Page 42 of Promised in Blood

I stare into her eyes and wish I had more answers for her, whilst also wrestling with my base desire to distract her from further questions by sinking inside her. “It seems you are able to channel the powers of the vampires you bond with. That is why you could hear the boys’ thoughts even before your powers were unlocked. Whether that is temporary or permanent has yet to be seen.”

“Is that normal?”

I drag the pad of my thumb over her lips. “No, but then nothing about you is normal, Ophelia. You are extraordinary in every possible way.”

She smiles, and the simple act has my cock twitching with the desire to take her right now. “And dragons live in the netherworld? Where is that? Is it like hell?”

“Not exactly. The hell humans are taught about does not exist. Nor does heaven.”

She blinks. “Oh. So do we all go to the netherworld when we die? Is your family there? Can Elpis get a message to them for you?”

I screw my eyes closed as pain lances through my chest, and she places her soft hand on my cheek. “I’m sorry.”

I dust my lips over her cheek. “You have no reason to apologize, agápi mou.”

She curls her body into mine.

“No matter what kind of being they are, when pure souls like those of my wife and daughters die, their energy rejoins the universe, and they live for eternity in the cosmos. But when the damned die, they go to the netherworld. A place of darkness and despair where memories die and only the cruelest thrive. It is the twisted joke played on vampires and elementai that they can never be together in the afterlife because one is eternally damned and the other is inherently pure.”

Her nose scrunches up, and she tilts her head. “But why are vampires eternally damned?”

“It is our nature.”

“But it doesn’t have to be. I mean, you’re good. I know you must have done bad things, but that doesn’t mean you’re not a good person.”

That she surely believes that is concerning, yet it also pleases me more than I would care to admit to see myself through her eyes. “Make no mistake, little one, I am as far from good a man as you will ever meet.”

She places her hand over my heart, and it thumps against her palm. “I think you’re one of the best men I’ve ever known.”

I rest my hand over hers. “I will always be a good man for you, agápi mou, but any kind of goodness in my heart begins and ends with you. I would sacrifice every soul in this world to protect you and not give it a second thought. Every. Single. One.”

Her eyes glisten with unshed tears, and her fingers twitch against my skin. “I hope you never have to sacrifice a single soul for me, sir.”

“As do I.” But I surely shall and will. I do not voice that last part. There will be time enough to contemplate the sacrifices wewill all certainly have to make, and that time is not now. Not when she is warm and soft in my arms.

“What about Lucian?”

Another piece of my heart is ripped away. “He is not in the netherworld.”

Her eyes grow wide. “So he’s alive?”

Alive and avoiding me. “It would seem so.”

“But how?” She shakes her head. “Can’t you feel him through your bond? Don’t you know where he is?”

“I cannot, Ophelia, and before you ask, I do not know why that is, nor do I wish to discuss it any further right now.”

She presses her lips together, and I am thankful she respects my wishes by suppressing her curiosity. Instead, she asks a question almost as heartbreaking to me. “So if you’re eternally damned and I’m inherently good, that means we don’t get to have eternity together?”

If she tears another slice from my heart today, there will be nothing left of it. “No, but we can still have a lifetime. As long of one as we can survive.”

Tears well in her eyes. “That’s so heartbreaking.”

I nod. “I know. And that is why we try to live forever. And why to bond with an elementai is such a profound decision for any vampire to make.”

“So biting me was a huge deal for you?”

I bark out a harsh laugh. “Ophelia, there are no words to accurately explain the enormity of my decision to bond with you.” Sorrow clouds her features, and I cup her chin in my hand. “But know that I was aware of the inevitability of our union from the moment I first saw you in my basement. And it took every ounce of strength I had to resist you for as long as I did.”

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