Page 71 of Forged in Blood

I spin around. “I’ll be quiet if they tell me why I can hear them in my head.”

He glares at me, his jaw ticking. Then he directs his attention to Axl and Xavier. “Is this true?”

Axl and Xavier nod sheepishly.

“Malachi too?” His dark brow furrows in a scowl.

“Yes.” Axl glances at me. “This has never happened to us before either, Ophelia. Usually we can only talk to each other.” He directs his attention back to the professor. “Have you ever known of this happening before?”

Alexandros sinks into the chair at the head of the kitchen table and eyes me suspiciously. “I have, but it ordinarily takes a bond built over many years. Even with the strongest beings, it usually takes months.”

I open and close my mouth like a fish out of water. I have three million questions, and they’re all begging to be asked first. Focus, Ophelia!

“Why has it happened to me? I’m just a human. I don’t have any power.”

Alexandros tilts his head to the side, glowering at me so fiercely that I can feel the heat of his eyes on my skin. I rub my hands over my arms and return his glare. It’s not like I asked for this. “You do have some powers, Ophelia.”

I snort a laugh. “I do not.”

“How else do you explain the fact that you can hear people’s voices in your thoughts? Is that not a power?”

I don’t know how to explain it, but I do know it’s all kinds of freaky. “Isn’t that because they’re vampires though? That’s about them, not me.”

Alexandros shakes his head. “Humans cannot communicate through a blood-sharing bond, no matter how powerful the vampire who bites them. It cannot be done.”

This is all absurd, but I guess I’ll play along. “So now you’re telling me I’m not human?”

He sighs. “Must you be so dramatic?”

“Must you be so casual? Let’s for one second pretend that I believe you. If I’m not human, then what am I?”

His Adam’s apple bobs, and a thick snake of trepidation coils around my heart. Why is he looking at me like that? Axl and Xavier remain unusually quiet, and the tension in the room grows more cloying and uncomfortable with each passing second. “I think you’re some kind of… witch.”

“What?”

He doesn’t repeat himself. Instead, he simply goes on staring at me.

I pace the small width of the kitchen, shaking my head. “I’m a witch? Me? I don’t think so.”

Cupping my chin in his hand, Xavier stops me in my tracks. He tips my head back. “You already know you’re different, Cupcake. Don’t you?”

His deep blue eyes hold me captive, and I must lose all sense of logic and reason because I find myself nodding. I do know. On some level, I must have always known. “But how… what does that even mean? Why don’t I have powers? Other than being able to hear the thoughts of the vampires that bite me. What the hell use is that?”

Alexandros growls, his frustration growing more evident. “Do not underestimate the power of accessing another’s mind, Ophelia.”

How can I underestimate something I don’t understand? “Well, I don’t want it. So tell me, how do I stop it?”

He shakes his head. “You don’t.”

What in hellfire? This can’t be happening to me. Just when I was starting to feel like a normal human being with a normal, happy life—aside from having three vampires infatuated with my blood, obviously—the universe, in all her wisdom, hits me with this. “That can’t be true.”

He glares at me. “It is.”

I place my hands on my hips and glare right back. “So I’m just supposed to go around with these three in my head all the damn time?”

He sighs. “The fact that you can even hear them is an anomaly. Another marker of your unique blood. It’s a problem, but you can learn to block them out.”

Oh, well, this could be good. I like this development. “Like you all did with me earlier?” I direct my question to Axl and Xavier.

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