Simone's POV Aldric says something to Vesper in a language I don’t understand before they step outside. I don’t know what they want to talk about, but vampires are like that – always holding all their undead secrets close to their hearts. I missed Aldric. I didn’t think I would, I barely know him, but I started missing him mere hours after he left. It was as if he took a part of me with him, and when he returned he gave it back. When he asked me about the pregnancy, I intended to tell him the same lie I’ve been telling everyone else, which pretty much boils down to ‘I am sure I will love it.’ Lately, I’ve been so very tired, and I hate myself for resenting the thing growing inside me. I can’t think of it as a child or a baby. I can feel it inside me, crawling and twisting, sucking me dry like an orange, and like every other vampire, it’s gorging itself on my blood. Yet, like me, the creature asked for none of it. That is what keeps me awake at night. Neither of us had a choice in t
Aldric's POV**TRIGGER WARNING** This chapter is a little rough and contains pregnancy loss and other graphic scenes. Proceed with caution.I don’t know why, but I try to get between Vesper and Simone. I suddenly see my brother, one of the few people I trust with my very life and my heart, as a threat.He roughly pushes me away and I growl at him like a demented werewolf. “Go hold her instead,” he says, his tone calm. “Use your magic touch and give her your blood.”“She is a slow healer.”“It’s better than nothing, and better than what I can do. If worst comes to worst, you can turn her, but you’re not going to get it done from down here.”I crawl up the bloody bed, it reminds me so much of that night she attacked Baron, and lift her so I can hold her. I don’t even want to look at Vesper. Everything inside me wants to kill him for touching my bride in such an intimate way, but I’m not so caught up by my desire that I fail to realise that I won’t be able to stay calm enough to see her
Simone's POV I am at once relieved and heartbroken, and I don’t know what to do with all these new feelings. How am I supposed to process everything that happened in such a short amount of time? How am I supposed to explain to people that I did not want this child, but I’m still sad for him? For what he had to go through and endure in his short few minutes of life? I sent Aldric out because I thought he’d have questions I couldn’t answer. It took me a while to realise I didn’t have to answer his questions. He doesn’t answer any questions when he doesn't feel like it, so why should I? I wish I knew what kind of hold that vampire has on me. Every time I see him, I promise myself that I won't let him get under my skin, that I won't tell him everything that pops into my head, and every time I fail. It's as if some unknown force compels me to tell him the truth. Maybe that’s why he won’t answer me when I ask him questions. Maybe he can't lie to me either. After an hour alone with the ch
Simone's POV“Have you lost your damn mind?” Vesper asks Aldric. "You can't go back there."I wake up to the brothers having a full-blown, but whispered argument. I try to keep my breathing even so they won’t notice that I’m awake, but vampires can usually tell when humans are not asleep. Something about our heart rate changing.“I have to try,” Aldric says. “Baron is destroying everything.”“He’s been destroying shit since he took power, he-”“No,” Aldric interrupts. “No, he hasn’t. The first thirty years or so everything went exactly to plan.”“Hm…but you know what they say about absolute power. What about your little stray? Are you just going to leave her again?”“No. That is not an option.”“You can’t take her with you to Baron. He thinks she’s dead.”Aldric sighs deeply and looks over his shoulder at me, then back to his brother. “He will know by now that I lied. The moment Phoenix was born, he would have known.”“You must really take me for a fool, baby brother,” Vesper says, hi
Aldric's POV “You weren’t kidding when you said Simone is a slow healer,” Vesper says and hands me a glass of his finest, aged blood. I have no idea how it’s made, or exactly what process they use to keep blood this old fresh enough for consumption even hundreds of years after the original donor died. It’s a family secret of the Eurynomos bloodline. The blood is slightly alcoholic and can give a neophyte quite the buzz, but ancient vampires like us enjoy it merely for the novelty – and sometimes it tastes good. “It’s strange,” my brother goes on. “Humans usually heal so fast from our blood.” “Maybe it’s her genetics. I mean, her mother never fully turned. She was able to drown herself.” “Imogen suffered from blood madness. They die quickly anyway.” “Yeah, I suppose,” I sigh and sip the aged blood. This vintage is actually pretty nice, and I find myself wishing that Simone could enjoy it with me. After all the blood I'd given her, the imprint intensified, and leaving her, even f
Aldric's POV Ever since the miscarriage, I can’t leave Simone’s side for longer than a few hours at a time. Whenever I try, an invisible elastic band rips me back to her side. I don’t know if she can feel it or not, but she doesn’t question my presence. For the most part, she stays in bed. I make sure she eats and drinks, but I can feel her weakening – not just her body, but her very soul – and it scares me half to death. I’m very sure that if she dies, I’ll spiral into some kind of madness like Baron did after Imogen died. On the fifth day, Simone bolts upright in bed and stares at me where I’m sitting in one of the chairs, sipping on a blood bag and reading a book about vampire hunting. I thought it was factual, but it’s mostly fiction. I chuckle every time I read something ridiculous, like, ‘Hang garlic in every corner of the house to deter vampires.’ It’s true that we’re not particularly fond of the taste or smell of garlic, but it won’t kill us or harm us in any way. “You okay
Simone's POVThe moment the words leave my mouth, I wish I can take them back. I've showed him too much of my heart already. I'm giving him way too much power.If only I could figure out how to lie to Aldric. I’ve tried so many times, but it's always the same - my mouth speaks my heart's truth.I wonder if it’s that bond thing he told me about that’s compelling me to say every little thing that pops into my head. “Why can’t I lie to you?” I ask.“You can’t lie to me?” he asks, clearly surprised. He laughs and looks very relieved. “You imprinted back.”“What?”“That’s what we call it when we feel a blood bond with a human. Imprinting. Sometimes, often actually, it’s a one-way deal. Humans don’t imprint as we do. You fall in love…or a facsimile of love at least, but you don't imprint very often.”“A facsimile?”“A copy…a weaker version of what vampires call true love.”“Are you saying humans don’t understand the meaning of true love?”“Yes.”I stare at him for the longest time. “My God,
Aldric's POV “No!” I call out and fly across the lawn just as the wolf sets upon Simone. I heard him just a second too late. A fleeting thought crosses my mind before I reach my mate. 'How the hell did he get in here?' Vesper comes charging past me, kicking the wolf off my bride as he descends. The black wolf yelps and rolls away just as I kneel next to Simone, trying to take in the carnage that he wreaked on her. It all happened so fast that I can't seem to get my head wrapped around it. If it weren't for the gaping, bleeding wounds staring at me, the scent of her rose-water blood, I would convince myself that it is all just a dream. At least he didn't get her neck or throat. Thank God. Her blood spills over my hands and soaks into my clothes, clinging warmly to my skin. “No, no, no,” I whisper and pat her cheek. “Come on now, baby, open your eyes. You cannot die like this. Please look at me.” She coughs and blood bubbles from her mouth in a thick, frothy milkshake. My eyes slid