Page 95 of A Bond with the Dark

She stands silently when he lets her go, as though in a trance.

“What the hell is happening?” Hilda demands, tense and shaking in my arms.

With no visible movement, Dom grabs Hilda’s face. I watch his eyes narrow, and Hilda relaxes in my arms; her shoulders and neck tension eases.

Maggie, bewildered by all that’s happening, says nothing as Dom moves to her, taking her face in his hands and veilweaving his silent coercion.

My dad, whose color has returned to normal and his hair has dried from sweat, sits up looking perplexed. Dom is a whiz of colors as he flashes over to him, sitting in front of him on the coffee table, putting his hands on his shoulders, and the dazed look melts away.

Lydia snaps out of her trance and goes back to the kitchen. My two aunts return to their seats at the table, and Dad resumes drinking his beer and watching his golf.

It’s as though nothing happened at all. Mystified and perplexed, I grab Dom’s hand and pull him to the front patio.

“That . . . was amazing. How did you know what to do?”

He clasps my hands in his. “I could hear his heartbeat had slowed. The way he was sweating and with what Lydia said, he asked about his eyes being dilated; the light from the window must have gotten bright. Being around a surgeon my whole life, you learn a thing or two about blood pressure.”

“And what about your blood helping him?”

“My dad has been studying our blood for centuries. We are still unsure how many things it can cure. Still, because of our rapid healing ability, it has healing agents, unlike human blood. We learned long ago that people heal by feeding someone our blood.”

“Will he turn into a vampire?”

“If he dies in the next twenty-four hours. Just keep a close watch on him. I veilweaved them to forget I fed him blood or that they saw that part at all, but they will still have a memory of him having an episode.”

“Can your blood cure cancer?” I can feel the question burning all over my face.

“No,” he answers quickly, letting go of my hand to stroke my face. “My dad, being a surgeon and all, does things when he has to while at work. A few of those things have been tried on cancer patients. Let’s say that it didn’t go at all how he was hoping it would.”

“How can your dad stand being a trauma surgeon?”

Dom contemplates the question, and I don’t know if he’s finally tiring of my inquiries. “He made a choice when he had Scarlet turn him—him and my mom—that they would not be monsters. He was going to help people, to atone for what he does when he needs to feed. But working at a hospital also gets him unlimited access to blood. So, because of that, he and my mom don’t have to feed on people that often. Once or twice a year, if that.”

“Oh, well, that makes sense.” My heart swells for him and the relentless beauty of his face—this tragically dark and brooding hero. “Thank you for saving my dad, Dom. I—I don’t know what I would do if I lost him, too.”

Although the vampire in him hinders him from having an easy grace, he’s still as soft and delicate as dusted soot. I feel him beginning to take up residence in my brain and bones and base of my spine and thread through me like nerves. Looking deeply into his hazel eyes, I lean my forehead against his and whisper, “I love you, Dom.”

His eyes narrow on mine, and it looks like he’s letting go of fighting something, sharing bits and pieces of his protected softness. “I love you too, Sayah.” He sighs. “More than I have ever loved anyone.”

He lowers his lips to mine and unglues something within me. Whatever wall I had been holding up for him came undone, and now this love for him is like a deluge through my soul.

“We should get back in,” he says, letting me go. “I want to make sure everyone is doing okay.”

I nod and let him pull me from the porch.

As we enter the house, my dad sits on the couch with his beer in a koozie, watching golf, his cheeks the perfect pale peach they were before the incident. He smiles at us as we pass by, nodding to Dom as we approach the kitchen.

Lydia’s busily cooking at the stove, listening to one of her podcasts. Hilda and Maggie are flicking through something on their Kindles at the table.

“Oh, good, you’re back!” Hilda exclaims, setting her Kindle down. “You have to finish telling us about your haunted house experience.”

And it seems all is forgotten. My dad had been healed.

By vampire blood.

As I drift off to sleep later that night, I think of all that has happened in the last few months.

Losing my parents, meeting my love, and learning his secret. Sometimes, I feel overwhelmed by what I’m doing with my magick. But what tugs me into sleep tonight is not Dom, the celebration, or anything else that happened today.

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