Page 67 of Bound By Blood

“Do you want me to leave?”

“Katy, you silly girl, I think you know better than that.” He lifted the covers in invitation. “Come, join me.”

Kicking off her slippers, Kaitlyn slid under the blankets, sighing as Zack’s arm slipped around her shoulders, drawing her close to his side. She was relieved—and disappointed—to discover he was wearing briefs.

“I could get used to this,” he murmured, his breath warm against her cheek.

“Me, too.” She ran her fingertips over his chest. “It’ll be dawn soon. The sun’s coming up.”

“I know. I can feel it.”

“Can you? What does it feel like?”

“I don’t know how to describe it. It’s sort of like liquid fire running through my veins.”

She grimaced. “Sounds awful.”

He shrugged. “It comes in handy.” Sleeping when it was his choice was entirely different from the Dark Sleep that claimed him with every sunrise.

He stroked her cheek, then kissed her lightly. He could feel the lethargy stealing over him as the sun slowly climbed over the horizon, felt it dragging him down into a dark abyss that ended in a deep black void.

“Zack?”

“I love you,” he murmured, and slid into oblivion.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Nadiya Korzha’s blood ran cold as she folded back the bloodstained blanket and stared at the grisly remains of her son. Grief quickly turned to rage, hardening her desire for vengeance a hundredfold. Marius had been her oldest son. And her favorite child.

Raising her head, she gazed at the people clustered around her. “Who did this?”

There was a lengthy silence before her youngest daughter, Marthe, answered, “No one knows. We found his … his body outside the front door of the home place and brought it here.”

Nadiya lowered her head, nostrils flaring. Sherrad,” she hissed. “I should have known.” Hands clenched, she stood, her body trembling with outrage. First Florin. Then Daryn. And now her favorite son. “All of you, leave me.”

One by one, her sons and daughters filed out of the room.

Nadiya stood there a moment, breathing heavily as she surrendered to her grief and then, as if swaddling a newborn babe, she wrapped the blanket around his remains and carried it into her bedroom. Placing her burden on the bed, she removed his bloody clothing, and after filling a basin with warm water, she gently bathed his body, then dressed it in a clean suit of clothes. Lifting his head, she washed his face and brushed his hair.

When that was done, she carefully bundled his remains in a blanket pulled from her bed and carried it outside.

Cradling his body to her breast, she let her tears flow unchecked.

The blanket was wet with her tears when she lowered him gently to the ground beneath the branches of a towering oak. Using her own two hands, she quickly dug his grave.

“I will avenge you,” she whispered, lifting him into her arms once more. “I swear it by everything I hold dear.”

She held him close, reluctant to let him go as she recalled the wintry night he had been born. Her labor had been long, but the pain had faded when she saw the pride and happiness on Rodin’s face.

The sun was rising when she floated, as light as a feather, down into the grave. “Rest well, my son,” she murmured as she lowered him onto the ground. “Rest well.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

For the first time in his existence, Zack woke to find a woman in bed beside him. Had she slept beside him all day? He found the thought endearing.

He had made love to women in the past—many women—but he had never invited any of them to stay the night, nor had he ever spent the night in their beds. Caution was second nature to his kind, and only a vampire with a death wish let a mortal share his lair, or know its location. There had been times, when, for one reason or another, he had been unable to reach his lair. At such times, night had been his pillow and darkness his blanket.

Turning onto his side, he studied Kaitlyn’s face. Her brows were black and slightly arched, her nose small and finely sculpted, her cheeks smooth and unblemished. Her mouth—ever so lightly, he traced the outline of her lips. They were pink and warm, as soft as velvet, and endlessly tempting.

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