Page 97 of Call of the Blood

“You got the real me,” he murmured. “Not that this isn’t real, but…”

“This is you leashed out of habit,” I said, understanding.

Yet, even leashed and controlled, he’s… overwhelming.

“There will never be a leash in my sanctuary. It’s my space. I wanted you there.” His hands tightened, his grip firm and strong, his body hard against me. “And I would very much like you there again.”

“Then let’s⁠—”

“Not tonight,” he said, settling down. “Because Rupert is up, and us walking through the hall naked would possibly send him to the hospital. Also, I like giving you what you want. So, Everly, what do you want?”

I leaned over and kissed him, which seemed to be answer enough.

He kissed me until the sun came up.

The hollow hole in my chest didn’t exist while he was there.

For a moment, I forgot all about it.

36

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

ALEXIUS

Three days later, Alexius was awake a couple of hours before sunset, with red hair spreading across his chest. He played with it for a moment, the woman that it belonged to curled to his side, tucked under his black blanket.

It was immensely satisfying to have her there.

But he had things to do. He looked at his phone and saw the six missed calls while he had it on silent to sleep. He didn’t call back. He and Everly had now been home for three days, and Alexius continued his silent war with Isaiah.

Alexius expected him to do one thing. In fact, he demanded it at this point. Until Isaiah did, Alexius wouldn’t entertain him.

“I’ll be back,” he whispered to the sleeping Everly. “I think it’s going to be tonight.”

He got out of bed, knowing she wouldn’t even notice. There was no way to wake her with something so simple.

He showered and dressed quickly, then went to the room with Declan. To see a human become a vampire was an odd thing. There were markers that indicated that someone was nearly done with it. Declan, as Alexius had believed, would wake up tonight. He instinctively knew, but the signs also pointed to it.

“Perfect. Another Orphan to train, starting tonight.” Alexius sighed. He wasn’t thrilled about training Declan. He was doing it because Everly wanted her brother to be here for as long as her brother would tolerate it.

Alexius also believed it was best for Declan. He had never wanted immortality or the supernatural. He’d deliberately avoided his family’s professional ties to Jacob’s nest and went on his own path. It was unfortunate that supernatural rarely let anyone just walk away. He’d attracted a werewolf, had Henry Abbott as an uncle, and Everly as a sister. It was as if fate had decided that Declan wasn’t going to be a human living a normal human life, no matter how much the young man had wanted it.

It made Alexius concerned for Declan’s mental state when he woke up. He saw it happen in person, the Turning of those who didn’t want the blessed and cursed existence. The constant thirst. The loss of mortality.

All too many of them decided they wanted to see the sun one last time instead of surviving in the night.

“You can’t do that to her,” Alexius told the soon-to-rise Declan. “Not after she gave you everything she possibly could.”

He didn’t know how to have the conversation with Everly. He could see it, the grief she was feeling over the loss of the thing she fought to protect. She killed a family member, one she had loved as a child, however misguided that love had been.

She would need time to settle with that piece of her that broke. That piece he watched break when Henry died. The wound that needed to heal.

It would heal.

But only if Declan was strong enough to walk into his life.

Everything about his fiery little lover was dependent on the man they were all waiting on.