Page 16 of Promised in Blood

Alexandros sits at the breakfast table, nursing a cup of coffee and staring out the window with a scowl on his face.

I sit beside him, and he gives me his full attention. “She has agreed to the lessons, yes?”

I can’t help but smirk. “Yep. Seems the prospect of not having any orgasms is a real motivator for our little cupcake. Who’d have guessed it?”

“You know that is not the true reason she is agreeing, Xavier.” The way his eyes burn into mine makes heat coil at the base of my spine. Why is everything so goddamn tense between us? And if I didn’t know better, I’d say that lately he’s shown way more than his usual amount of contempt for me. “We are not all so driven by our basest desires as you are.”

And there it is. He can’t help himself from putting me in my place. But I shrug off his hurtful comment like I always do. “I guess not.”

He sucks on his top lip, his gaze still locked on mine, his eyes blacker than the depths of hell. “She is agreeing because of how she feels about you all. The desire to not put any of you in danger is what truly drives her. Her inherent goodness is what will always drive her. She will always put others before herself. You must remember that.”

I know she will, and that scares the fuck out of me. “Can we not train it out of her or something? You know, make her more like…” I search for a better word than the one I was going to use but don’t find one. “Us?”

He draws a deep breath through his nose. “I wish it were possible, but I fear it is not. There are many who have feared that elementai magic could be used for evil. The Skotádi even tried, and whilst evil can harness good magic, it remains inherently pure. It was why the Skotádi fell. Magic is never as powerful when it is used for a purpose it was never intended for.”

I feel like I woke up in a whole new universe today. There are so many things I don’t know, not just about our world, but also about this man sitting in front of me. I wonder if he was as cold to his real family as he is to us. Perhaps their deaths changed him into the man he is today. I can see how that kind of trauma would be life altering. I want to ask him so many things about who he was, who they were, but I suspect he wouldn’t answer me.

“Who are the Skotádi?” I ask instead.

His eyes narrow in suspicion. “You have never shown an interest in this before.”

While he might be right, I think it’s pretty clear that we are now living in an entirely different reality. “I’ve never been bonded to the only elementai in existence before.”

He nods, and I’m sure I see the faintest flicker of a smile on his lips, but I must be wrong because I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times he has actually smiled at me. “You have heard me speak of the Order of Azezal, yes?”

I vaguely recall it, so I nod.

“They are the…” He sucks on his teeth. “For want of a better explanation, observers. They are a group of immortal beings?—”

“Like vampires?” We’re the only immortal species I’m aware of.

“There are very few vampires amongst their number, but yes vampires, witches, demons, and wolves. They are granted immortality when they devote their lives to the Order.”

“And they observe? Like just sit around and watch what happens?”

He tilts his head. “Their role is more than that. They are the keepers of secrets. Those responsible for ensuring that our history is never forgotten. Never lost. They are neither a force for good nor evil.”

They sound redundant to me. “So what is the point of them?”

“Do not underestimate the power of knowledge, Xavier. It is the foundation of every civilization that has ever existed, and it is all protected by the Order.”

I still don’t get it, but philosophy and ancient history have never been my strong suits. “And the Skotádi?”

His jaw tics. “There were some members of the Order who thought that to simply observe was not enough. They wanted to act. To affect change. They believed that there was no point in having such immense power if it cannot be wielded.”

“I kinda see their point.”

He closes his eyes and takes a breath, and I sense the anger bubbling beneath his skin even if he does not permit me to feel it. I edge my chair back an inch, certain he’s about to rip out my throat. But a few seconds later, he opens his eyes and appearshis usual calm and unreadable self once more. “To wield great power is a burden not all are fit to carry, Xavier. Sometimes it is harder to do nothing than to act. Those who devoted their life to the Order did so knowing that they could not interfere. But there were members of the Order who grew tired of observing, and they broke off from the Order, forsaking their vows and using their powers for change.”

“So, good or bad change?”

“I suppose it depends on your perspective. One man’s enemy is another’s friend. And at first, I do believe that they at least had honorable intentions. However, it is difficult to wield such unchecked power and not allow it to corrupt. Before long, the Skotádi—initially named such because they wanted to remain secret and act without fear of human detection—became synonymous with darkness for many other reasons.”

“Skotádi means darkness in Greek, right?”

He tilts his head to the side. “You know this?”

I recall the number of times I sat in the back of his classroom just to listen to him teach. Engrossed in the way his passion for history changed his speech and his facial expressions. But I haven’t done that for decades now. “I picked up a thing or two, I guess.”

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