by Tate James
“Bridget,” I replied, trying not to spit her name like it was a curse, but that was how it ended up coming out anyway. Oh well. “You’ve got like... two minutes. So get on with it.”
Propping my foot against the wall behind me, I leaned casually and folded my arms. She needed to understand that I was under no obligation to so much as piss on her if she were on fire, let alone hear her out.
Bridget’s mouth puckered in what seemed to be anger, but she quickly recovered from it and smoothed her features into a gentle smile instead.
“Of course. Did you want to go back inside where we can sit?” she offered, and I scowled at her.
“No.” I felt like her question didn’t really need any more of a response than that.
She heaved a sigh. “Very well. I wanted to come and meet you in person to, first of all, introduce myself. I am aware you have no memories of your life before age seven, so you wouldn’t remember all of the amazing times we had together. For that, my heart breaks because I cherish those memories dearly.” She paused and pressed a hand to her chest like she was remembering those fond memories, and I frowned in confusion.
Who is she fucking kidding right now?
Glancing at Nicholai, I found a similarly confused frown on his face, too, but Bridget was continuing with her story regardless.
“But I also wanted to take this chance to offer my help. I felt my spells on your Mage break, so doubtless he has already told you of my identity. This seemed like a time sensitive matter to make myself known and perhaps tell you my side of the events. I just can’t stand the thought that you’re out there somewhere fumbling blind through your powers and hating me for only trying to keep you safe.” She paused, looking at me with an intensity that made me almost uncomfortable. “Does that make sense, dear?”
“First of all”—I cleared my throat—“don’t call me ‘dear.’ I’m not your dear. Secondly, what do you mean spells? I thought there was just the one, the magical NDA, that needed to be broken?”
“Hmm?” She cocked her head at me with a vacant expression. “I apologize, slip of the tongue. Spell. Singular. The magic involved in a binding surpasses anything any one magic user can create, and if Caleb forced enough will into breaking that agreement, then it stood no chance.”
“Right,” I murmured. I didn’t believe her... she was clearly hiding a whole lot of something, but my logical brain had gained enough control that I was willing to see how this all panned out. She wanted something, that was clear enough. But what?
“So, you figured Caleb had outed his dirty little secret, and you wanted to get ahead and leave your spin on things?” I tried so hard not to curl my lip in disgust, but it was a huge effort.
“No!” she exclaimed. “Or, not in the way it sounds. Look, I figure if your temper is anything like mine, you probably stormed out of there without so much as letting him defend himself. Right?”
My eyes narrowed with anger. “Defend himself? There is no defending something like this. He has been meeting with you. My damn biological mother, the only other Ban Dia we have ever heard of, who could potentially help us, despite being an abhorrent sack of shit who left her seven-year-old for dead. No, Mom, there is no defense for that decision.”
Bridget sighed in the same way Nicholai had done moments before. Like I was being stupid. I hated that feeling.
“There is plenty to defend that decision, Christina. When Zelda first reached out to me saying the new Blood Mage had come to her seeking help with his magic and his cravings, I had no idea it was Caleb. I had no idea he was one of your dianoch, I swear to you.” She spread her hands helplessly. “It wasn’t until Zelda told me more about him that I was able to put two and two together from the information Nicky had provided on you. Clearly if I had just shown up, the first thing he would have done would be to tell you. You would have told him implicitly not to accept my help, and then you’d have had an out of control Blood Mage on your hands. Have you ever seen a power-mad Blood Mage before? No, of course you haven’t.” She shook her head dismissively and shuddered.
Glancing to Nicholai, he just shrugged. Clearly he, too, had never seen a power-mad Blood Mage.
“So, what? You tricked him into a confidentiality agreement for his own good?” I scoffed at this weak and frankly predictable line of reasoning, and Bridget’s dark blue eyes narrowed back at me. I was testing her patience, that much was clear. It made me curious to see who the real Bridget was when her control got snapped.
“Yes. I did.” She tipped her chin up defiantly. “It was for his own good. And yours. That boy needed all the help he could get, and I don’t regret the way I had to go about it.”
“Why you?” I demanded. “Why could you help where no one else could?”
She smiled faintly at me, and I saw a small spark of softness in her eyes as she replied, “One of my mother’s dianoch was a Blood Mage. Before that pathetic heap of shit, Jackson, who was Master Yoshi’s counterpart. I grew up around the Blood magics, so I understand it in a way that very few others can.”
“Okay,” I mused. That made sense, I supposed. “So that explains why you tricked Caleb into the NDA to start with, but not why he kept returning to meet with you. If it were just the confidentiality agreement, I could forgive him. But he made a conscious decision to keep seeing you behind my back. He should have just... I don’t know... found someone else.”
“Like who?” Bridget challenged me. “Jackson made it clear he would offer no assistance. Would you really have wanted Caleb to deal with his cravings alone? Especially with your blood constantly tempting him? Do you think that would have been fair to him?”
My jaw dropped in shock. Was she seriously calling me self-centered for feeling betrayed right now? He’d kept a huge fucking secret from me! One that directly affected me! How was I not allowed to be pissed right off?
“Besides,” Bridget continued, evading my eye contact, “I may have been slipping a little something into his tea to ensure he’d return each night.”
This time when I gasped, it was Nicholai that spoke.
“Bride,” he groaned. “You didn’t. That is low, even for you...”
His choice of words for a woman he was supposedly bonded to for eternity made me do a double take. Even for her?
“I had no choice, Nicky,” she hissed at him defensively. “If he didn’t learn to get control of his magic and not let it control him, then Christina could very well be dead now. And you damn well know it.”
“Ah,” I interrupted. “News flash, Mommy Dearest. I can’t die. Believe me, people have tried.”
Bridget’s glare was withering as she considered me. “Don’t be dense, girl. Everything can die if the right weapon is used. For us, it’s our dianoch. They’re the only things on this planet that can end our lives, just as we can extend theirs.”
Holy shit.
“Wait, so even though we weren’t bonded...” I trailed off, and Bridget rolled her eyes.
“Your heart had chosen him, so even without the bond, he would have had the power to kill you. If he’d gotten a whiff of your magic-soaked blood and not been able to control the magic, he’d have torn you into confetti then licked up the remains.” She shrugged like it was no big deal, but I could feel my face had drained of color.
Until then, I really hadn’t realized how much I was taking my immortality for granted. The idea that my Achilles’ heel had been by my side the entire time was eye-opening.
Not that any of my guys would try to kill me. Even Caleb. I had faith that he could well have learned control on his own, but... Bridget was probably right. Training with her made the whole process a hell of a lot faster and easier for him, and I really would have fucked it up for him had I known.
Shit, maybe I was being a selfish bitch.
“Okay...” I rubbed at my forehead, expecting a headache to hit me from all this truth bomb going on. Except, I couldn’t get headaches. “I think I need some time to process all of this so far.”
“But I’m not nearly finished,” Bridget protested before Nicholai placed a hand on her arm.
“What Bride means, Kit, is that is totally understandable. This has been a lot of new information. For all of us.” The look he shot his Ban Dia said that he wasn’t pleased by some of what he’d heard, either.
“Of course.” Bridget plastered on a fake-as-fuck smile and scrambled around in her purse. “This is where we are staying. I’d love if you might call me when you’ve had time to think this all through. I really want to help you with your magic. When I first bonded my guardians...” She shuddered dramatically. “It’s a rough transition. Isn’t it?”
She glanced at my wrist as I held out my hand to take the card from her, and she made a small sound of surprise.
“Oh, you’re wearing my amulet!” She stared at the little gold chain, and I pulled my hand back to squint at it.
“Uh, yeah.” Frowning, I inspected the bracelet I’d totally forgotten I was wearing, It was certainly helping, which I guessed was its purpose. My magic hadn’t gone screwy once since putting it on, and I’d certainly been worked up enough for it.
Bridget smiled, tucking her bag back over her arm. “I’m glad. I hope it’s helping.” She glanced between Nicholai and I, but when neither of us made any move to leave, she gave another tight smile. “I’ll just... call a cab, shall I?”
“That’d be great.” Her guardian nodded, then watched her walk away before he turned back to me with a stern look on his face.
“Jesus, what fucking now?” I groaned. My head was spinning, and I just wanted to go back inside for another drink before heading back and facing the guys. I’d judged Caleb too harshly, and I knew he deserved an apology. But... later.
“Look,” he sighed, scratching at his chin and staring after Bridget, who was waiting at the taxi rank further down the street. “Some of the stuff she said was a shock to me, and some of it didn’t quite ring true.” My brows shot up, but he was quick to reassure me. “Not about Caleb; I truly believe she was magic doping him to keep him compliant. That’s one of the things that has me most concerned. It’s a huge violation of magic to do that without someone’s knowledge...”
When he trailed off, thinking, I prodded him in the arm. “So, what’s your point here?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “But just watch yourself. Don’t trust anyone outside your dianoch. Not even me.”
“But trust my dianoch? Despite everything with Caleb...?” I was exhausted. The idea that my newest bonded guardian was untrustworthy had felt like a hot poker right through my stomach.
“All of them. Including Caleb. He’d never, ever have kept this from you if magic weren’t at play. Believe that.” Nicholai patted me on the shoulder in a decidedly parental way, and I wrinkled my nose. “Stay alert; keep your eyes and ears open. Got it?”
“Got it.” I nodded slowly, then watched as he jogged to catch up to Bridget as a taxi pulled in to the rank where she waited. The two of them got in, and I stared after the retreating vehicle for a long time before sliding down the wall and resting my head on my knees.
I’d just taken on a whole insane amount of information, and it felt a bit like my head was about to explode. Everything with a grain of salt, of course, but one thing remained clear no matter which way I looked at it.
Caleb. He hadn’t betrayed me. He’d made a stupid mistake by accepting the confidentiality spell in the first place, and it had just snowballed from there. Sure, I could be mad at that first action, but he’d been driven there out of desperation and out of love for me. He wanted so badly not to be a danger to me that he’d blindly accepted the help, no matter where it had come from.
Those weren’t the actions of a betrayal. If anything... it was the opposite. He’d taken a huge risk, first in accepting a mentor he knew nothing about, then in risking my ire when I found out. But he wasn’t doing it for selfish or nefarious reasons. He was doing it to protect me and the guys.
Yep. I officially jumped the gun on storming out earlier.
Groaning, I hugged my knees and tucked my face down low. I probably looked like a drunk or a bum, but I just needed a few moments to gather myself.
24
The familiar smell of a bonfire and the warm stroke of a hand down my back was what finally pulled me from my mental hurdles.
“Hey,” I smiled softly, looking up at Vali where he crouched beside me. “I figured it wouldn’t be long until you found me. Are the guys mad?”
He smiled back at me, his gray eyes soft and full of concern as his hand stroked soothing lines up and down my back. “No, they’re fine. You did the right thing, pinging your location and keeping your phone on you. After all, you’re not our prisoner. You have every right to leave the hotel alone if you so choose.”
“This is true,” I agreed. “But still... you know how they get.”
Vali chuckled, tucking a loose piece of my hair behind my ear. “I do. Such worry-toads. Don’t they realize you’re stronger than all of us?”
This made me laugh. “You mean worrywarts and exactly! Thank you! Finally, someone understands that I’m not some damsel in distress waiting to be rescued all the time.”
“If it helps,” he offered, “I think they do it because they love you, not because they think you helpless. I know that’s why I try to protect you.”
His words made me pause, but before I could push any further for clarification on what I thought he’d just said, he was standing up and holding out a hand to me.
“Come on, let’s go inside and get a drink. You look like you could do with a little fun before we head back.” When I took his outstretched hand, he tugged me up to my feet and politely brushed some of the dirt and crap off the back of my jeans for me.
The little ass squeeze might have been my imagination... or might not have been. It was so quick it wasn’t clear. Either way, I wasn’t complaining as Vali threaded his fingers back through mine and led the way back into the bar and straight to my green-haired friend.
“Back again?” she asked me when she finished serving her customer and came over to us. “I saw you deck your sister earlier. She the reason your night was so shitty?”
“Yup.” I nodded. “She sure fucking was.” There was no sense in correcting her to say that was my mother not my sister.
“Well, your night certainly looks like it’s taken a turn for the better.” The bartender batted her eyelashes at Vali and twirled her bottle opener on her finger. “Hot damn you are one sexy piece of ass. What are you, like six-four? Six-five?”
Vali smirked but ignored her aggressive flirtation as he ordered. “Could I get a whiskey sour? And for you...?” He looked at me, but the bartender was already bobbing her head in acknowledgement.
“On it, same again, Red?” She grinned at me, and I found myself smiling back.
“Please.” I watched her for a while as she mixed and shook the ingredients, before turning back to my companion. His fingers were still threaded through mine, our palms hot as they pressed together, but I wasn’t complaining.
“So, what’s the plan?” I asked him, curiously. “I’d thought you would have dragged my ass straight back to the hotel... but here we are having cocktails. What gives?”
My big, scary, Romanian crime lord threw his head back and laughed, then needed to pay for our drinks before he could respond. After leaving a heavy tip, he dropped my hand—sadly—and took one drink in each hand.
“Find us somewhere to sit,” he suggested, and I looked around the room, spotting a booth that was in the process of being vacated by several girls in mini-dresses.
Pointing it out, I led the way through the crowds and arrived just in time to slide in before another group of girls got to it.
“Long island, huh?” Vali mused, watching me as I stirred the Coke through the sour, alcoholic part, then took a long sip. “I pictured you more as a vodka cranberry kind of girl.”
“Um,” I pondered aloud. “Is that a compliment or an insul
t? I can’t tell. But besides that, I only just recently found out I was twenty-one, remember?”
Vali gave me a wicked smirk. “Oh yes? And you never consumed alcohol when you were underage? How silly of me to think you might have.” I choked a little on the sip I’d just taken and had to cough in a seriously unsexy way to clear the alcohol from my windpipe.
“Don’t do that,” I growled at him when I was finally able to speak again. No doubt my face was bright red, too. So hot.
“Don’t do what?” he asked, sipping his own drink and shuffling a little closer to me in the booth so that when he draped his arm over the backrest, his fingers were brushing my shoulder.
A shiver ran through me at the light touch of his fingers, and I tried to focus. “Don’t say funny things when I’m not expecting them. I could have drowned on that mouthful of iced tea, and then where would we be, hmm?”
“You don’t expect me to be funny?” He looked genuinely hurt, and I cocked my head to the side, considering him.
“Mmm,” I mused. “It’s not that you’re not funny. It just shocks me sometimes. Like, you’re this big, bad, scary, powerful criminal dude, who is almost always serious, and then you whip out these sarcastic lines... It just throws me for a loop sometimes.”
“Huh.” He frowned. “Well then, I should make more effort to be less serious.”
“How is the whole family empire thing going anyway? You’ve been around a lot more lately.” I hadn’t wanted to ask about it for a while since he’d been so incredibly adamant about keeping me out of his nefarious business dealings. But I was curious to know him better.
He smiled again, and I found my breath catching. He and Cole both had the most amazing smiles, and neither of them used it enough. “Really good, Regina mea. I have put in place a very pliable and respectable figurehead, backed by two geniuses to really run things from behind the scenes. Within a few weeks, I’d say I can be officially retired.”
“A figurehead?” I puzzled. “Why use a figurehead and not your two geniuses... Oh.” It just clicked. “Really? Lucy and Elena are running your crime syndicate now?”
