Page 63 of Burn for Her

Holy Hell, how did we go from hot chocolate to soul saving? Lena’s throat tightened, and tears stung her eyes. The mere mention of Dorian in need like that was…

Wow, she couldn’t put words to it. Devastating? Gut-wrenching? Confusing? All of the above.

“How does all this work?”

Lucian’s eyes brightened. “You’re going to do it?”

She put her hands up. “I’m asking how all this works. I’m still processing.”

“But you’re willing to consider it?”

Damn her soul, but she nodded back at him. “I… the King said some things that struck a chord. Plus, seeing Dorian’s reactions to me.” She tossed her hands up and said, “I swear I’ve never been saner and crazier at the same time. This is nuts.”

“I’ll help you however I can,” Lucian straightened up and closed the space between them.

“So how does this work?”

He licked his lips and stared at her, contemplating. “You want the long version or a summary?”

“Somewhere in the middle? I don’t know how long we have before Dorian wakes up.”

Lucian grinned, “Okay, vampires and Lycan are blood cursed.”

“There’s werewolves too?”

“Try to keep up,” Lucian teased. “There’s a lot to cover here.”

Lena crossed her arms over her chest again. Werewolves… of course there would also be werewolves.

“We’re blood cursed. Way back, like wayyyyy back, a woman had been seduced by two charming suitors. One,” he said, holding one finger up, “came to see her by day. The other,” he added, holding up a second finger, “by night.”

“Lucky girl.”

“You’d think, right?” Lucian leaned against the counter again. “The one who came by day was the vampire.”

“I thought vampires couldn’t—”

“Shhh! Save your questions for the end.” Lucian cleared his throat. “As I was saying. The vampire and Lycan species were in danger of dying out. The Savag-Ri had hunted them down to near extinction. These two males were both, unbeknownst to the other, drawn to the same woman. Both seduced and bedded her. Both got her pregnant around the exact same time. The phenomenon’s known as superfecundation twins. Neither father knew about the other. When the woman’s condition was exposed, she was forced into confinement and went through the pregnancy alone. She longed to see either of her lovers, though neither ever came to her—not by day or night. No matter how many letters she wrote, they didn’t answer them. She spent her pregnancy longing for the men she loved and grew spiteful and hateful that they hadn’t returned. Then, when she delivered the babies, they both arrived for the birth of their sons. When they realized they both bedded the same woman for the same reason, they fought outside the birthing chambers. Meanwhile, she hemorrhaged out and cursed both of their bloodlines in the process. The vampire and Lycan would live forever longing for the love that would never come to them. Just like she’d longed for them to return to her all those months.”

Lena’s mouth dropped open.

“But,” Lucian said, wagging his finger, “because she still loved her children and wasn’t a total bitch, her curse could be lifted only if they found their mates in time. Until then, vampires would remain cursed with constant longing, any satisfaction they find would be painfully temporary, and their souls forever tortured and hollow without their true mate.”

“Because both the vampire and Lycan had been too late in coming back to her, but had come at the bitter end instead of never at all?”

“Yup.” Lucian turned around and started washing the dishes. “She really was a horrible bitch now that I’m rethinking this whole story. It sounded more romantic when I was younger.”

“What happened after she died?”

“The vampire was enraged. Grew bitter. Raped and killed with a fevered starvation and sired many, many more bastard children. He couldn’t bear to look at his own reflection anymore, so he banned all mirrors in his home, not knowing reflections were the key to helping his children find their fated mates. His eldest son—the one who started the curse’s cycle—had one day seen a reflection of a woman in the bottom of a well but didn’t understand what it meant. He never searched for her but told his brothers about what he’d seen. Thought it was a ghost, I guess. Over the next few weeks, he grew more feral and aggressive. Started killing everyone in villages below theirs. A mob came after him and brought him to the center of town. Tied him up to burn him at the stake. A girl approached as he was set on fire. It was the girl from the vision in the well. He was fixated by it. His compelling powers lured her into the flames, and he bit her. Shit got crazy after that.”

“I can imagine.”

“The Lycan had a different outcome. The father bayed at the moon, crying his apology and regret to the woman’s soul. He raised his son and wooed many women, promising to care for and do better than he had with the mother of his first born. He never succeeded. There was no love in his heart anymore. Maybe there never had been to begin with. Hell, if I know.” Lucian blew out a big exhale. “His son fell in love with a girl, married her, naturally, and kept his wolf form a secret. He sired several children, all of them Lycan, but when another woman was brought into their clan and paired with one of the hunters, he felt protective and possessive of her, but stayed faithful to his wife. He drank heavily to dull his instincts and also started chugging a form of liquid silver since manmade booze burns fast with their metabolism. Rumor has it, he began dreaming of the other woman every night and it drove him wild and restless. Guilty too. As the full moon grew closer, his desires for her got stronger. He was undeniably drawn to this other woman.”

“That’s awkward.”

“Awkward enough to drive his wife to commit murder.” Lucian said with a frown.

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