Chapter 26
Lock
Gritting my teeth, I grabbed a second bottle of blood from the fridge and tossed it to Seraphim on the couch. He caught it, giving me the slightest nod. His head would look better above that nice fireplace, but I was behaving today. Trying, at least.
I sat on the far end of the couch, wishing Sam would finish getting ready more quickly. I had a sneaking suspicion she was doing this on purpose. Maybe this was her putting her trust in me. Or it could be her testing me.
She needed to trust me, but now that we’d talked about it, I felt like there were expectations I had to live up to. I’d never had to answer to anyone before. Now, I had to think about everything I did and weigh the effects before I acted.
“So, how’s the family?” I asked before tipping the bottle back all the way. When I looked at him, he didn’t appear amused.
“What bones did you end up putting in your new dagger? None with as much sentimental value as the first, I’m sure.”
“Luckily, I don’t hold to those sorts of things. Objects are just that.”
“You subscribed to the idea enough to use them in the first place.”
“Well, my mother taught me how to act human, fata.”
“Stop calling me that,” he grumbled.
“It’s fitting. You have magic, you can fly, you bite. Maybe I should call you a devourer. Really, the stake was dramatic.”
“It was a spur of the moment attempt to distract you from Sam.”
“Your efforts were futile. She’s stuck with me now.”
“Technically, you haven’t finished your special little bond, so I’d hardly say it’s official. Are you waiting for your wedding night, Lock?”
“Yes, actually. I respect the sanctity of marriage and wouldn’t want to sully the bride. Her reputation would never recover.”
He chuckled around the bottle as he drained it. Sam rushed out of the hallway, holding her hands out.
“Hold on. Did someone just laugh?”
“No,” I replied dryly.
“I’ve been waiting for the sounds of glass shattering and flesh rending, but you guys are laughing.”
“Clearly, waking up early from your death nap left you with underdeveloped vamp hearing, darling.”
“Mhm. If you say so.”
A phone began vibrating and Seraphim stiffened. He fished it out of his pocket, glancing at the screen for a brief second before silencing it.
I cocked my head. “I take it that’s not the wife.”
“No.”
“Wait, do you have a wife?” Sam asked, dropping into my lap. I dipped my head into her neck and pierced her skin, feeling the intensity of her blood buzz in my veins.
“No wife,” he replied.
“That’s too bad. You need to get laid. Maybe then you’ll stop posting shirtless videos online.”
I snorted a laugh “That’s what he uses the mask for.”
“Sam, if I beat you in that game can I rip out your mate’s heart?”
She bristled. “Fuck no.”
“Fine.”
“But if you win, you can pick where and who we eat tonight.”
I sat up a little straighter, the thought of a hunt making the conversation more interesting. Seraphim shook his head, though.
“I have no interest in hunting with you two.”
“Why not?” she pouted. “We’re supposed to be getting acquainted with each other’s magic or energies and whatnot.”
“Hunting for sport is not my idea of bonding time.”
“It’s not for sport. I have to drink a lot every day and fresh blood is more effective. It’s not my fault I enjoy it.”
“Sure. I’ll tell you what. We can do that, but only if you follow my lead. Do what I say. We’re going to use magic and we’re going to do it discreetly. Deal?”
“Okay. If I win, you have to let go a little and get that pretty face bloody.”
I narrowed my eyes and she rolled hers. Seraphim sighed.
“Deal. That means controlling your unruly sadist if I win, though.”
“Lock is perfectly capable of handling himself.” She puffed her chest up and smiled at me.
I winked at Seraphim, then leaned back while the two of them got into a very heated, intense virtual battle. There was shouting, cursing, I thought I saw sparks shoot into the air at one point. In the span of minutes, the stress of the past few days dissipated and they were interacting much like Sam and Alex would.
“This is the last round,” Sam announced, bouncing in my lap. When she felt my dick poking into her, she stilled, then leaned back against my chest with a breathy laugh.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” I whispered in her ear.
“You’ll be the death of her if you keep distracting her,” Seraphim pointed out.
Sam swore and sat up straighter, focusing on the game. His phone rang again and he swiped away the call. It gave her a chance to throw something at his character.
“See?” Sam said. “If we can game together, we can take out bad guys together.”
“That’s an oversimplification.”
“Well, I was thinking about what you said and if this fucker needs me, or us, for our power, that must mean she’s not as strong as she wants to be.”
His head tilted slightly, but he kept his eyes on the screen. “You’re not wrong, but even in a weakened state, they possess a significant advantage.”
“I don’t understand how.”
“Think of it like this game. If I’m at one percent health, I’m at a disadvantage. However, my abilities aren’t weakened. I could hit you with a full-powered attack and kill you, so if I am stronger than you, I still have the upper hand.”
“But I only need to land a small attack to win.”
“And what if you can’t? What if I came to the fight like this, on the last bits of my health, but there’s no chance you can land a single blow?”
“There has to be a way. No defense is perfect.”
“Maybe, but what if I also had backup?”
“Backup,” she repeated.
He shrugged. “It’s just an analogy. She’s not defenseless is what I’m saying. There’s probably a one in a million chance you’ll find your opening and in all the other instances, you lose.”
“You said she’s trying to use me as a power up. Am I a fucking juice box?”
“Sort of.”
“Gross.”
“You literally treat humans like juice boxes.”
“Well, Lock said I can’t use a straw, so it’s not really the same thing.”
He glanced at me, looking as perplexed as I felt by the straw thing. After a moment, he broke into a laugh loud enough to echo. Sam’s eyes widened, then she devolved similarly. I didn’t know what was funny, but seeing her smile like that was enough to quell any concerns I might’ve had about it.
The phone ringing again cut through everything else, making them both go quiet. He stared at it, his jaw working. Quickly, I plucked it out of his hand and crushed it before he could get it back.
“What the fuck,” he exclaimed, jumping to his feet.
“You’re not going to answer and they must know you’re ignoring them. What’s the point of drawing out the inevitable?”
“No, this is bad.”
“It’s fine. A few missed calls don’t make for a world-ending disaster.”
“You don’t understand. If I don’t reach out soon, someone will check in.”
“Is someone in the area?”
“Not physically.”
I stared at his forehead as if I could see through to the thing inside. Maybe a lobotomy would burn it out of him. If I carved into his brain, was there some physical tether I could cut? It would be ideal, but I doubted we’d be that lucky.
“Whatever you’re thinking,” he said, “It won’t work.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Do you think I haven’t looked into this myself? The only thing that can separate me from it is death. Doesn’t matter which one.”
“Is that why you tried to get me to kill you?”
“I knew you wouldn’t. It was more of a test.”
“I’ll assume that I passed. I perform remarkably on tests. Mark made me take one that determined I was at an extremely high risk of becoming a serial killer. It recommended that I seek counseling.”
“A test for Sam, you imbecile, to see what this meant to her. That’s why I’m still here, trying to do, I don’t know, anything! Sam wouldn’t let you kill me, even though you’re her mate and she doesn’t fully trust me. I’ve never had that sort of loyalty. Nobody in my life would have ever chosen to save me. I can’t attempt to deny that I feel the same way.”
I felt Sam’s warm reaction to his words, but a little bit of my own barrier began to crack as well. While I may not have been good at empathy or truly understanding human emotions, I could generally tell when someone was lying. Mark thought it was because I looked at their reactions through a different lens, one not clouded by my own reactions to their feelings. I didn’t care one bit, which gave me an ability to objectively study the changes in their expressions, the direction their gaze traveled, or the altered pitch of their voice.
Even though Seraphim was still wildly conflicted and possibly even afraid in his own way, I thought he was being genuine. Like the well-balanced, trustworthy person I was being these days, I offered him a nod.
“Perfect,” he huffed. “Now that we’ve determined you’re not going to kill me today, let’s restart this match so we can have a victor. Then, I need to go buy a new phone.”
“Lock can run and do it while we play,” Sam offered.
Biting back my groan, I forced a tight-lipped smile. “Lock loves being volunteered for mundane tasks.”
“Baby, with how fast you are, you’ll be in and out that door in twenty minutes.”
“I am fast,” I mumbled, patting my pocket to make sure I had my wallet. “He’s paying me back, though. I don’t care if he flies coach.”
“I don’t fly-” he began, then cut off abruptly, his eyes going wide. It didn’t look like he was staring at anything in particular. Just as Sam reached out to grab his arm, he sucked in a sharp breath and grabbed his head.
“What’s wrong?” she demanded, frantically moving her hands from his arms to his shoulders, then back.
“You have to go, Sam.”
“I’m not going anywhere. Talk to me.”
“You have to go,” he repeated. He turned to me with a plea in his eyes. “Take her.”
“Let’s go, Samara.” I wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her into my chest.
She expelled dark orange smoke, sending it crawling up my arms. I held tight, knowing she wouldn’t kill me with it. She may burn the skin from my bones, but I could endure it.
“Get the fuck out of here!” he shouted before disappearing.
“Sam, we need to listen to him.”
“No, I’m not leaving him with whatever is happening.”
“You heard him before. He’s given in to this need to protect you, which means for once we’re on the same page.”
“I don’t need to be protected anymore and I can make my own decisions.”
Releasing her, I waited until my skin healed, then met her eyes. Fucking fearless.
“Alright,” I decided. “You’re not a human anymore and we are equals. You’re right.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yes, Belladonna. You and me.” I held out my hand, feeling my chest constrict when she took it.
“You and me. Always.”