Page 23 of Forged Bonds

SEVEN

Freya

Hours later the three of us were drenched in blood, but I was calm and at peace. So was Nolan. Oswald wasn’t quite as calm, because of a few close calls where the vampire captive had nearly gotten his teeth into our skin. My constantly overprotective familiar had proven he was still my familiar, because he’d thrown up a shield between my wrist and the crazed vampire lunging for it.

Our connection existing despite him no longer being a familiar was odd, but the familiar-witch contract was for life. Apparently it carried over.

With our captive on his last legs and refusing to give us anything — for a weak vamp, he was quite stubborn — Nolan and Oswald had latched onto his arms, drinking down his remaining blood. The light left his eyes fairly quickly, and my two vampires pulled back to lick their lips. “His blood is nowhere near as delicious as yours, but I’ve missed blood tasting good,” Ozzy sighed. “Straight from the vein is always better than bagged.”

“Did blood not taste good when you were a familiar? You still drank it.”

“Part of the curse,” he explained, grabbing a towel and wiping some of the blood off Nolan’s face. It was a lost cause. We all needed long, hot showers to clean ourselves. “I had to drink it to feed myself, but it tasted horrific. That’s why I never accepted when you offered me your blood. It wouldn’t have tasted as delicious as I’d imagined. I’m glad I waited until the curse was broken.”

“I wish you’d been able to tell me breaking the curse would require you to be on the brink of death.”

Giving up on the towel, Oswald herded Nolan away from the body. Amabella had abandoned us a while ago, stating our methods of torture weren’t quite to her taste, but Clement stood guard outside the room. “I couldn’t have told you even if I could speak of the curse,” Ozzy said with a shrug. “I never knew how to break it.”

Nolan froze, pulling him to a stop with him. “Wait. You didn’t… know?”

My eyes widened along with Nolan’s. “You saved Nolan’s life thinking you would justdie?”

It had been obvious Oswald held affection for Nolan from early on in our time here. I’d helped in pushing them together unintentionally, because it was harder to hold space for Ozzy when I was the only one who heard him speak. But I hadn’t realized the life-saving shot he’d taken had been anything but a means to break the curse.

Nolan hadn’t either, obviously.

Oswald raised an eyebrow at our shock. “I’ve been cursed for two hundred years. If I’d known saving someone’s life would break my curse, I would have thrown myself in front of a sword long before now.”

“That’s ridiculous. We barely knew each other. If it had been you about to die, I wouldn’t have sacrificed myself,” Nolan said, trying to remove himself from Ozzy’s grip.

He didn’t let him go, pulling him close by the waist. “Ridiculous or not, I knew you were meant to be mine before I had my Alpha senses back. I’m glad you didn’t try to kill me when I marked you.”

They were too cute together. It was like Shan and Cas, but somehow turned up to a hundred with a slightly different vibe to the relationship. With my other men, Shan called the shots. For these two… I had a feeling it was Nolan, despite how Ozzy kept hauling him around.

“You two haven’t cemented your bond yet, have you? Unless you caught an intimate moment in a supply closet or while I was unconscious.”

Nolan startled at my voice, turning to face me. “We would never have done anything while you lay dying.”

I snorted. “If you had, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. If you’d been dying, I probably would have fucked someone to get my mind off it. Doesn’t matter, anyway. I was just going to say, you two should go up to Nolan’s suite and fuck it out. We’ll have work to do as soon as you can figure out where Kylan is. I’m assuming you’re working on that?”

He nodded. “My spies are on high alert, watching and listening. Last we heard he was in Zemterra, but we’re not sure where. He has many friends and properties of his own in the demon realm.”

“It would be better if we could catch him on Earth, anyway. I’ve never been to Zemterra and don’t especially want to visit, being an Omega and all.”

I was claimed now, but in the other realm a mark gave me only a slight modicum of safety. There were laws preventing Alphas from claiming claimed Omegas against their will. It was more to do with not stealing from another Alpha than the safety of the Omega, though, and plenty of criminals would do whatever the fuck they wanted. Even if Kylan didn’t try to commit the taboo act of biting without consent, he would still knot me.

Raping Omegas wasn’t illegal in Zemterra, claimed or unclaimed.

They had some fucked up laws down there, and operated largely outside the influence of the AEA. Angels only guarded the sanctioned portals between Zemterra and the other realms. They didn’t enforce any of the laws they imprisoned or deported people for on Earth.

“He comes back to Earth frequently because most of his business is based here,” Nolan said. “We’ll catch him at one of his usual haunts eventually, and we’ll be ready.”

“We’ll be ready as long as you two have spent some quality time together solidifying your bond,” I said. “I’m going to bring some food up to Shan, Cas, and Em. You two do your time together, and I’ll be a happy voyeur while I feel all of Ozzy’s arousal.”

Nolan flushed and Oswald rolled his eyes, used to my flirting and antics. “I should shut down the bond. We’ve been connected through the familiar bond for long enough I could probably shut down your Omega bond if I wanted to.”

“You wouldn’t,” I claimed, crossing my arms over my chest.

“I would if Nolan asked me to.”

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