Page 46 of A Bond Beyond Blood

“Shit,” I whispered, eyes wide.

Elias Bristol had returned.

I didn’t know what this meant, or why he’d left Jacqueline in such a state, but I did know my place.

So I dropped reluctantly to one knee and bowed my head.

Chapter Fifteen

Jack

Bloody and aching, my body riddled with bruises and injuries I hadn’t yet had time to assess, I struggled to make sense of the sight before me.Vinny, my trainer, my fiercely protectivefriend, was on his knees before the vampire who’d just beaten me horribly.

Even in my battered state, I recognized the gravity of this moment, though I didn’t know what it might mean.

Eli had returned, beaten the shit out of me, and Vinny hadn’t retaliated, hadn’t fought for me.

No, instead, he’dkneeled.

I forced my eyes open, struggling against the throbbing pain in my face and hoping I imagined it all.

Maybe I’d been hit harder than I realized—

Nope.Vinny still kneeled before that monster, the sight of him on his knees sending a wave of a different sort of pain through my chest.

“Oh,doget up,” Eli drawled.“The girl appears quite scandalized by your show of fealty.”

Brows furrowed, Vinny began to rise to his feet and my eyes closed again of their own accord, pulling me back into that place between consciousness and slumber.The vampires murmured to one another, too softly for me to pick up on any specific words or phrases, but I was too tired to strain to hear them anyway.Vinny’s irritation was obvious in his tone, and Eli’s indifference only angered him further.

If anyone had asked me a little over a year ago if I would ever allow two vampires into my apartment, we would have had a good laugh and moved right the hell on, becauseno, not fucking likely.

But oh, how time can change circumstances.A year ago, my father’s dying words had altered my life completely, setting things into motion that would bring me to this moment—though I hadn’t fully realized it then.

Like my father predicted, Eli had come for me.

And, even though I’d planned for his return, trained for this fight, a part of me had held out hope that he wasn’t real.Maybe my father had been confused in his final days.Maybe he’d written to me amidst a fever dream, believing fantasy was reality...

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