Page 102 of Bound in Blood

Giorgios’s narrowed eyes rake over my face. “There is an easy way to tell. All we need is a drop of your blood.”

He slices a welt into my forearm that burns like a million razor blades, but the pain lifts the fog I’ve been living under since the wraith took me. My mind is sharper, and I feel like myself again. Holy shit, the block is gone.

My blood drips onto the stone circle. We all hold our breath.

The wraith squalls.

With a roar, Giorgios pushes me away and grabs Axl by his hair. “Then I shall take your head instead.”

“Actually, you should probably take mine.” The voice sends chills down my spine.

Lucian’s lips curl over his teeth in some strange hybrid between a sneer and a smile. It’s altogether terrifying, but fornow, at least, it appears he’s on our side. “The first to drink Ophelia’s blood. No, that would be me, Uncle, and I’m not so easy to kill. You’ve tried before, or have you forgotten?”

Axl and I shuffle over to Xavier and nudge him, but he remains unconscious.

Giorgios spits at Lucian’s feet. “You always were a spineless waste of oxygen, nephew. Couldn’t even fulfill a simple task without someencouragement.”

Whatever that’s in reference to, it ignites Lucian’s fury. “A simple task,” he roars, his hands balled into fists. “They were my sisters. My mother!” Spittle flies from his mouth, and he lunges for his uncle, but the dark magic now surrounding Giorgios seems to keep Lucian at a safe distance.

I call out for my sire now that I’m able to reach him again.

Malachi?His voice is filled with relief.Are you all okay?

We’re okay. But Lucian is here, and I really think you need to hear this. Can you tap into my mind and hear what’s going on through me?

I can try.

“And all you had to do was tear out their hearts and take your father’s head when he was kneeling at their feet, crying for the woman who was never his!” Giorgios rages. “Yet you could not even do that. You are weak and pathetic.”

Lucian charges again and is again stopped by the wall of dark magic. “I am what you made me!”

“No.” Giorgios shakes his head. “I created a true warrior. A beast. A vampire so powerful, nothing would stop him. And you destroyed him, all because you decided to grow a conscience.”

Lucian drops to his knees and puts his head into his hands. His entire body seems to sag, his shoulders shaking. A wail is ripped from his throat. “No!” The word is made entirely of pain. It echoes off the walls and seeps into my bones as despair radiates from his center. “You asked me to kill my own mother.”A sob makes him convulse. “My little sisters.” His words are muffled by his cries.

I watch him break apart in front of my eyes, wishing I could do something to ease his pain, because it is impossible not to feel it and know his tortured soul.

“It was what needed to be done. Without him, our father would have fallen, and I would have become head of House Drakos. Can you imagine? The head of Skotádi and the head of the most powerful vampire house that ever lived? We would have been kings, Lucian. The Skotádi would have thrived. But you let him live! And we were forced to shrink back into the darkness for centuries.”

I can barely believe the scene unfolding before me. I glance at Axl, who looks as stunned as I feel. If I weren’t here to witness this for myself, I wouldn’t believe it to be true. I only hope Alexandros can hear what’s happening for himself.

Something shifts. The air crackles with static electricity. “You could have killed him yourself, but you were too weak.” Lucian looks up, his cheeks streaked with tears. His voice is deathly quiet. “You have always been too weak, and that’s why you needed me to do what you could not. He has always been a better man than you, and I’m sorry it took me so long to realize it.”

Giorgios towers over Lucian’s kneeling form. “I may have forced your hand, Lucian, but you will always be the one who tore out their hearts. They took their last breaths believing one of the people they trusted most betrayed them.”

“No.” Lucian drops his head once more, tears dripping from his face onto the dusty concrete floor. “I would never betray them.”

Giorgios raises his hand. I struggle against my bonds, but they refuse to break.

I sense Axl doing the same beside me.

It’s only when Giorgios is bringing his hand down that I see the weapon forming before my eyes this time. It appears in his hand as though he has conjured it, a long broadsword with a double-edged blade, like the ones I read of knights using when I was a boy. Except this isn’t made of steel, but entirely of shadows. He brings it down in a swift blow, straight toward the back of Lucian’s neck.

“No!” I roar.

But the blade does not deliver the killing blow it was aiming for. It only slices through a few inches before it’s stopped by something.

No, someone. A blur that passes by so fast, it takes me a moment to recognize him.

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