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A deranged giggle bubbles up into my throat after Valentine says this, but the serious look on his face immediately shuts me up.
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Church and I say in unison while we both look at Valentine as if he’s lost his damn mind. Me, a hunter, Fated to Gabriel Priest, the man I swore to kill?
I hold up my left hand and look at the thin red string leading to where Gabriel is still laying passed out and see the end attached to the smallest finger on his left hand.
The Red Thread of Fate, that’s what he called it, right?
Valentine has a pained look on his face when he shakes his head. “Trust me, I wish I was joking,” he says, looking over at Gabriel and then pulling me out of the bedroom with Church in tow.
The place is a mess - bullets, arrows, and blood splattered everywhere, but no bodies in sight. I don’t even want to know what happened to the survivors if there were any.
The hunters know where the hideout is, and I have a feeling that Xenia is the one who led them here… led them here to kill me along with the vampires.
“But… I’ve tasted his blood before and didn’t see this thing! Back at the club when he drugged me—”
“The baobab you had in your system at the time must have hindered it; that mixture fucks up a lot of things for our kind,” Valentine says as he closes the bedroom door, then places his hands on my shoulders. “Listen to me, Katherine, Gabe can’t know that you’re his Fated–”
“Why?” slips out of my mouth before I can even stop it, and he raises a questioning eyebrow.
“Do you want him to know that you’re the one Goddess Nyx chose to be his Forever? He’s still not over the fact that Church is Fated to Xenia,” Valentine says, then cringes as if he said something he shouldn’t have.
But his words hit me like a sledgehammer to the gut.
“WHAT–!” his hand clamps over my mouth, and he pushes me against the wall. My gaze drops to Church just as a dark look crosses the fury in his eyes; he’s not only pissed off but seems hurt.
I glance back up at Valentine and slowly push his hand from my mouth. “Okay, I’ll shut up. But… Xenia? How? Why was she here, killing everyone? I thought you felt an attraction to your Fated?”
Church chuckles sadly. “If only our Bond worked as instantly as the damn wolves, then we wouldn’t be in this fucking mess,” he says, placing his hands inside the pockets of his jeans and leaning against the opposite wall.
“The pull is there, but it’s not as strong as a Mate Bond. Your Fated needs to taste your blood in order for them to see the Thread.”
“So Xenia feels a pull towards you but will never admit it,” I murmur, and Church nods, his mouth a thin line of disappointment.
Valentine sighs, and my attention snaps to him again. “You need to understand that Priest will kill you himself if he finds out that you’re his Fated. He doesn’t care about furthering his bloodline, so meeting his Fated does not appeal to him in any way. If you want to stay alive long enough for us to get you out of here, then you need to keep your mouth shut.” He says with a pleading look in his eyes.
That little bubble of hope starts to inflate slowly when Valentine’s words echo in my mind. Stay quiet, then I get to leave?
“You’d help me get out of here? You’ll help me escape?” I ask, not sure if I should believe him or not.
He nods, then looks over his shoulder at Church. “Both of us will help you, but only if you promise not to go back to your guild.”
“That goes without saying since I’m as good as dead anyway, but why would you help me? You blame me for the death of Gabriel’s sister, why help me escape?” I ask incredulously. I was ready for months, maybe even years of torture, not escaping within three months.
Valentine sighs again, then steps back from me and briefly looks at his left hand. “Because you’re her daughter, and I owe it to her to protect you.”
My eyes widen when he says this, and my mother’s face flashes in my mind. The look on his face tells me that Valentine hasn’t been lying when he spoke of my mother being his Fated, but I still can’t see her cheating on my father. She was way too honorable for that.
“Did you and my mother have sex?”
Church doubles over with laughter, and Valentine shoots him a glare.
“No, we never even kissed after we Entwined. We were going to leave all of that for when she left your father since she didn’t believe it was right, but it never happened.”
I smile sadly and shake my head, knowing that was just how my mother was. But how did she hide her love for Valentine for so long, and how did my father find out about them? I suppose it doesn’t matter because wondering won’t help anyone.
“Okay… I won’t tell Gabriel about this,” I say, holding up my left hand. “But I want to be out of here by next week with safe passage out of Vegas.”
Valentine nods. “You won’t have to worry because we’re moving to DC after tonight’s ambush. We’ll sort everything out, just keep Gabe occupied for the time being, and you’ll be free before you know it...”
