Page 63 of Bound in Blood

“It’s different with you. Like you’re always there even if you’re not talking.”

He presses a chaste kiss on my forehead. “I will do everything in my power to never leave you again.”

He jumps up and brushes the sand from his pants before holding his hand out to me. I take it and allow him to pull me up. I can’t help but feel there’s something different between us now. Good different.

“So there’s only Ophelia left for you to bond with again?”

He tilts his face to the sky and groans. “I am sorely tempted to bite her right now. Blue poppy be damned.” He starts to walk back to the house, and I fall into step beside him.

“So why don’t you? We’re back to full strength now. Elpis and Anikêtos are here. It may weaken you a little, but surely Ophelia’s blood is worth the risk.”

“Believe me, I have thought the same thing many times in the past twenty hours. But we do not know how long Ani and Elpis will stay. And we do not know what tomorrow brings, Axl. There is nothing worth risking her safety for. Each of us must be at full strength. To purposely weaken myself, no matter how enjoyable it would be, would be dangerous and foolhardy.”

“I guess you have a point.”

“You are aware what passed between Xavier and me earlier?”

I felt it through him, even though I suspect he tried to block us out. Despite how strong his mind is now, Xavier couldn’t mask the strength of his emotion. Which I suppose is unsurprising given how he’s craved that kind of connection with our sire for so long. “Yeah, I know. He’s… He’s wanted that for a long time.”

Alexandros sucks on his top lip and hums. “I am aware.”

“Is that why you and he… Because he wanted to?” I already know the answer. As a rule, Alexandros doesn’t do things he doesn’t want to do.

“I have wanted it too, Axl. I turned you each for different reasons, even if I were not prepared to admit it until now. You and Malachi have always been like sons to me. Yet with Xavier, from the moment I met him, I experienced a strong desire forhim. But you wanted a brother, and I wanted a family, and I thought I could treat you both the same. I was foolish. I caused him a great deal of pain by not admitting the truth a long time ago.”

“I always told him he was crazy for thinking you treated him differently, but I guess deep down I knew you did.” The realization settles over me, making me feel guilty for all the times I brushed off Xavier’s concerns and dismissed his feelings as jealousy.

Alexandros rests a comforting hand on my shoulder. “I am the only person who should feel any guilt over my actions, Axl. And I have a lifetime to make it up to him, do I not?”

“Yeah. Although I wouldn’t tell him that, or he’ll hold you to it, you know?” It feels good to laugh after the tumultuous month we’ve all had.

He raises his eyebrows. “I am aware of that also.”

We keep walking in silence for a few moments before he speaks again. “And how do you feel about the change in my relationship with Xavier?”

I look out at the ocean while I consider my answer, feeling considerably more significant now than I did a few moments ago. “It changes nothing for me. It makes Xavier happy, and it’s not like… I’ve just never seen you that way though, you know?”

“I understand that.”

Despite this ease between us now, there is still a niggling doubt in the back of my mind. “I do not know the answers where Lucian is concerned, Axl,” he says, reading my thoughts.

“Giorgios told us he killed you. Why would he make us think that? It’s not like we didn’t already mistrust Lucian after what you told us he did. Although, he did help us out with the blue poppy. Ophelia was able to speak to him while we were in Tibet. So why the hell would he help us? None of it makes much sense at all.”

“He also helped Ophelia in the cave,” Alexandros says, frowning. “He was there when she arrived.”

“He was? I knew we shouldn’t have let her go alone.” The idea of what might have happened to her is too much to consider after everything we’ve already been through. “She’s never going anywhere alone ever again.”

“While I agree with that sentiment, he caused her no harm. Nor did he cause any to me. We cannot be sure of his intentions at all. But it appears Giorgios has told you many lies. As for his or Lucian’s motives, I am afraid I do not have the answers right now. But perhaps some can be found. I think it is time for us to discuss everything that has happened and try to make sense of this insanity.”

“Malachi said he’d make dinner. I think Ophelia would like it if we all joined her. I got plenty of meat.”

His smile is brief but genuine, and it reminds me how much we almost lost. How much we could still lose. We walk the rest of the way back to the house in silence, both of us deep in our own thoughts.

I understand so little of his old life. His old world, filled with dragons and oaths and prophecies. But whatever happens next, I’m all in.

Chapter

Twenty-Eight

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