Chapter Fourteen - Teagan
Vidar holds Kai’s face between his tattooed palms. It’s ridiculous the way they gaze at each other, like nothing would keep them apart and damn anyone who tried.
It’s ridiculous that I’m jealous.
Sen prowls into the room, and my whole world narrows to a single point—him.
Maybe some forgotten instinct should’ve woken up and screamed ‘vampire’ when I first met him standing half out of his sleek car. But I didn’t care that there was a lethal, hungry edge to the way he scanned me over.
Or maybe it only intrigued me more.
Now, as he stares me down, there’s no mistaking what he is. It’s written in every sharp, alluring line of his face. My hands itch to capture this feeling, to poke and prod until I understand. To be covered in all his decadent colours.
It’s fucking weird to want him so badly. If my dick could get hard, I’d be rock solid.
Sen stops dead, then breathes, “You’re awake,” like a sigh of relief.
I don’t know how to react, so I stay silent.
Sen moves closer, but I scramble up the sheets until my back hits the headboard. He halts, chiselled jaw ticking, and plants himself at the foot of the bed.
“Good to see you’re okay, Teagan,” Vidar tells me once he’s stopped mooning all over my brother.
I glare at him. Kai is a vampire because of Vidar. Was hurt because of Vidar. I have no plans to forgive him. Vidar only offers a half-smile in return, which makes me glare harder.
“As interesting as this is,” the silver-eyed man remarks, “I’ll go join the others in the kitchen.”
“Thank you, Grey,” Sen says, nodding to the silver-eyed man who winks in return before leaving, passing two men I only now notice. One who looks annoyed with his arms crossed, the other…
He slinks inside, and at first glance, he’s an average white dude with messy brown hair. But his presence is as apparent as when Summer pressed a blade against my arm.
Sen and Vidar stand taller, their muscles bulging.
“Aren’t we all just one big happy family?” he drawls in a lilting Welsh accent.
Vidar pulls away from Kai, hunting gaze locked on every move the other man makes.
A smile stretches the man’s face, as though he’s dislocating his jaw to swallow us whole. I press my back into the headboard, shoulder blades digging into the wood, cold goosebumps rising the length of my spine.
“Bran?” Kai tries to move around Vidar, but the giant stands in his way.
“You know him?” Vidar bites out, not once looking away from Bran. “How?”
Kai peeks over Vidar’s shoulder. “He’s one of my clients. How do you know him?”
“Hello, Kai.”
Vidar prowls closer to Bran, a deep rumbling growl shaking out of his chest. Bran’s smile only widens as he cruises to the other side of the room.
My eyes dart between everyone—Sen shielding me, Kai’s confused expression, Vidar slowly circling Bran.
I twist the sheets in my fists.
I love a mess, but this is too much. I want to beg Kai to leave with me, but I know he won’t. Or can’t. He’s a vampire now; the rules have changed.
I can’t leave him behind.
I need paint.
I can’t stay.
I need Sen.
It’s Sen who speaks up next, and if only what he said broke the tension instead of adding to it. “Bran is Vidar’s Maker, and someone who likes to cause trouble.”
Kai steps back, angling his body in front of mine. “You’ve been coming to see me for nearly a year…”
“As well as a part-time stalker, it appears,” Sen adds coolly.
Bran drifts towards the armchairs I crashed into, running long fingers along the fabric. “Everyone’s gotta have a hobby.”
“This is crazy,” I murmur, bile rising in my throat.
Sen’s gaze darkens, intensifies. “Teagan needs more rest. We can do this another time.”
“Do what, exactly?” my brother demands.
Vidar stands before the chairs, only a few meters away from Bran. There’s something like a cat-and-mouse chase about these two; I just can’t guess who’s playing what role.
Bran tilts his head to the side, his messy brown hair falling into his eyes. All the while smiling like he’s got meat caught between his teeth. “Your soulmate isn’t taking all this very well, is he, Sen?”
Kai’s frown melts into an angry mask. “Shut the hell up!”
I gasp; words lodge in my throat. I swallow and try again. “What’s a soulmate?”
Kai’s lips clamp shut. I whip around to Sen, glare at him—silently demand the answers.
Sen lets loose a sigh, and the tick in his jaw dissolves as his face softens. “Teagan…” he whispers, palms out, like he isn’t dangerous. Like I don’t remember the way Summer screamed when he lifted her off the ground.
“Stop keeping things from me!” I scream, pounding my fist into the mattress. “This is my life!”
“Teagan.” Sen rounds the bed to close the distance. “I was going to tell you, I promise. But we’re meant to be together—”
“Are you fucking with me?” I leap out the other side, bumping into Kai as I go and glare at Sen. My heart pounds against my ribs, unshed tears burn behind my eyes. “If you’re, like… fucking hitting on me right now, I’ll seriously punch you in the face!”
Sen doesn’t look hurt; he accepts my harsh words easily. For some reason, that’s worse.
Kai grabs me by the shoulders. “Will everyone shut the fuck up?”
I try to shove him off, but my brother’s stubborn hold is unyielding. Behind him, Bran skulks closer, unblinking, wide gaze watching every second with a maddening grin. Vidar ghosts in his wake, fangs out and trained on the vampire who Sen called his Maker.
“Teagan,” Kai says, drawing my attention back to him.
“I tried to protect you from all this shit, but look how good it turned out. There’s so much more that needs to be explained, and things I don’t even understand.
But right now the biggest problem is that Summer cast some type of spell on you, and we gotta fix that, mate. ”
The word soulmate sinks deeper and deeper into my heart. I don’t—can’t—focus on that. It’s too new, too confusing. Better to focus on Kai, on what happened with Summer. Kai said he’ll fix this, and I have to trust him instead of this pull towards Sen.
I swallow.
“I…I remember when Sen hurt her, and it hurt me too.”
Kai nods, encouraging me to continue.
After a beat, I say, “She said she wanted to open a door to the demon realm. I thought she was crazy. She said someone called Emma told her someone needed to die, but she didn’t want that. So she used both our blood to…like, create this weird swirling…door?”
The short, annoyed man in the doorway snorts.
I’d almost forgotten he was in the room with us.
His black hair is shaved at the sides, and he’s wrangled his loose curls into a topknot, some locks bouncing out of it.
His eyes are lined in black, and he wears baggy sweats that sit on his slim hips, with a skin-tight thermal top outlining his wiry torso.
“Do you have something you’d like to say, Elio?” Sen snarls, sharp as a whip.
“Hell yeah I do. Summer is stupid,” Elio snarks, pushing his way into the centre of the room.
“Listen up; blood magic, especially with the big spells, needs more than just blood. They need pain, too. It’s about tapping into that energy and drawing it out the same way we do with blood to make spells more powerful. ”
“And that’s what Summer was doing?” I ask, biting back the quiver in my voice. “Blood magic?”
Elio nods. “Summer’s plan was never going to work. Knocking into the demon realm, which was magically sealed specifically from her, is powerful shit. Shit, that’s gonna need a death. A painful one. Her plan was never gonna work.”
The silence in the room cuts deep.
Without even realising it, I’m hugging Kai like he’s all that’s keeping me from sliding to the floor.
“You know a lot,” Sen finally remarks, a dangerous glare narrowed on Elio.
“I do,” Elio replies, confident in his abilities and not shying away from it.
Sen moves towards Elio. “And would you like to tell us what you can do to help Teagan?”
He crosses his arms, levels an unimpressed look at Sen, and after a beat, Elio retorts, “You won’t like it.”
Bran smirks.
Vidar flashes his fangs, and I shiver at the display of those sharp points.
“I need some of Teagan’s blood.” Elio’s already rolling his eyes when my brother shouts, “Over my dead body!” and Sen growls low enough that the vibrations shiver down my spine.
“Alright, fine.” Elio shrugs. “Let’s just stand around holding our dicks and do nothing.”
I grit my teeth.
This shit is crazy, but like hell other people are taking more of my choices away. Ducking under Kai’s embrace, I aim for Elio, thrusting out my arm. “Take my blood. Do what you gotta do.”
“No!” Kai cries and shoots out to grab my forearm, but I rip away.
“Absolutely not!” Sen snarls, moving at crazy speeds to stand between Elio and me, staring down at me with eyes hot as the centre of a roaring fire. “No.”
“You don’t get to tell me what to fucking do, Sen,” I bite out. “If I need to spare a bit of blood to make sense of what’s happening, then so be it.”
We glare at each other, neither willing to back down. The weird thing in my chest, the arrow or rope or connection that points to Sen, stretches tight.
“No, Teagan!” Kai shouts. “Anything could happen. I-I…I forbid you!”
Rolling my eyes, I drop my chin to the side and arch an eyebrow up at Kai.
“Oh yes, that’s exactly what you should do to discourage your little brother,” Elio grunts dryly.
“Teagan.” My gaze snaps back to Sen to see emotions swimming in his eyes, shining like moonlight slashed across a dark ocean. “Summer nearly took you away from m—....” He purses his lips. The air in my chest locks. “Summer nearly took you away. I don’t trust Elio. What if you get hurt again…”
Before, I pushed away. Now, I push towards Sen, tentatively placing my palm on his chest, feeling the steady beat of his heart. It isn’t a glare when our eyes meet this time.
“Sen.”
He lets loose a shaky sigh and crosses both his palms over the one I rest on his chest. He’s warmer than I expected.
“I gotta know what’s happening with my body. My life. I’m allowed that. I’m not asking you to trust Elio. I’m asking…”
I close the distance by an inch, and Sen’s hold tightens.
And quietly, in my best impression of a noir dame, I whisper, “I’m asking you to trust me, slick.”
Sen’s Adam’s apple bobs, his forehead dropping onto mine. “Maybe I shouldn’t. But in this crazy town, you’re the only one I do trust, sweetheart.”
I fill my lungs with him; it’s soothing to be this close.
Then after a final glance, Sen moves away, taking his heat with him, to face Elio. “You will be careful with Teagan. Or you will die.”
“If you hurt him, I’ll—” Kai begins.
Elio looks Kai up and down. “You’ll what?”
Kai’s teeth pull back into a sneer. “I’ll get my bigass fucking boyfriend to break you into pieces, you cunt, then burn you the fuck alive!” A ball of purple fire bursts from Kai’s open palm.
I manage not to jump back, still not used to this new aspect of my brother. But I can admit it’s pretty fucking cool.
Elio snorts, the corner of his mouth ticking up. “Noted.”
With little fanfare, Elio pulls out a folding knife tucked into the back of his waistband. He flicks the shining blade open, grabs my hand—ignores the sounds of distress from Sen and Kai—and slices my finger quickly.
I hiss, more from surprise than pain.
Elio then folds the knife, tucking it back, before pressing his thumb to my bleeding finger, taking away a print of blood.
I glance down to find the cut is gone without a trace of red left behind. “There’s no cut?”
“Blood magic can heal,” Elio says offhandedly, distracted by studying his thumb from different angles.
“Since when?” Sen asks slowly, like he doesn’t believe a word out of Elio’s mouth.
“I dunno, since forever,” Elio murmurs, disinterested. He lets out a huff, then cleans his thumb on my shirt to leave a bloody stain. Something about it makes me smile.
“Summer is an idiot,” Elio begins. “She thought she knew better than Emma, who is a bitch, but has at least two brain cells. The spell was never gonna work, and now she’s tethered you two together in pain and blood. But there’s a bigger issue.”
“Sounds pretty big to me,” I mumble.
“The only way to cut the tether,” Elio starts, “is to kill the other person linked. Which comes to our second problem: if one of you dies, you both do.”
I reach for Sen without thinking, my fingers curling around his wrist.
Kai shakes his head as he grabs my forearm and squeezes tight enough to leave bruises. “No…”
Vidar is suddenly by his side, cupping Kai’s jaw and tilting his face towards his. “We’ll fix this, little prince,” he promises, without a hint of doubt.
Sen tugs me into his chest, engulfing me in a protective embrace. “So if we kill Summer, then Teagan dies.”
“And if I die, Summer dies…” I whisper, fisting his shirt.
“Yep,” Elio says, popping the p. “Shitty luck, right?”
“And you could tell all that by his blood?” Kai asks, sounding desperate. He reaches for his braids on the left side of his face and pulls.
“Not all of it.” Elio clears his throat. “I also know the spell Summer used.”
“You’re hiding something,” Vidar bites out, cold and threatening as he gently strokes Kai’s jaw. “Explain. Now, blood mage. My patience is thin. And the same goes for you, Maker.”
For the first time since he came in, Elio shifts nervously, and Bran—who’s been watching us so quietly I nearly forgot he was in the room—breaks into the biggest grin.
“The spell was in the First Blood Mage Tome, which used to belong to the Blood Mage leader—the Sovereign…” Elio trails off, glancing at Bran as if for support, but when Elio is given nothing but a cocky smirk, his voice hardens as he continues alone, “Before he was killed, he ordered me to give the tome to Emma because…”
The only sound that follows is the windows rattling in the wind.
“Well, because she’s my mother.”