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My jaw clenched and I glanced over at Marko. I could tell it wasn’t easy for him to remain quiet.
“I ask very nicely … take him back to the room.” Seconds went by with no response. “Take him to the room!” I yelled, ripping my hand free from Hunter’s grasp. I began stepping back to put space between us, but it wasn’t enough for everything I was feeling. I was already leaving—running from not only that strange tugging inside of me from both of them, but toward the war that I knew was beginning.
Chapter 6
Hunter
Pacing did nothing to stop the indiscernible need to fight. It was always there, edging along my being. No matter how hard I tried to get the urges under control, I couldn’t stop myself from lashing out to my maker. I hated him. Hated him for reasons I couldn’t grasp yet. The rage made it impossible to speak out loud at times. It was so different around the princess. I could beg her with words, but I couldn’t even barely say two of them to the man who made me. I had so many questions and they wouldn’t stop coming.
My eyes cut across the room as I projected my voice into his mind. It was something that had come from the beginning…from me. How I knew to do it, I wasn’t sure, but I had heard his relief as he tried to coax me closer to him. This vampire wanted me to trust him. To open myself to him even more.
It wasn’t going to happen.
“Why doesn’t she want my help? Does she not think me capable of protecting her? I can fight. I can kill anyone who goes up against me.”
“You have a lot to learn,” Aetas said out loud, sitting on the edge of the bed. “In your mind you feel you are able, but that’s because you have very powerful blood. Your gifts are not apparent to you as of yet. Did you know you had gifts? The princess was using hers almost from her birth. The images I saw from your blood, you have yet to tap into yours fully.”
“I don’t need gifts to prove my worth.”
He laughed, feeding the fire within.
“Oh, but you are wrong. Your gifts are your worth. They’re a blessing and can protect you when brute strength cannot.”
“I don’t care for them. Tell me why the princess doesn’t like me? What is she hiding? What did I do to her?”
A sigh filled the room.
“It’s pointless telling you now. You will wake up tomorrow and what happened today will be forgotten.”
“I thought you said you saw images from my blood. You must not be very good, then, because my memory is just fine. I may be a blank slate and get confused to where I am at times, but what has happened to me has not been forgotten.”
Aetas’ eyes narrowed. “You treading water right now due to your attitude and you don’t even know it. You’re about to learn a very quick lesson. First, tell me what you mean. What has happened to you?”
Flashes blinded me of my awakening. They were almost impossible to grasp because of the underlining fog. The details were vague, but the gist of that day came back to me. A part of me didn’t want to remember and I’d done well about blocking them out, but if I wanted to learn from this, learn about her, I had to be honest.
“My first memory is of two women. They were going to kill me. That didn’t happen. I was locked outside of a huge house. The sun was burning my skin and I had nowhere to go. I ran…for what seemed like forever. Pieces of my flesh were falling off by the time I came across some type of shelter. A barn, I think. My mind says barn.” I tried to buffer the smell, but even now I could almost taste the burning scent. “I remained there until it was dark and I made my way to the lights in the distance. It took hours…There was so much movement when I arrived. So many sights and smells. Everything was familiar, yet I couldn’t remember how I knew the place. There was an abandoned house along the outskirts that I stayed in for a few days. I was cautious to go out too much, but the hunger got undeniably worse. Finally, I braved my way deeper into the city. By that time I was beyond help. I had gone crazy with bloodlust. That’s when the vampire found me. Boyd.”
“Your mind didn’t show me those memories. I don’t believe it,” he breathed out. “Remembering should be impossible, even for you.”
“Apparently not. What I don’t know is my life before that moment. Tell me about the princess. Why does she hate me?”
Aetas slowly stood, still appearing dazed as he came closer. “This can’t be happening. It’s impossible. What does this mean for the future?”
“My future is not in question, my past is. I already know what lies ahead. Tell me what came before I was turned.”
“Are you speaking in riddles with me? What do you mean, you know what lies ahead?”
I had to stop myself from baring my fangs. “I make the future. I take whatever route I choose. No one will stop that. Not even you.”
Aetas laughed, glaring at the same time. “You want to know who you were before you were turned?”
“I do.”
“Alright. I’ll tell you. You were her best friend when you were both humans. The princess loved you very dearly, but she never told you of her feelings. And neither did you. Not until it was too late. It’s a tragic story, in truth. You had dreams of coming back from the Army to make her fall in love with you, when in fact, the entire time, she already was.”
“As fate would have it, when you finally did return, it was the same night Marko Delacroix came across her. He forced his blood upon Tessalyn and ultimately made her his blood slave. You once attempted to kill him, but you shot her instead. Sayer, her maker, saved her, but upon doing so he secretly gave her his blood to start the process of their bonding. Before he could finalize the act, she ran to you and confessed her love.”
“You both had an amazing day together. One would think that’s where the happily-ever-after ended, but that’s not the case. Tessa had to come back here and you both knew it. So the two of you decided on a path to stay together. One that would break her ties with Marko, and one that would allow you full access into her life—you would become her blood slave.”
