Page 52 of Blood Bound

“Anyway, be ready by 7 pm tonight. Reaper will accompany us to California where you’ll both be settling in,” he says, then hands us each a plane ticket and what looks like two thick square pencil bags. “To help you on your way.”

He turns on his heel and saunters out of the room just as I realize the envelope contains a shitload of money - easily thirty grand each.

“Valentine!” I rush towards him and stop when he does. “Thank… I don’t know how to thank you.”

I hear him sigh, but he doesn’t look back. “Just live your life the way Giselle would have wanted you to,” he says, then walks out of my bedroom for the last time. I look down at the plane ticket bound for California, then at the heavy black leather purse… and finally make up my mind.

“Get ready; we leave in the next two hours,” I say, watching the shock inch into Xenia’s eyes as she follows me into the bathroom.

“What? Aren’t we going to wait for Valentine and the guards he’ll send with us?” she asks incredulously and I shake my head.

“Valentine has helped us enough. We don’t need their protection, and they don’t need to know where we’re headed. We’ll split up for a year, then leave the country and leave all of this behind.”

“But why?”

I throw the leather purse and ticket on the bathroom counter and brace my hands on the sink, looking into her eyes in the mirror.

“After we take those vials, every vampire will become the enemy again. I don’t know how I’ll react, and the last thing I want to do is to kill the only vampire who helped me.” I say. Realization seems to settle into her eyes, and she gives me a terse nod before leaving the bathroom.

I don’t want to admit to her that my real reason is that I don’t want Valentine to know where I’m going at all. He’s handed me the keys to a new life and I want to restart without Xenia or anything that ties me to my old one.

If I’m going to be miserable, I might as well be alone.

GABRIEL

Irush into her bedroom and see Valentine standing there looking dejected. “She left; she fucking left,” he murmurs, sounding hurt.

Left without so much as a goodbye; I guess last night didn’t mean as much to her as it did to me. Oh, well; I suppose it was simply a ‘spur of the moment’ thing for the both of us to douse whatever we were feeling and move on.

“It’s better this way,” I say and walk back to my bedroom to wash her desire from my skin, but it doesn’t help. Even six hours later in my new home, I can still smell her scent; as if it’s permeated right into my very bones.

I have Valentine with me and watch as he walks the halls of what would be my new base of operations and nest. As per a new agreement with the council, I have to distance myself from the MC because not only will I be King, but I’ll be stepping into Westcott’s shoes completely.

A fucking District Attorney.

I know now this is the reason my father had me amass all my qualifications over the years and now I’ll have to actually use them. No more night rallies, no more road trips, and blood runs - no more fucking Devil’s Void and it kills me.

I have to throw the leather jacket away for a suit and I’ll be hating every fucking minute of it.

“District Attorney Priest has a nice ring to it,” Valentine mocks when we walk out onto the stone balcony and I roll my eyes

“Ha-ha, you’re so funny. Wanna trade places with me, asshole?” I say and he holds his hands, palms up.

He scoffs. “Me, in a suit? I don’t want to risk the exploding ovaries of all the lady lawyers in the state, so I’ll have to decline.”

“So humble,”

“Thank you; I’m doing this for them, you know,” he says with a smirk, then leans against the balustrade. “New city, new people to please.”

“I know. Just take care of Devil’s Void and my legacy and I’ll do my best this side. Being King requires more responsibility than taming the bloodlust of new Prospects or making sure Void’s books balance.” I say, then narrowing my eyes at him. “Are you sure you don’t want to move this side with me? The option still stands.”

He shakes his head. “Not right now; let me dissolve the MC slowly before moving up here in a few months’ time. Vegas won’t feel like home without you or Church,” he says, then frowns. “Speaking of which–”

“He’s leaving in a month to look for Xenia. I’ve allowed him to bring his Fated home.”

“Oh, trust me I’m sure Xenia won’t have to be dragged back,” he says. Smirking broadly when I say this and I wonder what the fuck Valentine has been up to behind my back.

“Are you going to fucking elaborate on that?”

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