Page 145 of Cursed to Be Mine
We pop back into existence a hundred miles in the direction of Alaska, my guts churning as if someone twisted them like wet rags. Vomit shoots up my throat, but just as it comes free, we’re phasing again, the bastard not giving me any time to adjust.
By the time we’re in Alaska, an uncountable number of hops later, I’m curled in a ball, my body shaking from the drain on it. Sweat stinks in patchesacross my shirt, and my mouth needs a wash, having spat up the entirety of my lunch. Night clings coldly to my hot skin, and I shiver on a groan.
“Stop being such a baby.” Vlad nudges me with his foot, and I sink into my shadow, not liking being so vulnerable in front of one who will gladly kill me if given the chance.
Phasing has killed weak sups before, tearing apart their bodies faster than they can heal. It is extremely rare but not outside of the realm of possibility. Born vampires are one of the very few sups whose bodies are made to handle the strain of phasing, so where Vlad is barely feeling any effects, I feel like I’ve been thrown around a warehouse, my every muscle screaming, my every bone feeling as if it’s broken. Phasing a handful of times wouldn’t have been too bad, but it’s been a day of constant hopping.
Dry heaving, I lie on my back and fall asleep in the safety of my shadows.
Soft light covers the Alaskan landscape when I step back into the world. Vlad is nowhere to be seen, and I wonder if he’s left now that his job is done or if he’s in the bar across the street, catching up with the locals. His family is from somewhere up here, having migrated down after his sister married into Aleric’s family a hundred-odd years ago. He is the only one of his line that remains, and I wonder if he has ever been back in all that time.
A familiar movement snags my attention, and I watch the back of Talon move through the bar, serving drinks to a table of women. For a moment, I think toleave him here, to let him live a life in solitude. We have no ties in Alaska. If he’s planning on starting a rebellion or killing Varius, he would need to be a lot closer.
But to leave him alive will be damning the rest of my brothers. They’ll wonder what he knows; they might seek him out, might even join his cause when we cannot afford to be divided.
So I pull out my reaper mask, lock down all the years we shared between us, years full of laughter and having each other’s backs, and I wait for him to finish his shift.
A few hours later, he’s ushering out the last drunken customer and closing up shop. Glancing out the windows, he searches for me with a nervous tic at his jaw, but he doesn’t know I’m already inside, seated at a table and waiting for when he turns.
Drawing the door shut, he locks it quickly, then spins on a sigh that lodges in his throat. His face pales as he takes a step back, his hand reaching for the door.
“Don’t run, T. Die with more dignity than that.”
He stops, his shoulders squaring, and I am very much reminded of a little brother I taught how to throw his first fist.
“Stand side-on; you’re a smaller target that way…”
I block out the memories of his little fists clenched tight as he stared ahead with a seriousness that made me laugh. He looked so much like Varius.
“You told Antonio about Scarlett that night in the woods, didn’t you?” I ask even though I already know the answer, the mystery having bugged me since then.There’s no way he could have smelled me on her, not with only one drop of mine in her veins.
Warmth pours into my chest, a hug from a distance, a squeeze of the hand as my girl comforts me through our bond. I put up a wall, not wanting her to feel how cold I get when I’m about to kill. After…when he is dead and I am crying over his corpse…then I will reach out to her. Then I will fall into her comfort and mourn the brother I lost.
But right now I need to get answers, and I can’t do that if she’s making me all emotional.
“He wasn’t supposed to hurt her.”
“Mmm. Just like he wasn’t supposed to touch us at the offices,” I say, lifting my left arm onto the table.
Sorrow and guilt crush his face in big meaty hands. “He gave me his word.”
He sounds and looks so broken, I almost think to spare him the details of what happened, but Scarlett suffered because of him.Isuffered.
Mom suffered.
Micha suffered.
I will not grant him mercy. Holding up my arm, I say, “He made me beat Scarlett while he jerked himself off. I couldn’t live with that. You’re not going to either.”
Agony hits him hard, crumbling the last of his resolve, and he steps away from the door, from the lure of false safety. Dragging out the chair across from me, he sits down and buries his head in his hands.
For a long moment, neither of us say anything.
Then he lifts his head and nods. “I won’t fight you, Kal. I won’t make you do that. I didn’t mean for any of this… No one other than Varius was supposed to get hurt.”
My lips tighten as I struggle to hold on to my calm.“Yes, you will. I will not kill you unarmed, but first I want to know why you did all this. What made you sostupid, that you then won’t even fight for?”
He shakes his head. “What does it matter? I won’t win this fight –”
