Page 79 of Bound in Blood

I press a finger to her lips. “That does not mean he does not feel all manner of other emotions where I am concerned, little one.”

Her expression softens. “So you’re willing to accept that some part of him still loves you?”

I am not sure I am prepared to make quite that bold an admission, no matter how much she craves it. And no matter how much I wish it were true.

“Just like you still love him, even after everything he did.”

Her words slice their way into my heart, burrowing into its deepest recesses where I keep my firstborn buried. “How do you do that to me, agápi mou?”

Her eyelashes flutter. “Do what?”

“Make me feel things I have spent the last five centuries conditioning myself not to feel?”

She shrugs. “Just another one of my superpowers, I guess.”

I press my lips to hers and roll on top of her, wanting to forget about everything that was dredged up by seeing Lucian again, if only for a short time. Axl, Xavier, and Malachi shout at the basketball game in the next room, and I once again find myself longing for an ordinary life—at least as ordinary ofone as four vampires in love with one elementai can have. The realization that we can never have such a thing, except in tiny snatched moments like this, only makes the despair inside me grow stronger.

I love you.Ophelia’s voice in my head anchors me back to her and this moment.

And I you, agápi mou.I deepen our kiss and focus only on her and the feel of her supple body underneath mine. Her taste. Her scent. Her velvety smooth skin. How she yields to me so easily, at least with her body, at the slightest pressure. Ophelia gives me everything I need whilst I give her everything I am.

Chapter

Thirty-Five

ALEXANDROS

Lucian. My firstborn. A coldhearted murderer. The reason I have torn myself apart for the past five hundred years. But still my son. The apple of his mother’s eye. The boy who was born with his name already ingrained into his soul. As soon as we discovered she was carrying a boy, Elena and I wished for him to be named Ares—a strong name for a son of House Drakos. But the moment he was born, we both knew Ares was not his name. It was Lucian.

I can still recall that day with astounding clarity even over seven hundred years later.

I thought I told you to stay out of my head!His wrath fills my consciousness, and I fight his efforts to shut me out. I am not entirely sure why I can reach him now after so many centuries, but I suspect it has something to do with how Ophelia’s powers have magnified my own.

I know what you asked of me, but I will take only a few moments of your time, Lucian. Please?

I owe you nothing. Get out of my fucking head!Every word is infused with his pain.

Despite what you think of me, and despite what I believed myself before I saw you again yesterday, I have no desire to cause you any harm.

He is silent.

Allow me a few moments, and then I will leave you in peace. I swear.

What do you want from me?he asks.

Although I planned what to say, now that I am speaking with him, I find myself uncertain of where to start. So I start with her.How do you know Ophelia, and how long have you known who she is?

His derisive snort echoes in my head.Of course you would ask about the elementai.

It seemed safer than asking why you murdered your innocent mother and sisters.

It is a calculated risk to push him when he is already so angry with me, but it works. It also causes him a fresh burst of pain, and for that, I feel shame and guilt. An apology would only anger him further, so I swallow the words perched on my tongue. In the limited contact I have had with him, I sense that being in pain is the state he is most comfortable in. And I have no time to unpack how much that saddens me.That, dearest Father, is much too complicated for only a few moments of your time, which is all I am apparently worth.

He is twisting my words, but I do not take the bait.Then you can have all of my time that you desire, Lucian. Despite our differences, I do not believe you mean her any harm, and if there is any way for me to know more of her past, then it would surely help to protect her.

I have no desire to protect the Chosen One.

The Chosen One? Those words are like a dagger to my heart. That he has referred to her by that title is too much to discuss right now. But whatever it is he knows or suspects, I do notbelieve he has no desire to protect her.Then why have you protected her for all these years? If you have known her true identity as you claim, why not give her over to the Skotádi?

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