Page 6 of A Bloodline Redeemed

“What’s going on?”Niamh said.Her voice sounded far away as I struggled to make air fill my lungs.

I couldn’t breathe.No.Oh, no!Was my body dying?Was Dyre’s animation spell failing?A strange sobbing sound escaped me as I tried desperately to get enough oxygen.

“…panic attack…” Ambrose’s deep voice filtered to me over the sound of my pounding heart.I felt him pulling at my aura, trying to drain the emotions from me as they overwhelmed me, but I did just as he said—I panicked.My personal shields snapped up and my own magic flared in response, pushing him away.Keeping him out.

I was dying.My hands started to tingle.I couldn’t get enough air.I needed to move, but I couldn’t force my body to work.No.I didn’t want to die again!Not yet.Not when I had barely had a chance to embrace being alive!

The coffee table went clattering away, shoved out of the way violently by a booted foot.Then big, cool hands were gripping my face, forcing me to look up into deep violet eyes.My aura surged at the familiar feeling of my anchor.My soul recognized the aura of the person who gave me life.

“Elijah,” Dyre said, his deep voice calm but firm.“Take a deep breath.Good.Hold it.”

I did as I was ordered, somehow able to follow his commands when I couldn’t quite grasp Ambrose’s directions.I would do anything my master ordered me to do.

“Let it out, sweetheart,” he murmured, “nice and slow.Good.Now in again.”

I stared into those unflinching violet eyes as Dyre coaxed me to breathe.To relax.To find my home in my body again.

When, at last, some version of clarity and sanity returned to me, I felt my cheeks heat with embarrassment.I had just completely fallen apart.I must look so weak.So pathetic.And here was Dyre, forced to deal with his inconvenient creation yet again.A chore.A burden.

My chest ached and I lifted a hand to rub it, but Dyre caught my hand in one of his, the other still resting on my cheek.Not looking away, he guided my hand to his chest, pressing it over his heart.The steady beat of his pulse…matched mine exactly.I was so shocked by the realization that I forgot, for just a moment, to be embarrassed.

“Your heart…” I mumbled.

Dyre’s bluish lips turned upward faintly, and he pressed his forehead to mine.“Same as yours,” he whispered.

And for one silly moment, I let myself believe he might mean more than the rhythm of our pulses.

When he pulled away and stood, I closed my eyes, grateful for his power to calm me, but still yearning foolishly for more.My eyes flew open again when the cushion beneath me shifted, as Dyre planted a knee there and leaned over me.His long red braid brushed over my arm as he gripped my face again, tilting my head back.His violet eyes flashed to black, then back to violet, right before his lips pressed to mine.

I froze, my brain short-circuiting as it tried to catch up to what was happening.Then I reached for him, greedily pulling him closer, hungrily devouring that cool, sweet mouth.Questions flew through my mind, but I ignored them.I didn’t care why this was happening.I didn’t care if it was only pity or some other misplaced reason… I needed to burn this moment into my memory.To soak in the taste and feel of him, just this once.

His fingers slid through my hair to fist at the base of my skull, holding me immobile as he withdrew.His eyes flashed completely black, and Sunshine’s eerie, multi-layered voice rippled over me, making me shudder.“Ours.”

I felt like I couldn’t breathe again.But this time it was for far different reasons.

“I’ll go start some dinner,” Niamh said flatly.“It’s getting gross in here.”

Ambrose chuckled darkly.

I suddenly remembered that we weren’t alone and tried to sit up, but Dyre—no, Sunshine—held me down with an iron grip on my hair and a hand on my chest.A low rumblinggrowlemanated from the necromancer, and my eyes widened.

What was happening right now?

Chapter 5

Andy

Riverlookeddownatthe small pillow that covered his lap, his shiny black hair falling forward to hide his face.“I shouldn’t have kept secrets from you,” he said with a tired sigh.“Not with everything that’s going on.”He lifted his head again, as if forcing himself to meet my eyes.His citrine gaze was filled with a wealth of emotion that I couldn’t begin to sort out.But there was definitely some old pain lingering there.“It’s just second nature to me now, to keep that part of me a secret.”

“What do you mean?”I asked, truly puzzled.It was an amazing ability.One I’d never heard of.Even the Lovell coven couldn’t manipulate time.If they could…Oh.

River gave me a wry, bitter smile at whatever expression he saw on my face.“Exactly,” he said, his deep voice tired.

Aahil snorted softly off to my side, apparently reaching the same conclusion that I had.River glanced at Zhong, but the sweet gargoyle was a bit slower to catch on.

“It’s a trait in some cat lines.Why do you think cats have a reputation for always being under foot?It’s a natural perception, when one can literally shift time and appear seemingly out of nowhere,” River said with a bit of wry humor.Then he grew serious again.“But even among my kind, not many have the ability to manipulate time.It’s a rare and powerful ability.And rare, powerful abilities tend to make you a prime target for people who want to use you for nefarious purposes,” he explained softly.

Zhong let out a long-suffering sigh that seemed to mourn the way the world worked.Poor sweet thing.“Of course.”

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