Page 107 of Blood Bound

“Once in a fucking lifetime, but once is enough,” he says, shuddering.

While they’re staring at the retreating figures in awe, Axel has Kazimir pinned to the ground with his hands behind him.

He stares into the dead eyes of his sister and all the fight seems to have left his body; he’s not even fighting back or making a move to escape. Does he actually want to die?

Axel hoists him to his feet and holds him up with one hand. “We have him and I will allow each of you to plant a stake into him before I rip out his heart and give him the Dawn, follow me,” he says, walking into the mansion.

I look at the ground and pick up one of the stakes I pulled out of Katherine; rushing forward and embedding it deep into Kazimir’s back.

He cries out and I hear the baobab searing his skin. Axel shoots me a glare and the twins laugh at my brazen move, while Gustav simply shakes his head.

“I thought it fitting since he only knows how to attack from behind,” I say, walking past them before calling over my shoulders. “When I come back, I want someone to tell me what the fuck Ryker is.”

I can’t stay here; I have to salvage whatever Katherine and I have left. She wanted no help from me, couldn’t even look me in the eye, and walked away from me when I held her. I don’t know what’s going through her mind right now or what she’s decided on her own, but I need to fix this before I lose everything.

My heart is thudding painfully in my chest as I walk up the stairs to our bedroom, not knowing what to expect from her. When I approach the bedroom door, I see it standing ajar and when I walk inside; I see Katherine’s bloodstained clothing littering the floor.

The fact that she’s already cleaned up and standing at the foot of the bed doesn’t surprise me… it’s the packed bag she’s holding in her hand that does.

“Katherine?” I ask and she visibly stiffens at my voice.

Her heart is still beating as wildly as it did outside, but there’s no longer fear in her scent and when she looks up at me, it is with absolute anguish in her blue eyes.

“I’m leaving,”

Two words shouldn’t have the ability to constrict my heart in a vise grip. Two words alone shouldn’t hold that much weight or cause my breath to hitch in my throat – but it does.

“Leaving? What do you mean you’re leaving?” I ask with my voice laced thick with disbelief and despair twisting my insides. “You can’t—”

“I can and I will,” she says in a shaky voice, walking over to where I stand with a duffel bag in her hand. She comes to a stop in front of me and drops the bag before looking into my eyes. “I can’t be with someone who lies to my face and disguises it as love.”

The blood rushes to my ears when the gravity of what she has just said hits me and everything else falls away. She’s leaving… She wants to leave me.

I shake my head and take her hands in mine. “Whatever I did was to protect you and our child—”

“Now our child is gone because of it,” she says, her shoulders sagging before she pulls her hands out of my grasp and takes a few steps backward. She crosses her arms and I can smell the turmoil in her scent, but her words do not hurt me any less.

A cold sweat runs down my back at her words, knowing she’s blaming me. “You know for a fact that wasn’t supposed to happen! I never planned for that!”

“Gabriel, you left me in New York all alone, with no warning that I might be in danger.” She scoffs. “And even though I knew you were lying to me, I still gave you time to come clean, but you still continued.”

“I had no choice!”

“You had a choice, and you chose not to put your trust in me!” She cries out, walking towards me with crimson eyes. “I have told you before that I’m no damsel who needs protection. I’ve killed more vampires than I can count and yet you treat me like I’m some fragile thing incapable of looking after herself!”

“I didn’t want you anywhere near here during this!” I exclaim, pulling her closer to me, cupping her face, and hoping she can see the truth in my eyes. “That is the whole reason I took you away from here!”

But she only smiles slightly. “Is that the reason you proposed to me? So I can be kept docile?”

My breath hitches. “Katherine—”

“I think it is,” she says, stepping back from me again and looking down at her left hand, and twirling the ring around. “You have no idea how happy I was when I saw this on my finger; how perfect that moment was and how I vowed to treasure it forever, but now….”

She looks up at me with crimson tears welling up in her eyes, then removes the ring from her finger. “No…”

“Now I wish you never gave it to me. It would make walking away a lot easier than this.” She says, blinking and allowing the tears to slip down her cheeks.

I feel as if the world has gone silent; my heartbeat thrums violently in my ears and I hear every sound as if my head is being held underwater.

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