Page 111 of Blood Bound

“Woah,” Church puts a hand on my chest and gives me an odd look. “Before we leave here, there are a few major things you need to know.”

“I don’t fucking like the sound of that,” I say, frowning at the look on his face.

He takes a deep breath and crosses his arms. “Kazimir kidnapped Katherine and tortured her to the extent that the baby died. The council is dead. Ryker killed them all and the new guy gave Kazimir the Dawn. Katherine then left Pres, now he’s basically old Gabe with a thousand times more anger issues—”

“Wait, wait! Hold the fuck up!” I scoff while trying to wrap my head around what the fuck he just said. “How the fu... WHAT?!”

“You heard me,” he sighs, shaking his head. “It’s a massive shit show back at the estate. Pres is just about ready to tear everyone to pieces, but at least there’s one silver lining.”

I look at him incredulously. “Silver lining? All I hear is bad news!”

He chuckles and bites the pad of his thumb. “Pres kept Amara for you. He figured you’d want to be the one to kill her since she used you and helped put this fucked up plan into place.”

Silver lining? I’ve been itching to get that bitch back for what she did to me and now finding out everything else just adds more fuel to the fire.

“I can see you’re happy about that,” Church grins. “Let’s head out. I brought the SUV since your bike went missing.”

We walk out the back way and I notice the lights inside the clinic are still on and the parking lot seems packed. Is this a 24-hour clinic? Why would anyone go out of their way like this for people they don’t know?

“Thanks,” I say a little too slowly. “By the way, do we know where Kat went? Did Xenia go with her?”

Church grimaces. “We don’t know yet; she has told no one where she’s gone to, not even Xenia,” he says, opening the SUV door when we reach it. “Xenia’s pretty cut up about it.”

“But why did she leave? I don’t understand?” I ask, getting in the passenger side. “They have eliminated the threat; we should all be celebrating.”

“Well, Pres did lie to her about everything and took her away from here instead of just telling her what was going on. Kat’s a newborn and pregnant on top of it. Of course, she’ll be emotional about Pres lying to her.” He says, sounding a lot more mature than usual.

“Xenia had me by the balls about this too, but I couldn’t exactly go against my Maker for her again. Not until we’ve Entwined. She seems to have calmed down, though, but she wants to murder Pres for this.”

I laugh so much at this that I end up coughing. “Fuck, that does sound like your Fated,” I say. Instead of being pissed off at my words, he seems proud.

The moment Church pulls into the estate driveway, the stench of blood and death hits me. An icy shiver runs up my spine when I see the blood residuals left on the ground; these usually stay behind for a week after a Pureblood has died. If the entire council is dead, that means they all must have died here.

“Wait, you said Ryker showed up. What the fuck was he doing on this side of DC?” I ask when he kills the ignition and he shakes his head.

“That’s another fucking thing on its own. Apparently, he’s not an actual werewolf, but something called the Pale Rider—”

“What the fuck?!” I exclaim, scoffing in disbelief at what he’s just said, and I pull him back by the shoulder. “Are you serious? The Pale Rider?”

Church narrows his eyes and looks at me as if I’ve lost my mind. “Yeah, why?”

Sitting back, I breathe out a sigh and shake my head. Church would be too young to know the consequences of seeing the Pale Rider because Gabe turned him soon after finding him.

But I’ve seen his true form countless times when I was still human and always right after I decimated a village.

“Now their club name makes sense; the fucking Hellfire Horsemen and they’re hiding in plain sight,” I scoff before getting out of the SUV. Church looks lost, but I’m not going to be the one to tell him he literally met the personification of Death that night.

The atmosphere seems tense when I walk into the mansion; Prospects and guards are stationed at their usual spots, but they’re all trembling with fear. The place is immaculate as always, cleaned to perfection with nothing out of place.

Except Gabriel sitting in the living room with his hand wrapped around the neck of a woman on his lap.

She’s unconscious; her heart beating dangerously slow while he continues to drink from her. His eyes are open and staring at nothing in particular; it’s only when I catch her scent that I realize she’s human.

“Gabriel!” I call out and rush over to him, pulling the woman out of his arms. “What the fuck are you doing?!”

He blinks slowly, drunk on bloodlust as he sits back and stares at me; the blood has dripped down his bare chest and pooled around the waistband of his jeans.

The impassive look on his face isn’t what gets to me, it’s the dismissive flick of his wrist that does.

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