Page 78 of Forged in Blood

The slender curve of her throat thickens as she swallows, and her sadness permeates us. There’s so little we know about the orphan girl who was left on the steps of a church. I want to unpack every memory she has, but I get that it hurts for her to talk about those times in her life. Fuck, I was so messed up as a human that I was about to put a bullet in my own head. If it weren’t for my horse stepping in a hole and breaking her leg, leading me to use that bullet to spare her suffering, I would have killed myself before the professor found me sobbing over Moira’s corpse. No doubt about it.

I cup Ophelia’s jaw and turn her head so I can look into her bright-blue eyes. As I expected, they’re shimmering with unshed tears. All we really know about her childhood is that she was a foster kid and she was bullied in school. “What is it, baby?”

She blinks and tries to shake her head, but I hold her in place. “Nothing.”

Xavier tucks her hair behind her ear and trails his fingertips down her neck, making her shiver. “Why did you read so much, Cupcake?”

I stare into her eyes, wishing I could truly read her mind. “Tell us, sweet girl.”

She closes her eyes, causing a solitary tear to roll down her cheek. Xavier catches it with his thumb and licks it off, then wraps his arm around her shoulder. I allow her to lean back against him and study her face. Another emotion clouds her sadness—shame.

“We’re your family now, Ophelia,” I say, my heart splintering. “There’s nothing we don’t want to know about you. Nothing you can tell us that will make us love you any less than we do.”

Her eyes snap open and she blinks rapidly. “You love me?”

Xavier snorts a laugh. “Understatement,” he mutters.

Does she really not know that? Can she not feel it every day? We’ve never said it, but vampires are so driven by emotion and base instinct that we often let our actions speak for themselves. Clearly we failed her by not realizing she needed the words. “We’re bonded for life, sweet girl. I don’t even think love is enough to describe this.” I wave a hand between the three of us.

Her lips curve ever so slightly. “I guess not.”

Xavier rests his lips on her temple and murmurs, “Back to you reading five thousand books. How? Why?”

She licks her pink lips and glances between the two of us. Then she holds up her copy ofTwilight. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I brought a friend. For as long as I can remember, I’ve never stayed anywhere long enough to connect with people. I had twenty-six foster placements in total and half as many schools. It was hard to make friends, so I read a lot. Stories became my escape. I figured I didn’t need actual friends when I could be best friends with a hobbit. It didn’t matter where I lived when I could curl up in my bed in Hogwarts or visit Victorian England. Books have always been my only constant.”

Oh fuck me, my heart just cracked in two. I link her fingers through mine and press a kiss to her knuckles. “Until now, baby.”

That earns me the sweetest fucking smile that makes me want to kiss her, but I hold back. If I press my lips to hers, I’ll want to bite her, and then, well, we won’t be talking about books. Or talking at all.

Xavier pulls her onto his lap, and she offers a faint squeal of protest, but he wraps her in his arms. She melts into his chest, her fingers still entwined with mine. “You had twenty-six foster placements?”

“Yeah, I never stayed anywhere longer than a few months until I was in high school. That was the longest one I had, and I probably would have stayed until I graduated, except…” She winces, and I give her hand a reassuring squeeze.

“Fiona and Alan were a real nice couple. I can’t really blame them for not wanting me to stay after the fire and everything…” She pastes on a big smile that breaks my heart, but before I can tell her she doesn’t have to pretend for us, she continues. “Anyway. Alan was a mechanic, and he taught me a little bit about cars. How to change the oil, swap out a tire, that kind of thing. And Fiona loved to read too, so we would spend hours talking about books.” Her face lights up. “We used to go out to dinner every Friday night, and I loved it because I’d never been to a restaurant before.”

“Hold up,” I say. “You never went out to eat until you were in high school?”

She looks down at her hands and shrugs. “Kids would always talk about going to grab a burger or pizza after school.” She whispers, “I was so jealous,” then clears her throat and continues in a ragged tone. “I would have loved to have been invited. Just once. I even got an allowance from Fiona and Alan, so I could have gone, but I guess…” She shakes her head and brushes away a tear. “Anyway, I think that’s why they started taking me out to eat. So that I didn’t feel like I was missing out.”

Goddamn, my heart fucking aches for this girl. “So I guess you’ve never been on a date either?”

Her forehead wrinkles, and she slowly shakes her head.

How has this beauty, who has the kindest fucking heart of any creature I have ever known—not to mention the cutest goddamn laugh and the kind of curiosity that can make watching paint dry together interesting—never been on a date? That is practically criminal. I leap up from the couch and pull her with me. “Then let’s change that right fucking now, baby.”

She squeals with laughter. “But the Trials… You said?—”

I silence her with a kiss. “Fuck the Trials. You’re way more important.”

Her smile makes lightning race through my veins. Xavier stands behind her and wraps his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. “Where do you want to go, Cupcake?”

She bites on her lip, her eyes shining with excitement. “I d-don’t know.”

I cup her face and rub the pad of my thumb over her cheek. “To get food? The movies? Dancing?”

Xavier grunts. “Ugh. No dancing.”

“We will take our girl dancing if that’s what she wants to do, numbnuts.”

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