Page 13 of Trapped for Her Blood
“We were trapped,” he says. “Caged. My whole family, my mate and my children, along with half of my clan. In separate cages.” His eyes narrow. “Some dark force…”
He goes quiet, and watching him breathe, I listen to the rush of the waterfall for a long time before I break the silence. “That’s how you ended up down here?”
He shakes his head. “No.” He grabs another log and puts it on the fire. Then he uses another to rearrange the embers that spark and illuminate the space around us in warm light. “Not directly.”
“Will you tell me more?”
He shrugs and leans back. “I was trapped down here by the vampire who killed my family, the one who Made me.”
“Madeyou? What does that mean? I thought you said you were born a shifter.”
He shrugs. “It’s complicated.”
“I’d like to understand.”
He turns to face me and his face is proud, defiant and full of power that sends a shiver of fear through me.
“I am a shifter,” he says. “I have been and will always be a shifter.” His eyes narrow and he frowns.
Rage is building back up inside him and I hug my legs more tightly.
“I am a Grizzly Shifter,” his voice booms. “Alpha of my clan. But I was cursed by evil magic, and now I am also a vampire.”
Chapter Five
Axel
I stareinto the fire as it dances, telling tales I can’t comprehend. It was Ulla, my mate, who had the talent to read flames, and thinking of her pokes at the ache in my long slumbering heart.
The violet-eyed human, Ember, this creature of compassion and beauty, of delicate features and courage, waits patiently for me to continue, and to my surprise I find my story wants to release from inside me for the very first time. All these painful private moments and secrets I’ve guarded inside, so deeply inside me for years…even more years than I imagined.
2019? An entire new millennium. How is that possible? I kept count of the moon cycles for the first few decades I was down here, but after that it seemed pointless. And then I was trapped in bear form—captive by that silver shard—since…since way before this woman was born, and spent much of that time in hibernation. No way to track time without seasons.
I turn to face her agonizing beauty and empathy again. “The vampire who Made me, who trapped my clan in cages—she had help.”
As I start talking again, an encouraging soft smile kisses her eyes and lips, and I’m glad of it. She’s so eager to listen, and after thirty or forty years as a bear, and not talking to anyone for the entire time I’ve been down here, it’s surprisingly pleasant to share my story with her. I haven’t spoken to anyone, except out of anger, since my clan was captured in…fuck…1949 was seventy years ago.
“Help from whom?” she prods again, when my pause is too long.
She’s trying to be patient, but it’s not her strong suit. She tucks strands of her dark hair behind her ear, and my cock stirs, so do my fangs, unreleased all that time I was trapped by the shard.
Before that, I tried filing them off on rocks, pulling the wretched things out, but no matter what I did, the infernal things grew back. That vampire cursed me in more ways than one.
Not only did she kill everyone I loved, she cursed me to this wretched existence—trapping me more thoroughly than that cage ever could. No matter what the wound, I heal.
I know there are ways to die, and I’ve held too many wooden stakes to my chest to count, but as much as I hate vampires, hate that part of myself, I lack the will to take my life.
Fangs under control enough to safely open my lips, I clear my throat. “The vampire had help from magic wielders—witches.”
Her eyes widen yet again. Humans are so ignorant of the parts of the world they can’t control. The parts of the world supernaturals hide from them.
“Magic?” Her voice quivers, and she shifts on the furs.
The blanket slips off her shoulders, and her body is so fragile, her skin so pale from lack of sun it almost seems blue against the red of her dress in the firelight.
“Yes,” I respond once I tame my fangs again. “The witches cast a spell on us. We all walked into our cages, shut our own doors.” My eyes narrow as anger and shame rise up inside me again. “I couldn’t do a thing to stop it.”
“Oh.” She rises up onto her knees. Her garment gets caught under one leg, pulling down the neckline to reveal the cleavage between her breasts.
