Page 6 of The Mafia Bloodline
Chapter 3
The slam of the SUV door was deafening, sealing me in darkness lit only by the flash of gunfire outside. My chest heaved, fury and fear twisting together, making my voice raw when it finally tore free.
“You can’t just…” My hands pounded against his chest where he held me caged against him. “You can’t just throw me over your shoulder like a sack of flour! Let me go!”
His eyes burned like pale fire in the shadows, locked on me with a ferocity that stole the air from my lungs. “No.”
One word. Sharp, immovable and final.
“I need to go back,” I snapped, leaning forward. “My father might be in there. Do you hear me? He could be inside that building. You can’t just drag me away!”
His jaw clenched, the muscle feathering beneath pale skin. “That place would’ve eaten you alive,” he said flatly. “If your father’s inside, you’d only get yourself killed trying to reach him.”
“You don’t know that!” My voice cracked on the edge of fury and despair. Eight months of chasing ghosts of piecing scraps together, and now, when I was this close, this damn close…he was taking it from me.
“I know enough.” His hand slammed against the divider once, sharp enough to make me jump. “If Malakai’s inside, then it’s not a place for you. Not now. Not ever.”
I hated the way his words sank under my skin. I hated the way he said them, not like he was trying to scare me, but like he was stating a fact written in stone.
The door opened, cold air rushing in, and the man with burning ember eyes…Draugr, I caught someone call him, climbed inside. His shirt was stained dark, his blade still sheathed with blood. He didn’t speak, only gave the other man, the one who had stolen me, a sharp nod.
The SUV lurched forward, speeding through the streets until the chaos of the alley was left behind. My nails dug into my palms as I tried to steady my breathing, but it was useless.
I turned on him, fury lashing out because it was all I had left. “You don’t get to decide this for me. That was my lead. My father. You can’t just…”
His hand snapped out, fingers closing around my wrist with shocking precision. Not cruel, not bruising. But unyielding. His eyes, those impossible glacial shards, locked on mine.
“I can and I will,” he said, each word a steel bar. “Because you’re mine now. And if I let you walk back into that death trap, I’d be failing the one thing that already matters more than anything else.”
My chest squeezed. My breath stuttered. You’re Mine?
The words twisted through my head, sharp and terrifying and something else, something hotter.
The rest of the ride blurred, the silence thick except for Draugr’s quiet voice giving updates through his comms. My pulse never slowed, not when the SUV pulled into a gated drive, not when iron gates closed behind us like the jaws of a beast, not whena sprawling mansion rose from the night, lights glowing faintly through tall windows.
He didn’t give me a choice when the car stopped. He simply opened the door, reached in, and pulled me against his chest like I weighed nothing.
“Put me down!” I shouted, pounding against him, but he didn’t so much as flinch.
“No,” he said, the single syllable cutting through everything else.
And then we were inside, through grand doors, past guards who didn’t even blink at the sight of him carrying me, down hallways of dark wood and stone until he shouldered into a room and shut the door behind him.
He set me on my feet, but his hands didn’t leave me. They gripped my arms, firm, keeping me exactly where he wanted me.
“Listen to me,” he said, voice a low growl that raised goosebumps across my skin. “I’m not here to take your father from you. I’m here to keep you alive long enough to see him. But you need to understand what you’ve walked into.”
My throat tightened. “What are you talking about?”
His lips curled, not in a smile but something darker. His fangs…fangs…flashed in the low light.
The room spun. “You’ve got to be kidding me…”
“I’m not,” he said simply. “I’m a vampire. And you, whether you realize it or not, are mine.”
My breath caught. The word “mine” again, cutting into me, deeper than any chain. “What does that even mean?” I whispered, my voice shaking.
“It means no one touches you. No one hurts you. No one takes you. Not demons, not Malakai, not anyone.” His hand lifted, cold fingers brushing my jaw, and instead of pulling back, I froze, caught in the storm of him. “It means you’re bound to me, the way I’m bound to you. And tonight, I’m going to make sure you never forget it.”
