Page 31 of Blood Gift

10

Gentry

How couldI have been so blind? So damn ignorant. Amazing, really, the things a person was willing to ignore in favor of maintaining the narrative they’d created in their mind.

Of course, he was a vampire. The sunglasses, even at night. I should’ve picked up on that right away. How many vampires had I crossed paths with over my lifetime? How many of their lives had I ended, for that matter? Their destruction had been my ultimate goal for so long. But I had ignored the obvious in favor of focusing on her.

And if he was a vampire, and he was guarding her, that would make her a witch. Not just a witch, but a High Sorceress. The magic I felt swirling around her was very real, and probably more intense than I had allowed myself to notice.

I was already half in-love with her the day I saw her waiting in line for coffee after dreaming about her as I had. It blinded me.

Dominic’s rage was unlike anything I could remember witnessing.

“You stupid, useless piece of shit,” he snarled, glaring at me like he wanted to strike me dead on the spot before pulling me into a tight alley beside the hospital.

“Excuse me?” I whispered, eyes narrowed. “I think you forget who you’re talking to.”

“Is this what happened to you as result of your powers being stripped?” he asked.

He looked almost nothing like me when he was as lost in rage as he was just then. His face twisted on itself until he became a monster. Or maybe, just maybe, the monster was his real self, and the human appearance was the façade.

“In a way, yes,” I spat back, “and I can thank you for that, brother. Even now, you’re forgetting one important fact. I suppose it’s all a way of making yourself feel better for what you did to me. You like to forget how I took the fall for you. The way you begged me to take the blame when it was all your idea, when you’re the one whose clan planted the explosives in that club. I would never have gone that far.”

“Oh, you would have,” he sneered. “You forget what you were like before you were stripped. You were just like me, brother. You can hold yourself above me all you want because you lost what made you a real man, but I know the truth.”

“What made me a real man?” I laughed. “If seeking out and destroying vampires for the very fact that they exist is what you think makes you a man, I feel sorry for you.”

“It was good enough for you before. When we were growing up. For decades, brother,” he hissed, lowering his head, looking at me from under dark brows. “You learned just as I did why they need to be wiped from the earth. Some hunt witches, some hunt vampires. We fall into the latter category. They do not deserve to live. How can you turn your back on everything you were ever taught?”

“Something happened to me,” I admitted. “I’m not like you anymore. In many ways. And you’re the one who did it to me, so I suppose I should thank you. If you want to blame anyone, blame yourself.”

“How dare you?” He had the nerve to look offended.

“Are you seriously that deluded?” I asked. “It’s like I’m seeing you for the first time. For almost two weeks, I’ve convinced myself that you kept bringing up the club incident because you felt guilty over what it did to me. But honestly, it’s like your memory of the situation is gone. How can that be? Are you truly that desperate to forget what happened? Did your mind break?”

“My mind is fine. I think you’re the one whose mind is broken. Don’t tell me you could’ve forgotten who you are.”

“It’s not who I am anymore. I’m no longer a sorcerer. You’re the one who saw to that. I confessed to killing dozens of humans—not just the random panhandler, not the sort of crime that could be swept under the rug. This was high-profile. These were wealthy young kids. Of course, it was a sensation. Somebody had to pay. You forced me into it, and you only spared my life because you knew you were guilty, not me. But you took my powers. Damn it, just admit it. Stop kidding yourself.”

Once again, a range of emotions crossed his face. Guilt was the prevalent one. But he pushed it away, as he pushed away every last thing that made him remotely human in favor of the strength of a sorcerer. He was truly lost. I didn’t have a brother anymore.

His pocket watch gleamed as he pulled it from its pocket. “We’re very late. We should go up.”

I backed away. “No. You go. I’m not going anywhere with you.”

He rolled his eyes. “Stop acting like a child. You promised you would visit her today.”

“I’ll go later. Once I know you’re no longer up there.”

“What am I supposed to tell her?”

“You are over one hundred years old,” I reminded him, speaking slowly. “Think of something.”

“Gentry.”

“Dominic. I mean it. Go without me.” I stepped aside, leaving the way open for him.

He paused for a moment before walking by, straightening himself up as he did. I watched him smooth his palm over his hair and brush off his suit jacket before walking into the hospital.

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