Marcus feel even worse about not coming to his brother’s side.
He truly was a failure as head of the family.
Maybe it was time to let someone else take over.
“You allowed her to leave?” Cordon asked. “It could be a trap.”
Marcus slouched over his desk and put his head on his folded arms. “What am I to do, brother? Lock her in her room?”
He would not make the castle a prison for her because he knew how it felt to be confined.
Cordon made a rude sound. “You have known this woman for mere months.”
Jonathan let out a sharp laugh. “You betray yourself, Cordon. How long after you met Katherine did you marry her?”
Cordon scowled. “It is not the same. Kitty was my mate.” His expression softened. “It was love at first bite.”
Marcus straightened. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t get him started,” Jonathan said as he plucked a delicately carved wooden box from Marcus’s desk.
It was a trinket Marcus had picked up decades before his involuntary confinement.
A specific sequence of actions was required to open a secret compartment.
Jonathan frowned as he tilted it around.
“Slide the—” Marcus started before Jonathan shushed him. Marcus left his younger brother to his curiosity and looked at Cordon, who was staring out the window with his arms crossed.
“Please, brother,” Marcus said. “Tell me what happened between you and Kitty.” He wasn’t sure why it was so important, but something deep in his chest told him he had to know what his brother had to say.
Cordon rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger. “Well, you know that when I met her, I had given up.”
“I recall it well,” Marcus said. Cordon had created a list of a hundred scandalous activities he’d wanted to complete before he died of mate atrophy. Marcus and Jonathan had scoffed at the idea. It no longer seemed so foolish.
“Kitty was impossible to resist,” Cordon said, his tone wistful.
“She later admitted she felt it, too, but refused to acknowledge it.” He shook his head with a chuckle.
“She willingly gave her body but held her heart back until the very end. Much as I did. But after tasting her, I knew I could have no other. Her blood healed parts of me I hadn’t known were broken. ”
Cordon continued talking, but Marcus was too struck by the comparison between what his brother was describing and his own situation with Winifred.
She’d been irresistible and her blood had caused a similar reaction.
It was almost the reverse situation, where Winifred had been open with her affection from the day she’d arrived in the castle, but Marcus had kept his distance—or, at least, he’d tried.
Staying away from Winifred had been as futile and stopping the sun from rising.
When Cordon stopped speaking, Marcus reluctantly asked the question that had been bouncing around his head for hours, but he’d refused to acknowledge. “You’ve spoken of it before, but would you remind me again how you formed the mating bond?”
The sound of wood hitting the floor with a thud made both Marcus and Cordon turn. The puzzle box lay discarded on the floor between Jonathan’s legs, with the secret compartment open.
Jonathan scowled. “I cannot believe this. Look at what you’ve done.” He picked up one of Marcus’s silver flasks. “This is science. This is innovation. You are an inventor, brother. If anyone can find a way to avoid mating, it’s you. Don’t give in to fate.”
The back of Marcus’s neck burned. Having his younger brother speak to him in such a way made his temper rise, but he tamped it down.
Jonathan was only reacting the same way Marcus had when Cordon had presented his list of scandalous tasks he’d intended to complete before he died.
Marcus had not believed his brother was dying, at first. It had taken Cordon’s miraculous recovery after marrying Kitty to change Marcus’s mind.
He staggered over to his chair and fell into it. “I love Winifred. Her blood heals me more effectively than any concoction. She must be my fated mate, but we have not bonded. Is there something else I must do?”
Jonathan threw up his hands. “I’ve had enough.
I’ll head to Glasgow. Anywhere is better than here.
” Then he stormed out of the room, letting the door slam behind him.
Marcus winced. He would have to mend things with his brother later, but for now, he was more concerned about making sure he had all the information he could gather from Cordon.
His brother had told the story of his mating several times, but Marcus had been too focused on finding a scientific alternative to listen.
Cordon walked over to the mantel, removed a cigar from a box sitting there, then lit it in the flames of the hearth.
“The bond comes first.” He put the cigar to his mouth and puffed, then came to sit across from Marcus.
“If she is your mate, then when you are both open to love, the connection will snap into place.” He put his index finger and thumb on his temple, then gestured outward.
“It was not something we attempted. It simply…happened.” He frowned.
“I cannot explain it. One moment I was certain I was dying, and the next, Kitty was pressing my mouth to her neck and urging me to drink. It was at that moment that the bond formed.” He closed his eyes.
“I will never forget the moment her mind first touched mine.”
Cordon’s blissful expression made Marcus want to strangle him. It wasn’t fair that Cordon had found his mate first. Marcus was the eldest. He should have been the one helping his siblings find their mates, not Cordon.
A bitter taste filled his mouth. Being jealous of Cordon was pointless. Marcus had surrendered leadership of the nest when he’d fled to Scotland. He waited for Cordon to open his eyes, then asked, “Was that when the symptoms faded?”
Cordon took another puff. “Not immediately, but yes. Marguerite believed it was the lack of the bond that causes the atrophy.”
Marcus tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair. “But you did not need to turn Katherine into a vampire first. The bond formed while she was still human.” That meant there might be a way to let Winifred help him without risking her life.
Assuming she hadn’t already been captured. Her carriage had left a full quarter hour before Jonathan had followed.
He put his head in his hands. “I never should have let her go. If anything happens to her…” The hunters were merciless. If they decided Winifred was ‘tainted’ because of her marriage to him, they might treat her like any other vampire they hunted.
“Do not worry, brother,” Cordon said. He tapped his temple. “I can speak to my mate through our mental bond even when we are far apart. Kitty is watching your wife even as we speak.”
A wave of giddiness passed through Marcus. “Thank God.”
He would trust his brothers to protect her, and when she returned, he would tell her exactly how he felt.
Until then, he’d do his best to stay alive.