“You married me because Fergus and Jankin were going to execute me.” He drained his bottle of cherry juice. “Drink your juice. You’re pale.”
“Weren’t they? You were in that predicament because you lied.” She gulped from her glass. “And if I’m pale, it’s your fault.”
“Yes, Fergus would have. And I would not have stopped him.” Dragomir stood across the room. He almost couldn’t look at her. The return of her disgust of him was so painful. It hurt to think she hated him. But there it was written all over her face.
“So, I should have just let them stab you with that stake? Is that what you’re saying?” She slammed her glass onto the coaster.
He didn’t respond. Part of him thought it might have been better for her if she’d just let him die. Living without him, without truly experiencing love, might have been better than living with someone she wouldn’t trust. But then she’d never know the truth and she deserved that much.
“No. I’m not saying that at all. I’m grateful for what you did.”
“Well, of course you are. You’re alive and fucking me.” She stared right through him. If looks could kill she’d redefine the word violent.
“I lied to protect you—”
“Protect me? Protect me?” She bolted off the couch. “By fucking me?”
“You and Jankin.”
“What?” She looked around as though she might be scavenging for a weapon. Little did she know the only weapon she needed against him was that look of disgust. He’d stake himself to avoid seeing it ever again.
“You drank from Jankin, not me.” He hadn’t wanted to be the one to tell her, but he wouldn’t allow her to believe a lie. “When you were born, Jankin saved your life.”
Her mouth hung open. She clutched her chest. “He delivered me,” she whispered. “A preemie.”
“You would not have survived without him.” Dragomir stepped toward her. “Your father begged him to help.”
“Don’t touch me.” She backed toward the sleep chamber. “You’re all liars. Every last one of you.” She ran from the room and slammed a door shut.
Chapter Thirty-one
Sofia lay in bed, weeping. Where were her parents when she needed them? Dead. Why hadn’t Dr. MacDuff sought to save their lives? He’d stood at both their bedsides when they passed. His eyes had glistened with unshed tears.
“What an actor.”
He hadn’t cared about them. Or her. If he had, he’d have never let her lose them both.
Now she was swept up in a world that didn’t belong to her, eternally bound to a stranger. She looked around the room. The bedside lamp cast a dim light.
The foolish cloud floating in the atmosphere of the room pooled around her like a metaphysical blanket. It draped over the bed and wrapped across her shoulders. She brushed it away, trying to separate herself from the bond.
“Stupid thing.” She hopped off the bed to pace, sending brilliantly sparkling particles scattering only to reform like a cape covering her shoulders and trailing behind her. When she reached the wall, she turned back and charged through the damn cloud, sending it tumbling aside before it reformed around her.
She gave up and ignored the gem-like nebula.
Nothing hung on the walls. No carpet warmed the hard floor. No windows opened to bright sunshine.
Sofia didn’t even know the time. She wanted to go home, back to her house with her own things, sleep in her own bed, enjoy sunlight on her face. Instead, she sat on the edge of a huge bed in a basement, hiding from the rest of the world.
She sniffled. There was no going home until this rose situation was fixed. She’d been put in danger by a maniac trying to send a message to Dr. MacDuff and Dragomir. They had put her life at risk. If she’d never met them, never had to know them, she’d be living in blissful ignorance and probably still working at her old job.
Her parents had begged him? Had they known what they were asking? Had they known she’d be sucked into this other world? They never mentioned what he’d done, never even hinted of something so absurd.
She needed to go home and scour the house for clues. Her mother must have known. She must have left some hint of what to do.
Her number one priority would be to go home. Get rid of the roses. Get the hell out of Cader. Then she’d find a new job. She’d move on with her life.
The cloud tumbled around her. Its colors jumbled with each other, no longer forming pretty waves. Instead, they crashed into each other in a frenzy of crystallized dust.
“If they want to beat the hell out of each other, so be it. Why should I care?” She waved her hands in front of her and barreled through the torrent of sparkling nonsense. “What do I care if they all kill each other? I don’t. Let them live with no rules or policies or humanity.”
The damn specks reorganized and clung to Sofia. Tears spilled down her cheeks. “Get off me!” She shook the weightless dots off and padded to the bathroom to blow her nose, slamming the door before any of them reached her.
She pressed a cool compress to her face and neck. “I’m leaving,” she called to the cloud. “Don’t touch me. Don’t follow me. Don’t even look at me.”
Ten minutes later Sofia emerged from Dragomir’s bedroom dressed in a pair of his dress slacks, belted at the waist and cuffed so she didn’t trip over the ankles, and a black t-shirt underneath his button down, sleeves rolled to her wrists.
She was nothing if not annoyed that he’d tossed her clothes with his in the washer when he’d gone to get drinks for them between lovemaking sessions. “Sex sessions. Whore,” she snapped. She’d been duped into bed by yet another man. He wasn’t the first, but he’d be the last. She wasn’t falling for anyone telling her he cared about her. Not ever again.
“I’m leaving.” She stomped up the hallway barefoot. “Where are my shoes? Get off me!” She whipped her hands at the air surrounding her, sending sparkles spinning out of control. “Dragomir?”
He didn’t bother to rise from the sofa or turn to face her. “Before you go you should speak to Jankin.”
He wasn’t stopping her? Why? This was too easy. “Fine. I’ll let him know I’m leaving. Where is he?”
“Here, Sofia.” Dr. MacDuff walked in from the kitchen holding Sofia’s shoes. “But before you try to leave. It’s time I told you the truth.”
Sofia nodded once. “Yeah. It is.” Her hands fisted. Of all the things she hadn’t expected, the urge to punch Dr. MacDuff’s lights out was high up there. She breathed heavily, trying to calm the brewing anger. She wanted to kick the crap out of someone, and he was the perfect target. He started all this. He should pay.
Why do I want to hit him? The question didn’t stay unanswered for long. Dragomir. This is all his doing.
Crystals hovered between Sofia and Dragomir.
That damn bond. She swatted at the cloud. When that did nothing to disperse the glittery fuzz, Sofia glared at Dr. MacDuff.
For the first time in all the years she’d known him, Dr. MacDuff seemed weak. The pallor of his skin was not clear, not smooth. He appeared ill. His eyes were no longer green. They were darker, nearly black. “Come. Sit.”
For a brief second she believed she could pummel him into the ground, just beat him to a pulp and then be free. Dragomir had said he wouldn’t force her to stay. She wouldn’t have to try to escape him. He’d let her walk out.
“Sit, Sofia. Your rage at Jankin or me will only make you less safe. Do not react foolishly.” Dragomir wore only the pants he’d pulled on when they’d begun arguing. A multitude of crystal particles coated him.
“Don’t tell me about my rage. You have no idea what I’m feeling. Even with this…stupid…” She waved her arms around her. “…thing surrounding me.”
Jankin smirked.
“Don’t laugh at me.” Sofia snatched her shoes from Dr. MacDuff’s hands, dropped them to the floor, and crammed her feet into them.
“I am not laughing at you. I’m simply admiring your bond.” He motioned
to the aura encircling Sofia and Dragomir.
“Yeah, well, I’m not taking this with me when I leave.” She swatted at the cloud.
“Oh, you should get acquainted with it. It’s a permanent bond, as your mate has explained.” Dr. MacDuff sat in the chair across from Dragomir, leaving only the couch for Sofia.
She marched around the back and sat on the arm.
The space between Dragomir and Sofia filled with millions of sparkling flecks, leaving only a thin layer surrounding either of them. It was like having a third person sitting between them.
Dr. MacDuff smiled. “It’s a very strong bond.”
“Just get on with it. What lies have you fed me?” Sofia did her best to ignore the calm aura pulsing beside her. The damn thing was trying to influence her. It behaved like a low, soothing essence. It apparently had no idea how angry it was making her. The more it tried to calm her, the more she wanted to grab a vacuum and suck the damn thing into it.
“As you know your father was a good friend of mine. Your mother’s pregnancy was very unexpected and very much desired.” Dr. MacDuff smiled. “I helped your father paint the nursery.”
Sofia threw her hand in the air. “That didn’t give you any right to make me drink vampire blood.” She scowled.
“Six weeks earlier than intended.” He stared at the floor. “My best friend begged me to save his baby. Your mother offered her own life for yours.” He folded his hands in his lap. “She bargained. If one life had to end, she begged me to take hers and spare you.”
When he lifted his face, tears ran from his eyes. “I did wrong. I broke our most sacred law to save you. I loved your parents like my own family. The moment I saw you I loved you like my own child. We couldn’t lose you.”
Sofia swallowed back tears, remembering her mother telling her how special she was, how much she was loved. Her mother’s voice played in her mind over and over. “Uncle Jankin loves you. You’re special to him.” Then the warning—” Only go to Cader with me or Daddy or Uncle. Never alone.”
“You should never have done it,” Sofia whispered and swiped at tears trickling down her cheeks. “No good deed goes unpunished, Uncle.”
Jankin nodded.
“If she’d known what would happen to me, she’d have never allowed it.”
“Child, if you believe that, you didn’t know your mother very well.” Jankin removed a handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped his eyes. “If your mother ever saw the bond you’ve created with Dragomir, she’d have thanked The Heavens for vampires.”
Sofia hated that he was right. She hated that he’d known her parents so well. Ever the romantic, Sofia’s mom would have been dazzled by the damn entity billowing between her and Dragomir. “How long had they known you were this?”
“I met your father when he was a boy, befriended him in the woods behind your home. He was a smart boy. He figured me out or maybe I let him.” Jankin sighed as though lost in an old memory. “We told your mother shortly after your parents became engaged.”
“Did you bite them?” Sofia leaned forward, eager to hear if he’d fed from her parents. She’d kill him herself.
His eyes faded to green. “Not once, though they both offered. I respected them both, Sofia. I never betrayed that.”
“No.” She laughed harshly. “You think this…” She waved through the aura beside her. “…was not a betrayal? You’re sadly mistaken. This was the ultimate betrayal.”
“Your mother would disagree.” Jankin’s attention fell on the center of the couch. He regarded the aura with a slight smile. “She wanted nothing more than for you to find love. She wanted you to know what she had with your father. This is exactly what she had in mind.”
Sofia glanced at the sparkling wave then through to the vampire on the other side. Dragomir couldn’t have looked more miserable if he was waiting for a root canal. He stared ahead, not making eye contact with either her or Jankin. His jaw was set and his eyes were darker than she’d ever seen.
“She would not have approved of the way it was made.” She cast a sideways glance at Jankin.
“She would have known—” Jankin began.
“Why did you let him lie?” Sofia pointed toward Dragomir, disturbing the gently rolling wave between them.
“If I had not and the truth was known, you’d never be safe, not even here,” Jankin answered.
“That brings us to fate. I was not supposed to live. You are not God. You had no right.” She could hardly believe she was saying she should die, but that was the reality. She hadn’t been meant to live.
“I don’t believe one’s fate is cast in stone. Every decision affords a new opportunity.”
Sofia stared at Jankin without any sense of how she felt. She’d gone past rage, to heartbreak, to incredulity, to not feeling a damn thing. “And now death waits for me just outside Cader. Poisonous roses grown just for me.” She shook her head, realizing how difficult this situation had become. “Now more people than you or Dragomir or my parents must offer your lives to save me. I can’t let that happen.”
She stood to leave.
“I knew the moment I introduced you to Dragomir you belonged together. If not for that, I’d have never allowed him to bear this burden. You are his true mate. There is none other for him. Nor for you.”
Another lie. Sofia was sure of it. She couldn’t live a life of lies.
“If that’s true, then we weren’t meant to have love.” She walked out the door.
Chapter Thirty-two
The cafeteria was empty, which was just as well. Sofia was in no mood to hide her feelings and put on a professional face. She really wanted to break something.
“You did not honestly think you’d make it out of the building. Did you?” Noelle opened another chart and skimmed a patient’s record.
Sofia bit the spoon as she pulled it out of her mouth, letting her teeth slide along the metal. She’d gotten as far as the stairwell leading up to the ground floor before Fergus caught her. She’d had no choice but to agree to stay with Noelle until the Black Magic Roses had been cleared out of her house and the greenhouse behind the farm.
Apparently, being a mate meant you could be the bossiest prick on the planet and it was acceptable. She’d stood in the stairwell arguing about whether she should or shouldn’t leave Cader with Fergus, Jankin, and Osgar for twenty minutes before Dragomir made an appearance.
“I forbid you to leave the building,” was all he said, then he rushed past her, up the stairs and out onto the ground floor, his black duster flapping in his wake.
Sofia had marched up the stairs demanding to know just who he thought he was but he’d left the building before she’d made it to the top step and out of the fake supply closet. When she’d tried to exit the building the damn sparkles attacked, surrounding her and holding her captive.
“What the—?” She was held suspended a half-foot off the ground until she stopped fighting.
Of course, once her feet hit the floor she tried to leave again and had the same experience. And, stubborn as she was she kept trying to find a way past the damn bond.
It was Noelle who finally tired of the situation and carried her back downstairs. “Come on. Let’s get you some decent clothes.”
So here she sat across from Noelle in the Cader cafeteria wearing borrowed clothes and eating split pea soup at midnight with a swirly-twirly-sparkly dust cloud encasing her.
“It actually seems happy with itself,” Sofia complained.
“Oh, it is. It’s keeping you safely where your mate wants you.” Noelle didn’t bother to look up from the chart.
“I’m irritated.”
“No kidding. Not a soul in the house could have figured that out.” Noelle stacked the chart in the finished pile.
Sofia huffed.
“They’ll be back shortly.” Noelle sat back and smiled. “Ah, these don’t look so bad.” She tapped the charts. “The nurses are doing a fine job with documentation. I am doing a great job with th
is group.”
Not too smug, are you? Sofia tried to keep a straight face. “How do you know?”
“About the charts or the return of the team sent to deal with your roses?” Noelle shuffled the charts around, placing them in alphabetical order.
“The team.” Strained calm coated Sofia’s answer.
“With Dragomir and Jankin and the four wolves there’s no way it will take long to clean out the house.”
“What about the farm?” Sofia wondered if she could possibly get lucky enough to have this whole episode end in one night.
“Jankin sent a contingency to the farm. They’ll wait for the others to finish the task at your house then together they will deal with whatever’s happening on the farm.” Noelle smiled. “Not to worry. Dragomir will be fine.”
“I’m not worried about him,” Sofia lied.
The cloud clung to her. It was like being hugged by a giant glitter storm.
Sofia sighed.
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“Do vampires have radar for that?” Sofia dropped her spoon on her tray.
“Why? Heard it before?” Noelle smiled. “Your bond knows what you need. It’s comforting you. I like to see it work.” She tilted her head. “I’ve only ever gotten to see a bond like this once before when Jade and Dice first came back from their honeymoon. And I only saw it for a few minutes—the length of time it took him to carry her from the car to their quarters.” She grinned.
“Did it ever occur to you that I might be agitated over being stuck here and then strapped to a vampire for eternity?” Sofia balled her napkin and threw it on the tray, too.
“Did it ever occur to you that everyone in this building might be worried about you? Or that everyone here cares for you and your mate? Or that Cader is actually where you belong and not in some unprotected little house by yourself where Jankin and Dragomir can do nothing but worry about you?” Her eyebrows pulled together, and she drummed her long fingers on the stack of files.
Sofia frowned. So now it was her fault they worried about her? She’d never asked for this, never once. It hadn’t occurred to her to request a supernatural husband from the underworld. She rolled her eyes and stared at the parking lot.
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