Page 16 of Bound in Blood

Ophelia kneels behind me, running her warm hands over my back and shoulders. Despite my delicate state, pleasure courses through me at the feel of her skin on mine. The animal inside me has no ability to hold back where she’s concerned.

“Are you okay?” she asks, her lips against my ear. “Is there something I can do?”

I groan. “Just keep doing that, princess.”

Xavier comes in through the bathroom door, dark circles under his eyes and a pallor to his usually olive skin that makes him look waxy. “You still feeling like shit too?”

“Yup.”

“Kai too. He went for some fresh air to clear his head. What the fuck, dude? I haven’t felt this bad since I was human.”

Ophelia’s despair washes over me in a thick wave, threatening to pull me under. I take her hand in mine and link our fingers. “We’ll be okay. Maybe it’s the thin air up here or something.”

“Vampires aren’t affected by mountain air, Axl,” she says.

Xavier falls onto the bed and lies back with his hands behind his head. “Cupcake isn’t stupid, dude. She knows what this is.”

She rests her chin on my shoulder, and I feel her emotions cut off, as though she’s barricading her despair behind a wall of steel so it won’t bleed into us. “I didn’t realize it would happen so soon.”

“We have time,” I assure her. But I don’t know how long. It could be weeks or months. Maybe even days. The thought of leaving her behind without us makes my heart splinter into a million shards. I can’t think about it for more than a second or it will render me immobile.

“We should go ask Giorgios if he has any answers for us,” she says, jumping to her feet. “It’s been over a week. There must be something, and he knows more about this than any of us.”

It takes a lot of grumbling and groaning for Xavier and me to get on our feet and get dressed, but a few minutes later, we’re following her out of the room to go find Kai.

We’ve been sittingin Giorgios’s study for ten minutes already, having disturbed him reading through some scrolls which he informed us are related to the Order. He has also declared them of no help at all and given us permission to read them ourselves.

We asked him about the sickness, about Lucian, and what he’s learned in the time we’ve been here. Surely he must have discovered something useful on one of his daily trips to wherever the hell it is he goes. But thus far, he’s revealed nothing more than we already knew. He did make sure to reiterate the fact that he doesn’t know of a single recorded case of a vampire ever surviving without their sire, but I guess the bright side is how it could take up to two years. Asshole.

Giorgios runs his fingers through his beard and brings them to a point underneath his chin. He reminds me so much of Alexandros. I blink away the tears burning my eyes before he can see them, but the cyclone of grief has already taken up residence where my heart once used to beat.

“Who was the first of you to bite Ophelia?” he asks.

What the fuck has that got to do with how long we have before the deterioration takes us?

He doesn’t look at us as he waits for an answer, and my hackles rise. I guess Ophelia feels the same because she asks, “Does that make a difference?”

Giorgios shakes his head, flashing us all an easy smile. “No. I was merely curious.” He stares at the four of us like he’s waiting for our answer, and we stare back, the room thick with our silence.

Giorgios’s smile remains in place, but still, he waits.

Is this weird or what?Xavier asks through our link.

Definitely weird, I reply.

“I was the first,” Malachi says aloud.

None of us bat an eyelid at his blatant lie.

Giorgios frowns, his eyes narrowing. “You were?”

Malachi folds his arms across his chest, tipping his chin up. “Yeah. Isn’t that right, sweet girl?”

Closing her book, she flashes him a sweet smile and lets him pull her onto his lap. “Yep. My first everything, Kai.”

I suppress the growl that the beast inside me is intent on expressing. I know I was her first, and so do they. It doesn’t fucking matter what we tell Giorgios. But I don’t like the guy. I don’t like him asking us questions that are none of his business. He might be protecting us from Lucian, but I can’t bring myself to fully trust him. One thing I do know is he should have protected Alexandros, and I will never forgive him for allowing him to die.

“I assume, then, given your questions this morning, you have not yet found anything in your research to indicate a potential cure for your mates’ certain fate, Ophelia?” Giorgios asks. Why is he being such an asshole today?

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