Page 5 of Blood Claims
“I’m sorry.”
Those two words played out over and over again in the bitter state of my mind. As soon as I heard her say them, I had known what was coming. Known of the battle of betrayal that was to be fought against as it was a war I had been forced to conquer once before.
Hence why I had snarled angrily, my fury reaching new heights. Because waking to find ourselves bound to the bed by our little Firefly had me losing my shit pretty quickly. Of course, at first, I had arrogantly believed the shackles would have been easy to break. But that hadn’t been the case at all.
Because there was a lot about our Fated we didn’t know. But as each bitter veil was lifted and the truth revealed, it only made our situation more precarious. Sweet little Vanessa had been made to believe something that wasn’t true. And as those lies came to light, so did the impossible task of trying to fight against them.
Of course, I had been furious with her in the moment, for it was clear she didn’t trust us. Didn’t trust in herself. Because Iknew that with each shitty hand that life had dealt her, it was easier for her to believe the bad over the good. That the only reason we had fallen in love with her was down to some fucking curse!
But she didn’t understand enough of our kind to know that this was impossible. How no power on Earth was capable of fooling a Vampire into believing they had met their Fated when it wasn’t real. No spell powerful enough to mask the true identity of their Moirai Theía.
But Nessa didn’t know that.
And nor would she fucking listen!
Her tearful apologies tasted like ash on my tongue and fell on deaf ears. My fury an entity too thick to penetrate. As if something inside me had snapped. My once deadly patience was shattered, the damage irreversible. I was a shadow of the man I once was, not even capable enough to heed my own brother’s words of warning when losing my shit in front of her. Her fear was an easy meal to feed from, despite its sour undertone…
The bittersweet ending she foolishly believed this was.
But our little Fated had no idea that this was far from the end. Far from fucking over! For it never would be. This was a lesson she would learn once we were free from the fucking chains!
Chains I knew she had escaped from thanks to the powers of a witch. One that had been manipulating her and, unbeknownst to her, had no doubt being doing so from the very start. And now we knew. Now we knew how she had continuously been able to escape us. It had all been leading up to this point.
For her to steal from us.
Fuck, but anyone else and I would have slaughtered them without a single thought of restraint. The offence was the highest against a royal blood. To even try would have meant the death ofnot just the thief, but every single person they ever cared for. The obliteration of friends, family, their entire line eradicated.
Everyone but our fated.
Our naive little firefly who had no idea what she had done.
Her reasoning that she was actually saving us from this farce of a curse was one she so vehemently believed in. And she did, utterly and completely. It was easy to see in her tears, heartbroken tears shed in the belief that it was her last goodbye. That we would simply wake and not remember her. And her own punishment was a life lived unable to ever forget.
The guilt she expressed in thinking that she had somehow taken advantage of us, in this cursed state, was beyond maddening. That by sleeping with us had been a line she had been powerless not to cross.
Fuck me, but it was living, breathing insanity.
In fact, it was only the sight of her tears that managed to calm some of the darkness inside me, and no doubt aided my brother in doing so as well. That and when she confessed her true feelings for us.
“The way I fell in love with you both,”’ she said before more tears fell.
I closed my eyes to absorb those tears and what she said, but then I hit my limit. The limit of not having her in my arms whilst she confessed her feelings was when I started to thrash against the chains with more vigor. Not that it did me any fucking good, as the fucking things were held as if they had been forged in Hell by the Devil himself!
In my anger, I had lashed out at her the second I discovered what her plan was, telling Tal bitterly,
“She wishes to be rid of us, brother.”
The comment made her look horrified, and she argued against the claim.
“No! No, I don’t, and I won’t, not ever. I couldn’t, not even if I wanted to,”she had hurried to say, and again it calmed my darkness, but not enough that my response wasn’t to laugh bitterly.
“Foolish girl. Our Fated believes she can make us forget,”I told my brother, who simply shook his head before reminding her of the depth of her situation.
“Oh, Little Peach, you have no idea who you’re dealing with, do you?”Tal had warned her, but just like my own, his caution fell off the deaf ears of a broken girl with zero confidence. One who still believed the lies she told herself. That she wasn’t good enough. That she wasn’t beautiful enough. That she wasn’t rich enough and all the other fucked up reasons why she believed this fucking witch over us.
This soon to be dead fucking witch!
“It was real!”I argued, but even after I snarled this, with my brother following in my furious, verbal footsteps, it still wasn’t enough.
