Bonds of Blood [Lords of the Expanse] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Honor James

  He watched as Xandra’s eyes opened first, blinked at him several times, and then finally took what he offered her. He forced her to drink until finally she said, “Enough, why do they keep shooting me? I want the bull’s-eye taken off me now please,” she whispered before she passed out once again as her body struggled to repair itself.

  Breathing out a sigh of relief, he buried his face in her neck for a long moment as he held her close. Picking her up, he headed for the house, the guards close with his children.

  Up in their room, he laid her down and turned to take the twins. “Thank you,” he told the guards as he cuddled them to him. “Shh, babies, it’s okay,” he murmured as they wound their pudgy little arms around his neck to hold him tightly. “Mommy’s just fine. She’s resting now to let her body heal,” he promised and sat at Xandra’s side so they could watch as she breathed slowly and evenly.

  When her eyes opened, it was to two freshly scrubbed faces breathing on her cheeks, wide eyes looking intently at her in the darkened room. Smiling, she reached up and touched her children’s cheeks. “Hello, darlings.” Andria wrapped her arms around the hand that reached up to touch her face and Dalek wrapped his arms around her neck, both crying as they did so.

  “Andries?” And then she saw him and smiled. He had obviously bathed with the children, his wet hair and the low-slung towel on his body making her momentarily forget her injuries. “Hello, my love,” she all but purred.

  Sitting at her side, he leaned over her to kiss her gently. “Hello, my love,” he whispered against her lips. “You had me and the children scared, love,” he murmured, pulling back so she could see his face and the things he wasn’t saying, like the terror of seeing her bleeding, again, the horror of hearing his children’s screams, and how pale she’d been, his heart nearly stopping.

  “I’m sorry, Andries.” She smiled and stroked her fingers over his lips when he leaned closer. “Did you remove the bull’s-eye that I seem to wear for those with guns and weapons?” She hated being shot, and now that made twice for her since she had met him. “Come on, darlings, let Mommy up and out of bed, please.”

  “Not yet, love,” he told her quietly. “You need to feed more before you can move. Your wounds are sealed over but they need more blood to fully heal.” He was too scared to let her out of bed and knew the twins were picking up on it, thus why they were hanging onto her so tightly.

  “Have you fed enough for the both of us then?” she asked and rubbed both her children’s backs when she pulled her hand back from him. “Because you know my stance on bags.” She shuddered. “Yeah, not gonna work for me, and you know that.”

  “I always feed enough for us both, love,” he murmured against her lips, kissing her lightly before pulling back. “You know I would never make you do anything you dislike with such a passion. Besides”—he smiled faintly, the emotion came and went in the blink of an eye—“it’s much better this way for us both.”

  “All right, little ones. Daddy and Mommy need a moment. Will you go out and ask your uncles Emeril and Nolan to take you down to have milk and cookies from cook?” It was easier to call the guards their uncles because, all in all, that was what they were. They were family, no questions about it. She watched their hesitation. “Daddy will be down shortly to bring you back up.” She wanted to have a moment alone with Andries to feed.

  “Go on, you two,” he encouraged, shifting to ease them both off the bed one at a time. Kissing their cheeks, he watched them toddle to the door and knock on it to gain the guards’ attention. Once they were gone, he turned to his lady wife and pulled her gently to him to hug her. “I was terrified I’d lost you again, love,” he whispered, tears in his voice. His wife could take him to his knees with such ease, and the thought of losing her hurt him so much.

  She nodded and wrapped herself close to him and held him tightly. “I know,” she whispered because she did. She knew that she had been too close. “I never want to be there again, Andries. I never want to be without you. I’m so scared, Andries. Why would someone shoot me? I don’t understand.”

  “I don’t know, my love, but I intend to find out why and make sure that it never ever happens again.” His children’s screams for their mother still echoed in his ears and he knew that the nightmares and fear would be there for a lifetime. For that alone he would make whoever had done this and ordered it pay very dearly. “I thought I’d made it clear the last time, but obviously someone has forgotten what was pointed out. Never again, Xandra. I promise you this, never ever again.”

  “Will you mind if our little ones sleep with us tonight? I’m worried because of…” Well, let’s see, the fact their mother was shot and fell on them, that their little bodies had been covered with their mother’s blood, yep, that would be it. “Well, you know.”

  “Yes, love, I know,” he whispered, hugging her a little closer. “No, I do not mind in the least. I’d feel more at ease if they were close to us.” He was worried about the nightmares that were sure to come. “Feed, love,” he told her as he shifted his head to the side, giving her access to his throat. “You need to heal, my lady.”

  She reached up and pulled him closer, her hands in his hair even as her lips found his neck. She kissed the side of his neck first and then allowed her teeth to slide free and sink deep into his throat hungrily.

  Moaning in pleasure at the bite of her teeth, Andries cupped the back of her head in one hand, the other sliding slowly over her body, needing to feel and touch. It was his way of reassuring himself that she was safe and that she was there with him once again.

  She fed deeply from him before finally sealing the wound with a lick of her tongue and smile on her face. “See, I will heal. I just now need sleep.” It was tugging at her. The way that the Vampires healed was through blood and sleep, and now that she had blood, she needed sleep. “I love you, Andries, so very much I love you.”

  “I love you, too, Xandra,” he murmured as he held her to him. “Sleep, little one, and I will bring the children up to join us for dinner. We will spoil them this night and eat in bed with them and just keep them close.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Ten years later

  Tears welled in her eyes as she looked at their son, so adult-looking in his military uniform and the beast of manhood flaming in his eyes. She watched as he got onto the transport and turned her face into Andries and let the sobs take her. “I hate that our little boy is leaving us,” she whispered under the tears of anguish.

  Wrapping his arm around her, he watched with pride for the man his son had become and sadness for the boy that was no more. “I know, love,” he murmured to her, softly stroking back her hair as he held her close. “But he’s an adult now, and it’s part of growing up.”

  “I know, but it doesn’t make it any easier, Andries. It hurts that we are sending him off to be with the military during a time when he needs us most, knowing how they will train him and remove the emotions that he has. We are losing our laughing and mischievous son, and it hurts.”

  “He will always pull his sister’s hair or put tadpoles in her shoes. It’s who he is, love,” Andries told her softly. “But he has to grow up and find himself as well, Xandra. It’s part of the process, and when he knows who he is and how to protect our world and his soul tie, the gods willing, he will return and drive you crazy with his pranks once more.”

  “Promise, Andries?” Xandra asked as she looked up at him with red, swollen eyes from the tears she shed for the loss of their son and sighed. “It hurts, so badly it hurts, but I have to believe that you are right, Andries.”

  “I am right, love,” he told her as he gently wiped at her face, drying her tears with the pad of his thumb. “He will always be our baby, and he will always have that side to him. It will only be tempered, my love. He’ll learn to control himself and to respect the female that will one day be his.”

  Xandra nodded and sniffled again. “He will have a wonderful woman who will love him for who he is, and the
y will give us grandchildren, right?” She watched as Andria waited until the flier was gone before she ran off to her bedroom to begin to sob, covering her face as she did so.

  “Lots of them, I am sure,” Andries said as he watched his daughter with a heavy heart. “I’ll go talk to her, love,” he murmured softly, knowing that Andria was feeling the beginning of the separation, something that had never happened before to the twins. They’d gone everywhere together, doing everything together, nearly inseparable. “Why don’t you go and lay down for a little while and rest. I’ll come and join you after I talk with her.”

  Xandra nodded. She couldn’t agree more because she couldn’t deal with the pain in her heart, and seeing her daughter like that was hurting her even more. “I love you, Andries.” She felt the tears in her eyes. “This is something no Vampire ever faced before, separation anxiety.”

  “I love you, too,” he said softly, kissing her gently before following after his little girl. Sighing, he knocked on her door and went in despite the watery “go away” from his child. Walking to her bed, he tugged on her hand until she sat and leaned into him to cry. Shifting her to his lap, he held her close as he rocked her back and forth. “It will be all right, baby,” he promised, though how, at that moment, he had no idea.

  Andria restlessly turned in his arms and cried. “He’s so confused, Daddy.” She sobbed against his chest. “Dalek’s hurting and confused and won’t let me help. He won’t let me in, Daddy, and it’s just not fair that he gets to go away to school and I don’t get to go with him. You need to tell them they have to let me be there, too, Daddy.”

  “Oh, baby.” Andries’s chest tightened in pain for his daughter. She and her mother both had the ability to drive him to his knees. “Honey, you know that he’s going in for military training, not a place for you to be. It’s necessary for the males, to help them learn to control the beast inside each of us so that we don’t hurt the ones we love. Give him a couple of days to settle and then try talking to him again. He’ll let you in, Andria, but it will be in his own time. He’s stubborn, little girl, just like his mother.” He said it without even flinching, knowing his wife would have smacked his ears for saying that before laughing.

  “But who’s gonna teach me to get through all of the things that I seem to do wrong, Daddy?” Turning a tear-stained face up, she continued. “I can’t even drink blood from a cup.” And then fresh new tears and sobs as she brokenly said, “He was going to teach me how to drink blood from a cup and not get sick.”

  “Baby girl, you know that your mother or I will gladly teach you,” he said softly as he stroked back her hair. “We are your parents and we will help you to learn anything you want. You just have to ask, little one. You never have to fear that we will be upset with you or disappointed. How could we ever be when we have the most perfect daughter in the world? You are a blessing, Andria, and we will always be here for you,” he murmured, still rocking her, knowing that her upset stemmed more from losing her other half, her twin, than from Dalek not being there to teach her things she didn’t want her parents to know of.

  “But I don’t want you to teach me,” she wailed. “I want Dalek!” Again a fresh tirade of tears as she tossed herself back against her father, sobbing because she felt alone. For the first time ever she felt alone. “How do people do this, Daddy? How can they be born without a brother and feel okay with it?”

  “I don’t know, baby girl,” he whispered, feeling his child’s pain as though it was his own. “But you have to remember, little one, you are the first to have a brother born at the same time. The rest of us, if we were blessed, didn’t have any siblings until a hundred years later.” His thoughts turned to his own brother as his chest tightened in memory.

  “That’s just not fair.” Andria sobbed still and shook her head. “It’s not fair, Daddy. He was supposed to always be here for me and he’s gone.” The child was far too young to understand what was happening to her, or her brother for that matter.

  “Andria, baby, Dalek will always be a part of your life, whether he is here or not. You and he can touch one another no matter the distance. He’s just frightened right now by all the sudden changes in his life. He’s keeping it all in as a male will do, as we are trained to do, and as he’s had to start to learn before his time. Do not hate him for going to learn the control that will one day keep our world safe and his soul tie protected.”

  “It’s just not fair because he has to hide all his emotions and I have to keep mine.” Andria sobbed in her father’s arms for hours until finally, with hiccupping sighs, she fell asleep there in the safety of his arms and lap.

  Shaking his head, Andries sighed as he settled his daughter into bed and lay at her side. He couldn’t leave her, not now. She was so distraught that he knew he’d have to stay for a time. Hopefully his lady wife would come looking for him so she’d know why he wasn’t with her as he should be.

  Xandra had come looking for him and waited until he was settled until she entered and lay on the other side of their daughter, simply wrapping her arm around both their child and her husband. She smiled as she whispered, “I love you, Andries.” Because it was all she could say in that moment.

  Turning his head, he looked at her and smiled slightly. “I love you, too, Xandra,” he murmured. Shifting his hold slightly, he rested a hand over hers where it rested against Andria. Rubbing his thumb back and forth gently, he settled down and knew that it would be a long night.

  Xandra closed her eyes and sighed. “This is going to be a very long time, darling,” she whispered and then opened her eyes to look at Andries. “We will be all right, love. I know that we will, but I think it will take Andria a long time in order to be all right once more.”

  “She’s so put out that Dalek had to go off to the Academy and demanded I make them take her, too,” he said to his wife as he shifted to see her with an ease that wouldn’t hurt his neck.

  “Twins on my home world,” she began slowly, “when they are parted, it’s very hard on them. Twins are connected as closely as soul ties are,” she whispered. “And these two, their connection is so…” She sighed and shook her head. “Their connection is so very tight that it’s hurting her badly. I’m surprised that it’s not hurting Dalek enough to debilitate him.”

  “It likely is,” Andries said as he finished moving to his back so he could hold both of his women close. Stroking Xandra’s hair back, he let out a sigh. “But he’s a little different, love. As a male, he wouldn’t admit it to anyone ever,” he murmured, kissing her forehead.

  “I know, Andries. Believe me, darling, I know.” She could feel her son’s hurt. Even though he didn’t speak to her any longer in her mind, she was still emotionally connected to their son. “Andria still talks to me.” And did she ever. “Lots, and lots.” She rolled her eyes. “But Dalek, Dalek I can feel his hurt, his confusion and pain.”

  “It will ease, love,” he promised softly. “He will find his balance. The Academy will help him to learn it. It will help him to learn to control the beast inside before it fully explodes and blossoms within him, before it can hurt him, his sister, or any other.”

  “I know, Andries, but it doesn’t make it any easier in the right now.” And she knew that he would understand what she was saying. “We will have trouble with her for a while. She and Dalek are still very closely connected, and you know that, right?”

  “Of course I know that and, as I pointed out to her, they always would be,” he murmured. “Once he is a little more settled and feeling less nervous and terrified by all that is happening, he will once more talk to her. It will just take a little time. She needs to be patient or, in lieu of that, since I know it is not her strong suit, we keep her so busy that she doesn’t have time to worry about it.”

  Xandra smiled and nodded. “Well, my love, you’re right about that. She is most certainly not a patient child.” Before he could say anything, she said softly, “She gets that from you, of course.” She winked at him when
he gave her that look and nodded. “Oh yes, I went there, darling.”

  Growling softly at her, he pulled her up higher and nipped at her lip before kissing her. “You are a vicious woman,” he teased softly. “Sleep for a while, love. I have a feeling we won’t be going anywhere for a time.” Especially since their daughter was on his other arm and locked onto him tightly.

  “I know, love. You should rest while you can as well, darling.” Xandra kissed him once more. “Rest while you can, Andries, because I have a feeling Andria has found a new male figure to latch onto for a while, love.”

  “If the nails digging into my arm are any indication at all, I’m betting it’s me,” he murmured, stroking his fingers through his wife’s hair. “I hate to see her so upset. It hurts, Xandra,” he said as he closed his eyes with a sigh.

  “I know, Andries. Be there for her, love. Be her rock and it will make it easier for her.” It was going to cause a connection between father and daughter that wouldn’t have been seen before in the Vampire world, but with Andria and Andries and even Dalek, it was as it should be.

  “Will you be all right with that, love?” he asked, worried that she’d feel left out in the scheme of things. “I don’t want you feeling pushed aside by her. I love you, Xandra, and it worries me that you’ll not be happy.”

  “Our children mean far more to me than anything else, Andries. In my life it is you, our children, and then me and everything else. As long as my children and my husband are content and safe, then I am as well.”

  He smiled at that. “And yet it is my children and wife first and foremost for me,” he murmured with a chuckle. Yawning widely, he shifted a little more to become comfortable. “Sorry, love, sleep now,” he breathed out before he slid into sleep.