Page 48 of Taken By the Blood God

“Why are you acting this way?”

“I promised your niece I would take care of you. I nearly failed, and my actions caused you harm.”

“So, this is guilt?” Her hands flexed at her sides as she stared at me.

“No.”

“Then, what is this? You’re acting as though…” She trailed off, swallowing hard.

It was clear she didn’t want to give voice to her thoughts, so I finished them for her.

“As though I care about you? As though you belong to me?”

Again, her eyes narrowed, the light brown irises flashing with frustration.

“Yes,” she answered, her tone sharp.

I leaned forward, pushing against the power that held me to the wall. “I am. Because you are mine.”

From the close distance, I saw her pupils expand and the flush that crept from her chest up her neck to her cheeks. I heard how her pulse began to race, and her breathing became quick and shallow.

But, as quickly as the reaction began, she took a step back and a sense of calm enveloped the room, fueled by her magic. The invisible bonds holding me in place released me so abruptly that I stumbled forward a step.

Minerva straightened her spine, her hands at her sides. She looked every inch a goddess.

“Claiming I’m yours doesn’t make it so.”

Her tone was cold and distant as a glacier when she spoke. She wanted to put me in my place, but it was too late now.

I knew the taste of her blood, the feel of her power, and I wanted the rest. Her body. Her heart.

Her very soul.

“Then, I vow that I am yours,” I said. “All that I am belongs to you. And someday soon, you shall say the same to me.”

I knew that my vow would hold power in this place. It was part of the reason that I had chosen the cave nearby as my resting place. This town and the mountains surrounding it held a primal power. Vows made on this soil were binding until death.

Minerva stiffened at my vow, the flush in her cheeks fading away. She appeared fragile and uncertain.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” she murmured. “Promises made in Devil Springs are?—”

“Promises kept, either by the magic of the town or the nature of the creature that makes them,” I stated over her.

Minerva shook her head. “Why would you do that? You will never…”

She stopped speaking, and her shaking hands fisted the ends of the sash cinched around her waist.

“Never be able to claim another. I know.”

My little witch turned her back on me, walking across the room before she halted in front of the window.

“I don’t think I will ever understand you,” she murmured. “Every time I think I have you figured out, you change. Like a virus.”

I had to bite back a smile at her comparison. If she thought it would offend me, she was wrong. She could never offend me. Except when she thought so little of me after I came to stay with her.

“I don’t change,” I argued. “I’ve stopped hiding behind your expectations.”

Minerva faced me. “My expectations?” she asked, her voice rising and cracking.

---