She paused looking at me like I had a second head. Hell, at this rate, maybe I did.
“My mother is an anxious sort. Mr. D’Avare ensured my mother and I stayed home away from the spotlight as much as possible. Mother was always eager to do as he asked of her.”
So, her mother was an anxious doormat. Good grief!
In a soft tone, I said, “I am sorry for making assumptions.”
She smiled. I think she was about to shrug again, but she paused, looked away and smiled again. She turned her gaze back to me.
“No worries. I am merely a blood match. Now I know and we can carry on as we are.”
I leaned in, getting agitated. “But I don’t want to carry on as we are. I want us, well you, to go back to how you were. I will change. I promise. I will give us a chance.”
“Not necessary. You have made it clear where I stand in this situation, and I am perfectly fine with it, now that I know my position.”
I stood abruptly. “No! That is not where you stand. You are my blood wife.”
“Blood match.”
“Blood. Wife! I messed up. I didn’t give you the right chance. I wish to give us a chance now.”
Her forced smile dropped into a sad expression. “But I no longer wish to give it a chance.”
I felt a stab in my heart. “Please Dreya. Please. Give me a chance to make it right.”
She continued to look at me sadly. “This is how it will be.” She sounded resigned.
I realized I lost my chance to have had a special relationship with my blood wife all because my arrogance blinded me to her. The real her. The one I would have embraced wholeheartedly if her last name had not been D’Avare.
Chapter 8
Onyx’s POV
Devareaux Hautbois had not been at all what I had expected. I had received the call from Devareaux asking for help to find his blood wife on a night that I was trying my damnedest to work my way back into my blood wife’s good graces. It wasn’t working whatsoever. Devareaux needed help tracking down the Bloodless Parties. His blood wife, Odessa, had been taken to one, apparently. I had not expected the extreme reaction that Devareaux had demonstrated.
At the first warehouse where a party was actively going strong, Devareaux had stormed in and roughed up quite a few vampyrs. He was a bit stronger that expected for an aristocrat. Aristocrats mainly pranced around showing off their property or luxuries, but did very little physical labor or activities. It was considered “unbecoming” of their status. I had to fight a couple vampyrs, but only enough to follow through the crowd behind Devareaux. I could fight if needed.
But it was his response at the next warehouse that flipped all expectations on their head. Devareaux had brutally attacked several vampyrs, and at least three fatally, by ripping out their hearts straight from their chest. Usually, when that was done, the victim had to be held down in place by at least two other vampyrs. Devareaux needed no assistance at all. He looked unhinged while he was yelling at the remaining vampyrs to leave and holding the heart still in his hand. I had moved to help release Odessa, but I had seen a haunted look in Devareaux’s face, so I had moved away from her. He dropped the heartunceremoniously on the ground, unstrapped Odessa from the device, whispered something to her, and swooped her out of there. He had looked devastated.
During the drive back home, all I could think about was Dreya strapped up to a wooden plank, bleeding from cuts on her arms, beautiful red hair hanging down, limp in front of me. I was horrified by the thought. Devareaux had already asked me to help him abolish bloodletting, but that had been before he found Odessa. Would he still want to proceed with it?
I didn’t have to wait long to find out, yes, he absolutely planned to move forward in having the practice abolished. I was shocked, but honored to have him ask me for help. I didn’t have the power or status he had to move such a rule forward to the Blood Council. Maybe this meeting was destined to be. I had never believed the nonsense humans spoke on about destiny and fate. But now, after both Dreya becoming my blood match, and Devareaux entering my life to help abolish a horrendous act taking place in the low blood born neighborhoods, I had to reconsider.
Two days after finding Odessa at the Bloodless Party, Devareaux and I were standing in front of a table full of councilmen of the Blood Council. The Blood Council had been appointed to ensure vampyrs remained hidden from human society, and generally maintained the rules. It was like any other governing body in the world, trying to maintain legal stability and regulation of your people. The only council member I was aware of by name was Draman Beauchamp. Draman was well known in the vampyr world because he had been one of the few to outlive his blood wife. He had been lucky in that she had saved some of herblood, “just in case.” Draman had become the Lead, meaning he was the one who organized and maintained structure and timelines within the Council.
When we had come before the Council, Devareaux spoke.
“My blood wife, a low blood born, had been kidnapped and taken to one of the Bloodless parties. These acts are an abomination to our kind and should not be allowed to continue. They need to be policed and those involved, punished for these acts. And I was to discover through my blood wife, that those that were kidnapped for the Bloodless Parties often became the bleeders on the streets. Why? Because the aristocrats that own the businesses these low blood borns are employed in fire them without chances to return. There needs to be accountability for these actions. Bleeders should not be negatively impacted for what they did not choose to happen to them.”
Draman Beauchamp asked, “And what does this man,” he gazed at me momentarily, “have to do with this? He is not an aristocrat.”
Devareaux responded back, “No, he is not. This is Onyx Trudeau. He is a low blood born vampyr who rose in the ranks to become a mid blood born.” Draman looked to me again, and nodded in appreciation. “He was the one to help me find my blood wife. Without his help, I would not have found her in time. May have become a bleeder, and would have taken me days to find her. Resulting in my own failing.”
Draman nodded. “We will put this issue to the table. We will convene again in one month.”
Devareaux looked to me, pleased, and nodded.
Devareaux unexpectedly invited me to his home after the meeting with the Blood Council. I had been surprised as I had never been invited to an aristocrat’s neighborhood or function.
