Page 47 of A Bond Beyond Blood
Vampires existed.Iknewthat.They walked among us and had done so for years.
But being tied to one?
Beingindebtedto a monster?
Eli made a derisive sound, pulling me out of my thoughts and back to the present.Slowly, I opened my eyes, looking up at him from below my lashes, eyes hooded as pain and exhaustion threatened to take me under.He held my gaze, those intense glacial eyes unwavering, almost as if in challenge.Though, what that challenge was, I had no idea.I certainly didn’t have the strength to fight him again any time soon.
Ugh, as if I’deverhave the strength to fight him.He’d tossed me around like a ragdoll and never broke a sweat.
His shirt still stained with his own blood was testament to my failure.I’d managed to stake him—just not where it counts.
Shame was a prickly mass in my chest.After everything I learned in the twelve months following my father’s death, I felt foolish now; it had all been for naught.When the moment came to fight the vampire who’d forced my father into a debt that would outlive generations of his children, I failed.
Elitsked, shaking his head, but didn’t verbally respond to my thoughts.
I was grateful for that, as there was nothing he could say that wouldn’t mock me or the situation in which I’d found myself.The proof of my failure was right there, standing in my living room while I lay in a heap on the couch, unable to move without agonizing pain.
“Are you listening to me?”Vinny snapped, finally loud enough that I could hear his angry words.
I opened my eyes and Eli’s attention wasn’t on Vinny at all, but laser-focused on me.He cocked his head as he held my gaze.
I gave him a thorough once over before my eyes drifted closed again.He wasfine.Not a single inhumanly white-blond hair out of place on his head.
“Inhuman?”Eli chuckled quietly.“Astute observation.”
Get out of my head.
He was completely unscathed by our battle, the asshole, whereas evenblinkingfelt like too much for my beaten body to handle.
For twelve long months, I’d trained.
And I’d waited.
Immediately following Dad’s death, Eli didn’t come.
Then, the fifteenth came and went without incident.
The next month, the same.
And so it went.
For an entire year, I anticipated his return; and for an entire year, Elias stayed away.
‘He doesn’t know about you...’
My father’s words crept into my mind once more, unbidden.The way he’d said them with such urgency sent a trickle of fear down my spine.
‘He’ll want you when he sees.’
Eli hummed thoughtfully.“He wasn’t wrong.”
I swallowed, then winced as the motion caused fresh pain to bloom in my jaw.
Goddammit, even swallowing hurt like hell.
Vinny’s hand on my shoulder roused me from my thoughts and that precipice between sleep and awareness.They’d been whispering again just moments ago, but now I wondered if maybe I’d drifted off.Dragging my eyes open, I focused on Vinny’s face, but shame quickly heated my cheeks and tightened my chest.
What must he think of me, of the way I failed?
