Page 36 of Blood Bonds
“You’re welcome to stay as long as you need, angel.” He rotated, presumably in the direction of his quarters. She’d been staying in his version of a guest area at the end of the hall.
Comfort settled firmly over her as they entered his bedroom, and she knew immediately she’d made the right decision. Every part of her sighed in relief, including her soul, as he tucked her into blankets that smelled just like him.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He brushed a kiss against her forehead. “I’ll be back to check on you in a bit.”
She tried to nod, but her head felt too heavy. Her attempt at a verbal agreement lodged somewhere in her throat.
Too tired.
They would talk more later.
Until then, sleep.
10
Forging New Bonds
A baby.
Fuck.
Sethios had been able to hold it together while holding Caro in his arms, but the reality punched him in the face as soon as he returned to the living area.
Gabriel had relaxed into the oversized sofa, his legs sprawled in a deceptively relaxed manner. Only his eyes telegraphed the intelligence and lethality lurking behind his calm facade. Sethios recognized it well because the same proclivities existed inside himself.
“My mother trusts you,” Gabriel said. “How did you manage to accomplish that in such a brief time?”
Sethios took the seat across from him, his stance open and ready for a fight should it become necessary. “Caro’s body trusts me more than her mind.” And certainly not her heart.
Her request to sleep in his bed had struck him hard in the chest. His instinct to do whatever she asked was certainly new.
Sethios only ever looked out for his own best interest, and occasionally a close friend. But when she gazed up at him with pain etched in her eyes, he’d have given up his soul to help her.
He rubbed his pec, conflicted by the response.
As much as he wanted to blame the knowledge of her pregnancy for the reaction, he couldn’t. Because the notion to help her first occurred when he caught her in the kitchen. Panic unlike any he’d ever felt had slammed into his gut at the agony rippling through her expression.
“You care about her,” Gabriel murmured, observing.
Sethios stared back at him. “Is this the part where you advise me to stay away from her? Tell me not to hurt her, or you’ll kill me?” He could sense the power radiating off the Seraphim before him. It would be a fair fight, one Sethios might even lose.
“If you think that’s needed, then you don’t know my mother very well.” There was a hint of pride in Gabriel’s tone, but his expression remained artfully blank. “Caro is more than capable of killing you herself.”
“So she keeps saying,” Sethios mused.
“She’s strategic. You would do well to remember that.”
Amusement flighted through him despite the dire circumstances. Caro could probably harm him, if she ever truly tried. “I have no intention of ever hurting her.”
If anything, he wanted to protect her. He’d warned her away from Osiris before he knew about the benefits of keeping her close. That behavior alone wasn’t normal for Sethios, however, nothing about this situation struck him as ordinary.
“Giving you to Osiris as a distraction is the most practical option. That will grant Caro time to raise and prepare your child for whatever uprising the Fates feel your progeny will create.” Gabriel spoke the words with an underlying hint of finality that didn’t sit well with Sethios.
“So sacrifice myself for my family,” he interpreted. “Except, according to Skye, I will be important to my father’s downfall.” Or that’s what he inferred from Ezekiel. “It seems prudent we learn what she foresaw before jumping to any ‘practical’ solutions.”
Gabriel steepled his fingers, his light green gaze thoughtful. Sethios could see the resemblance to Caro in his light hair and pale skin, but his face was too masculine to be considered angelic. He also possessed a lethal air that Caro lacked, one that grated on Sethios’s nerves.
