Page 57 of Cursed Heirs

That exhaustion made it easy to fall back to sleep pretty much as soon as I closed my eyes.

An appetizing scentroused me awake.

I opened my heavy eyes and looked out tiredly through the room that was no longer steeped in darkness.

In my weary and dazed state, it took me some time before I noticed the dark figure draped over an armchair from the seating area that had been dragged to my bedside. It had me putting a source to the appetizing scent too, as I took in the blood dripping from a wound gouged into his throat.

He was shirtless, all his markings on display, and the sight of the blood trickling all the way down his chest, over his abs, and pooling at the waistband of his black leather pants.

“Stop, Orpheus,” I croaked.

“Stop what?” he responded evenly.

“You’re preventing that wound from healing, using your magic to stop it.”

“I use my magic for everything. Just like you used to. You know, before you were turned and you became a whiny little cunt about it. Without it now, I bet it’s made you realize how foolish that was, how much time you wasted not using it every chance you got and to the full extent of your ability too.”

“You piece of shit!” I shot up in bed, a wave of dizziness besetting me and making me slump back against my headboard.

“So weak. So vulnerable.” He glared. “So pathetic.”

“Shut up.”

“Ooh, I’m shaking in my two-thousand-dollar boots, baby vamp.”

“Just get out,” I groaned, scrubbing my hand over my face. “I don’t want you here. My father was wrong, you can’t help me.”

“You do realize that this is all a part of Constantine’s plan, yes? To weaken you and break you down so he can remake you?”

“What?”

“During the battle, he called youhisheir, not Elliot’s. He’s trying to remake you into the heir that he wants, someone who possesses the same abilities as him, one of the only. Definitelythe only two we know of so far in the supernatural world. Vampire-sorcerer hybrids.”

“I’m no longer a fucking hybrid, am I?” I yelled.

“This situation isn’t permanent.”

“You don’t understand. The only way to return my magic to me is—”

“I’m well aware that you believe your father delving into black magic again—a lot deeper this time—is the only solution. But it’s not. Think about it for a moment… why would Alena agree to go with Constantine?”

“What are you—”

“When they were trying to track her earlier, while you were up here sleeping and wallowing like a useless shit, they tracked her essence around here at the time of your suicide attempt. Abigail suspects that Constantine brought her here in a dreamscape to witness the mess that you are and he got even more of a show than he’d planned. The next thing we know, she’s suddenly up and left with him—the one person who caneasilyreturn your magic to you.”

“You’re saying she made a deal to save me?”

“I’m saying she made a deal for you. I’m not saying that you need fucking saving, because you don’t.” He shot from his chair. “What you need to do is to get a fucking grip.”

“You have absolutely no understanding of psychology whatsoever. That has never become more abundantly clear.”

“I have an understanding ofyou.”

“The fuck you do.”

“You need to embrace the vampire and stop fighting against it. There is power and freedom to be had that you’re just discounting. There is hope in what you are now, even without your magic, the sensation of feeling truly alive. But it’s all being caged deep inside with your denial of the demon through your fear of losing control.” He came to the bed and perched on theedge, making me suck in a breath at the scent of his blood right up close.

All that dark power thrumming through his veins, calling out to me.

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