Page 21 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 2

“Hoooly shit.”

“It was simply a one-time thing,” he told me quickly.

“You wouldn’t have been weird about seeing him if that was all it was,” I accused. I knew Marcus, and he’d been normal—well, as much as he ever was—in much more awkward situations.

“Well, all right, it was several times, but all over the course of one night.”

“Wow, okay, we’re getting dangerously close to the limit of information about your sex life that I can handle. And don’t think I don’t know when you’re deflecting.”

“I’m not deflecting. How were the pancakes? You seemed to enjoy them. I think I’ve really nailed down the recipe.”

I flicked a piece of banana at him, which he dodged neatly. “All right, all right. I’ll let you keep your secrets for now.”

Marcus smiled at me, warm and fatherly. “I’m glad to see you feeling yourself again,” he said quietly. He slid the last of the pancakes, still hot from the skillet, onto my plate. “I’ll let the others know you’re awake. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled.”

“Some of them, maybe,” I muttered.

Marcus paused in the kitchen doorway. “Isabella helped, you know. She was instrumental, in fact. I haven’t seen her push herself that hard, magically speaking, in quite some time.”

I looked down at my pancakes. On the last one he’d arranged the banana slices and bacon into a smiley face.

“Thanks,” I said.

He smiled, then left me alone with my thoughts and my pancakes.

My gaze landed on a row of shiny appliances on the kitchen counter—the baby bottle warmers the vampires used to get their synth-blood up to body temperature before drinking it. I could vividly remember Gabriel’s embarrassed look when I’d first come upon them.

God, I missed him. I hoped desperately that he was all right, and I knew he definitely wasn’t. Tears stung the back of my eyes. I would find him. There was no other option.

The shreds of a vague memory tugged at me. I’d dreamed about him while I was recovering. We were in bed, and I’d… the edges of the dream were fading quickly, and if I tried too hard to grab onto them, they’d slip through my fingers faster. Instead, I focused on my pancakes.

When only one of the smiley face’s eyes remained, I remembered.

In the dream, I’d told Gabriel to bite me.

8

EVANGELINE

Ididn’t think I could deal with the vampires right now, so I slipped upstairs to find some peace and quiet in Gabriel’s room. As soon as I opened the door to his suite, I realized how wrong I was. The sitting room had been left exactly as it was on the night I’d run away. A blanket was crumpled on the floor by one of the chairs. Half-empty cups of water gathered dust. A mug sat on the coffee table, the dried-out teabag inside crusted to the ceramic.

Last time I was in this room, I’d…

The corner of the fireplace was still covered in dried blood. I squeezed my eyes shut, which turned out to be another mistake. Behind my eyelids, the memory of Theo’s skull meeting that corner began to play on a loop. The way their eyes had widened with shock, that horrible sickening crack, and then how still and small they had looked when they crumpled to the floor. I scrubbed my fingers over my eyes hard enough that the image disappeared into firework bursts, then swallowed hard, trying to keep my composure. God, it had been such a bad idea to come up here when I’d only just gotten the curse out of my system. But now that I’d started revisiting that horrible night, I had to see it through to the end. So, I forced myself to keep looking around the room.

There were black spots on the floor where the ooze from the curse had landed. I crouched down to inspect it, running my fingers over the scattered markings. The gunk had etched into the wood, leaving little divots all the way to the bedroom door. With heavy steps, I followed the path I’d taken that night. Here was where I’d crushed Marcus’s hands. Here was where I’d killed Theo. Here was where I’d made a break for the bedroom, leaving the people who were trying to help me behind. I braced myself and pushed the door open.

Gabriel’s bedroom was opulent and bordering on cluttered. You could tell the space had been filled by someone who’d had centuries of good but dramatic tastes and wasn’t great at throwing stuff out. Paintings from across the centuries crowded the walls, and knickknacks covered shelves and ledges all over the place. The bed was huge and soft, and I’d slept well in it. I’d been fucked well in it, too. Was fucked the right word? What we’d done was, well, sweeter than that. Tender, although definitely not soft. All the other terms I could think of were too soppy for my tastes, though. Gabriel would probably have some old-fashioned word for it. I would have to ask him.

I wished we’d had the chance to spend more time in that bed. We’d only gotten to relax in it a few times, and it stung that I hadn’t had the chance to get used to it. With Gabriel’s arms wrapped around me, I felt like we were the only two people in the world. I wished we could’ve stayed like that, but the world kept intruding, pulling us into a mess that kept getting bigger and bigger.

I wanted a chance to be with Gabriel long enough for us to get used to each other. It was a strange fantasy, but I wanted to find out what predictability would look like. Our mornings, our evenings. Days where we’d be able to laze around together, and days where we’d be busy but still make time for each other. Gabriel was the type who’d leave notes around the house. I wanted a chance to find out. I wanted a chance to see if I was the sort of person who would save every note and to see how fast the collection would grow.

I hadn’t spent all that long in Gabriel’s room, but it had always struck me as safe and deeply personal, like he trusted me enough to show me a part of his mind. Now, the room was a wreck. One wall was eviscerated, blasted away by my uncontrolled magic. A thick layer of rubble and dust coated the floor, along with a few dried leaves that had blown in past the mismatched collection of tarps someone had tried to cover the hole with. The bed was still unmade, and chunks of charred wallpaper and brick dust littered the sheets.

I sank onto the edge of the bed, staring at the gaping hole. This was my doing. My stomach lurched, and tears fell from my eyes. I swiped at them angrily. I had done this, and moping about it wouldn’t help anyone. I took a deep breath, stood up, and went to go find Theo.

Theo was in one of the half dozen rooms with sofas and squashy chairs. I was pretty sure some of them were sitting rooms and some were parlors, but I had absolutely no idea what the difference was between the two. This one was the one I privately thought of as the Ugly Statue Room, for reasons that anyone who had ever been in the room would’ve been able to figure out instantly.

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