Page 112 of Promised in Blood

She frowns. “You can’t lie to me. I feel your sadness as strongly as I would my own.”

I sink my teeth into my bottom lip and tip my face to the ceiling, avoiding the scrutiny of her gaze. My annoyance is irrational, but her ability to see me so clearly—to know me so intimately—makes it impossible to keep up the facade that has served me so well for half a millennium.

“And you don’t have to hide anything from me, Alexandros. It’s true that we’re fated mates. I felt it the moment you claimed me, but I didn’t know the words to describe the feeling.”

I brush her hair back from her face. “There are parts of me I should hide from you, agápi mou. Parts you should never have to see.”

She shakes her head, her eyes brimming with tears. “You never have to hide any part of yourself from me. I love all of you. Your darkness, your shadows, your light. Everything that makes you uniquely you. I feel like I have loved you since the beginning of time.”

I rest my forehead against hers and drink in the scent of her. Everything feels like too much to experience all at once. My love and obsession for her, guilt and regret over Ani and Elpis, Elena and our beautiful daughters. Lucian. My heart aches with such a profound sense of happiness and loss at the same time, and it is tearing me apart. My hands ball into fists. I need to dosomething that will sate the raging beast inside me. Feed him until he falls silent once more.

She turns on my lap and straddles me. “I will be whatever you need,” she whispers, her breath dusting over my forehead.

My fangs ache. My cock throbs. “I will not be gentle, little one.”

She brushes her lips over my cheek. “I’m an elementai. I’m sure I can handle it, sir.”

I growl, reminded of the jealousy that raged in me when she said that word to Ani a few moments ago. “If I ever hear you call another sir again, I will punish you severely.”

Her nimble hands glide over the collar of my shirt before she fists her hand in the soft fabric. “And I’m sure I’ll handle that too. But what do you need right now?”

I run my nose over her throat, stopping at the pulse that flutters beneath her skin. “All I ever need, Ophelia. You.”

She drags in a breath and grinds herself against my shaft. “So take me. I’m already yours.”

Yes, she is mine. A fact I remind her of when I fuck her on my lap and then on my desk. Over and over until she is the only thing I can taste and see and feel.

And I will take the few blissful hours of mindless oblivion that being inside her provides me before all the pain of the past and the fear for our futures comes crashing down around us once more.

Chapter

Thirty-Nine

NAZEEL DANRAATH—GRAND HEALER OF THE ORDER OF AZEZAL

“Thank you for meeting me here, Giorgios,” I say in a quiet voice, glancing up and down the empty street. Whilst my magic is powerful enough to deceive most beings, Kameen will not be fooled about my absence for very long. He is already suspicious after my trip to Havenwood last week. But my visit to the girl was a necessary one. She is not yet ready for the war that comes, and she must be.

Giorgios dips his head in the usual mark of respect for a grand lieutenant of the Order. “It has been too long since I visited my birthplace.” He smiles, his eyes flitting to the oldstone church a few meters behind us. The figure of Pegasus sits atop one pillar of the original gateway, the other having fallen a long time ago and become a part of the earth.

“Corinth was always such a beautiful place,” he says with a wistful sigh, his eyes brimming with tears.

“Neither you nor your brother has been back here since your mother died.” I pose it as a question despite knowing it to be fact.

He shakes his head. “It has been too painful. Even five hundred years later, her death still haunts me.”

I bow my own head in respect of Magdala Drakos. One of the most powerful elementai who lived, she was the one being capable of keeping Vasilis, the head of House Drakos, in check. Since her passing, his cruelty and rage have known no bounds.

Giorgios clears his throat, and I am reminded that I have little time. Unlike the vampire standing before me, I can only teleport a couple hundred feet if I expend a great deal of energy, which means I will need to make my way the two miles back to the mountain fortress of the Order on foot.

“I must ask something of you.”

“I owe you a great debt, Nazeel.” He rubs at the scar on his neck. The one he got when he fought against the elementai genocide when he almost lost his head. The one I healed despite Kameen’s orders not to interfere. And at the time, I had no idea why I was so drawn to the save the life of a vampire I knew only as an acquaintance, but now I understand. Viewing that moment through the eyes of history, he was saved for a greater purpose. This purpose.

“And what I must ask of you will repay that debt one hundredfold, Giorgios. Know that I ask it of you only to serve the greater good.”

His Adam’s apple bobs. “What is it?”

“A scholar such as you must be aware of the Prophecies of Fiere, yes?”

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