Page 13 of Bound in Blood
Well, that was fucking cryptic.
Logan looked up at Marco, his green eyes reflected in Marco’s golden ones. “You care about me?” Nobody had reallycaredabout Logan before.
Marco thought about it for a second, before nodding. “I think so.”
“This doesn’t make complete sense, though,” Logan argued, his expression flicking over to Mateo. Mateo, whom Logan could still feel the white-hot jealousy coming off in waves. Jealousy that his brother had something he couldn’t share with Mateo. “I can feel Mateo’s emotions, too.”
It was as if Logan’s words had sucked the air out of the room. Alexei, Mateo, and Marco all sucked in a breath, a collective gaspbefore going completely silent. Everything snapped together, like finding the last missing puzzle piece under the couch. Logan could feel the sharp pulse of shock from both twins before a wave of relief washed over them. Pure, unfiltered relief. It occurred to Logan that they had probably shared everything for a long time.
“I’ll have to admit, I’ve never heard of two vampires sharing the same mate, but mate-bonds are so rare anyway that I’m not entirely surprised,” Alexei mumbled, more to himself than to the others in the room.
“And you think that the bond is what’s keeping me from going Transylvanian on my neighbors?”
How did that even work? There were too many rules. This is why you don’t take home one-night stands, he supposed. You might wake up as an immortal creature of the night. If they would have coveredthatin Sunday School, maybe he’d have listened.
“Kind of.” Alexei grimaced. “It is not always so simple. Your mind has to accept the bond. If you don’t, it might turn out worse for you than if you were turned and discarded.” Alexei looked away as he spoke, his expression unreadable.
Logan looked between the two twins, then back at Alexei. He didn’t remember pressingaccepton any soulmate invitation, that was for sure. But… well, he supposed it wasn’t so bad. But he wasn’t the only one affected here.
“How does the bond thing work… exactly? What should I do? And like, do you two even want to bebondedto me? Is there a way to break it?”
Quietly, incredibly deep down, Logan thought, he didn’t want to break it. It didn’t matter to him that they were near strangers, or that it was their fault he was in this situation, that his life was forever altered, whatever. None of it mattered, because he wouldn’t bealone.Logan fucking hated being alone.He hadn’t moved away from home by choice, and if these twins allowed him, he’d never have to be alone again.
“If you were to die, it would break. Though not without great pain to the two of them. Other than that, no. You are stuck with them, I’m afraid. My condolences,” Alexei replied, shooting a glare at Marco.
“Are you asking if I, the monster that drained you of your blood, stole your humanity against your will, and somehow forced you into an unbreakable soul-tie with myself and my brother, amcomfortablewith this situation?” Marco asked, barely containing his shock. “It doesn’t matter if either of us is comfortable, Logan, we’re responsible for you now.”
Well,thatdidn’t feel great. Logan wasn’t a huge fan of being an obligation.
“Right, well, I just came over to see if my friend was okay, and seeing as he is clearly… breathing… I will be taking my leave now.” Alexei made his way to the door. “There are too many emotions in here. Please make sure you feed him soon.”
Logan blinked as Alexei all but fled from his apartment, muttering something about a headache mixed in with some curses in Russian as he quite literally did not let the door hit him. When the door clicked shut, leaving Logan alone with Mateo and Marco, the tension in the room seemed to rise.
Because they all knew—Logan stood at a crossroads.
On the right, he could freak out. He could rage and tear the world apart. Cry and scream and beg whatever God would listen to restore his humanity.
On the left, he could roll with it. Accept his new immortal companions. Take a breath and realize that bad things happened, and the quicker he moved from disbelief to acceptance, the quicker he could look toward the positive.
Logandidalways prefer to think of things optimistically.
“So,” Logan started, mind made up, taking a slow breath. Removed from the drama, he could feel the way his stomach twisted. The empty, aching feeling that wasn’t there when he’d gotten home the night before.
Thesmell.
Blood.
It was unbearable.
“What does he mean by feed me?”
Chapter
Five
NORTHERN ITALY, 1939
MATEO
