Page 13 of Blood Vows
The sound of shattering glass from the window behind me exploded inwards, making me shriek. Shards falling like silver rain. I covered my head with my arms, crying out as the debris cut across my forearms and shoulders. The shadows on the wallsscreamed, a horrible, keening sound, as they recoiled from the light, pulling back into the corners.
Only, it didn’t feel like they were the cause.
No, it felt like they were fighting something else. Something darker, something stronger, something that had no form yet, but that wanted me all the same.
The air shifted, trembling. And then I heard it again, this time more forceful,
My name.
The first had been a faint whisper threading through the noise. Now it was much louder, rougher and more desperate.
“Vanessa!”
My head snapped toward the door. Through the narrow opening, a face appeared, one half cloaked in shadow, the other half covered by leather molded against bone. The mask gleamed in the fractured light, death and life fighting for dominance across the features beneath.
And behind that mask, I saw them.
His eyes.
Dark, furious, afraid.
The door ripped open with a scream of metal and wood, splintering from its hinges as if torn apart by some unseen force. I stumbled forward, gravity and terror dragging me down, and fell into his arms just as the walls collapsed behind me with a deafening roar.
The impact stole the breath from my lungs. For a heartbeat, I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. I could only feel the solid weight of him, the press of his chest, the warmth of his body. My hands fisted in the fabric of his shirt. My tears soaked through it, leaving small, wet marks that burned against my palms.
It wasn’t until I heard his voice, low and careful and trembling with something I couldn’t name, that I realized what was happening.
“Vanessa.”The sound of it wasn’t a whisper this time. It was a truth. A confirmation that I was awake.The chest beneath my cheek was real, and the arms that wrapped around me were solid strength.
And the voice, his voice now echoed softly against my ear, pulling me back into the world of the living.
The nightmare was over and once again…
He had saved me from it.
6
UNEXPECTED COMFORT
The moment I realised that the part of the dream where I was now held in Vasileios’s arms was real, everything inside me fractured and reformed all at once.
“Easy now,”he said, his voice low and steady, his breath warm against my hair.
“It was just a dream. You’re safe.”
Safe.
The word shouldn’t have rolled off his tongue with as much ease as it did. Yet somehow, it felt right in that moment.
His tone, soft, deep, and unexpectedly gentle, rumbled through his chest, vibrating against my cheek. It was the kind of sound that could quiet chaos, that made the world seem distant. I hadn’t thought him capable of offering comfort, but now… now that voice had the power to steal the air from my lungs.
I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know what I would have said, even if I could have. My hands trembled, pressed to his chest, and yet he didn’t release me. And what’s more was that he didn’t seem in any hurry to.
Instead, he focused on my breathing.
“Deep breaths. Just let your mind adjust. In and out. That’s it.”
I did as he said, as clearly, it was easier for him to find the words. As for me, it was easier to just do as he said and try to remember how to breathe.
