“Mind your own business.”
It seems like every single conversation we have these days circles back to this fucking bond. I want to rip it out with my bare hands. “It’s fine.” I continue when it seems like Malachi might argue. “Leave it, please.”
“Look at you, already acting like the heir.” Rylan’s gone before his cold words fully penetrate.
I can’t work up even a half-hearted glare in response. Not when he’s right. Not when I’m strangely grateful the unnatural peace from last night is no longer in play. This Rylan, I understand. When he’s cold, he makes sense. Even the feral, out of control version of him is safer than the shell-shocked man who shared a shower with me. It’s hard enough to keep him at a distance with the bond pulling at me when we actively hate each other. If there’s a softening at all…
To distract myself, I look at Malachi, he doesn’t seem any happier than he did a few minutes ago. I want to storm out of the room to avoid this conversation, too. Unfortunately, that’s not a permanent solution. “I’m sorry about last night.” I rush on before he can say anything. “Not about what happened with Rylan, though I’m sorry it worried you. But I’m sorry about after.”
“Mina, come here.”
I almost don’t. My reasons for choosing this chair instead of the couch remain, but it’s just the two of us now and I miss the feel of his body against mine. I want to blame that on the bond, but I’ve been drawn to this vampire since before it snapped into place. “We need to talk about it.”
“We will.” He motions with his fingers again, beckoning me. “Come here. Please.”
Please.
Have I ever heard Malachi utter that word? I don’t think so. That, more than anything, gets me up and moving around the coffee table to take his hand. He tugs me down to straddle him, but there’s nothing sexual in the move. It’s as if he wants the comfort of touching me as much as I crave touching him.
“I didn’t know I could do that,” I whisper.
“I suspected it was possible.”
I blink. “You didn’t think to say something?”
“Suspecting something and knowing it for truth are two different things, little dhampir.” His gaze coasts over my face as if memorizing my features. “I won’t say I liked the feeling, but if you hadn’t done something, I might have killed Rylan. I…wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“Malachi.” A bitter little laugh slips free. “We are such a mess.”
“It’s no surprise there’s a learning curve on this. There is on all magic.”
“I wouldn’t know.” Up until a month ago, I thought I hadn’t inherited any magic at all despite the fact most dhampir children of Bloodline vampires get some kind of magical skill. Based on my father’s Bloodline, I should be able to glamour people. Instead, I was thought a dud and sent to Malachi as a brood mare.
Apparently my seraph blood stifled or overpowered the vampire genetics. I’m still not sure which is the truth. I don’t know if I’ll ever be sure.
The whole thing makes my head hurt if I think about it too closely.
“Mina.” Malachi waits for me to look at him to continue. “We’ll figure it out. Together. I’m not prepared to hold missteps against you while you’re exploring the parameters of your powers. Do you intend to compel me again?”
“No!” I swallow hard and temper my tone. “Absolutely not.”
“That’s all that matters. Consider yourself forgiven.” He hesitates. “I’m…sorry…as well.”
His hesitance makes me smile a little. We really are an unmitigated mess. I glance at the doorway that the other two left through. “I hope Wolf’s able to find that demon he was talking about. It could be the solution we need.”
Malachi goes tense beneath me. “Are you really that eager to be rid of me?”
Chapter 5
Eager to be rid of him? Is he joking? I crave Malachi like a fever in my blood. Even now, I can’t help running my hands down his chest, tracing the lines of his muscles beneath his white shirt, so similar to the one I’m wearing right now. “You should be happy there’s a chance to negate the bond.”
“You’re so quick to forget what I said before we left my home.”
I sit back and stare. I don’t understand why he’s angry about this. “Being forcibly bonded is not something anyone wants.”
“Don’t tell me what I want, little dhampir.” He coasts his hands up my thighs, beneath the hem of the shirt, to settle on my hips, tugging me until I’m pressed tightly against him. “We will explore this option if you insist, but I won’t allow you to bargain anything you can’t afford to lose.”
I sigh, the sound almost a whimper as he rocks me against his hardening cock. “The price will be high regardless. That’s to be expected.”
“All the same.”
I should just let him sweep me away with sex like he has every other time my stress winds me too tightly. I frown. “You were never this good at reading me before.”
Just like that, his expression shuts down. “You’re easy enough to read, Mina.”
His lack of tell is a tell all its own. I put my hands on his shoulders and stare down at him. “Malachi, you missed blatant queues when I first moved in with you. Not all of that was intentional, so don’t lie to me and tell me it was.” When he still doesn’t say anything, I press. “I thought the only side effect of the bond was being able to feel proximity. And now apparently my being able to command you.”
“The magic you used on me last night might not be linked to the bond. Your father’s glamour isn’t just changing people’s visual perceptions. He can command them, too.”
I know that, have experienced it, but somehow the fact I might be using a vampire power never really occurred to me. Still… I shake my head, trying to focus. “Stop trying to distract me. We’re talking about the bond.”
He finally says, “Feeling proximity to each other is a side effect of the bond, yes.”
Careful. So fucking careful. Which means he’s hiding something and not even doing it well. “Enough of this.” I start to rise, but he clamps his hands on my hips, holding me in place. I glare. “I’m going to go ask Wolf if he can feel my emotions. He won’t lie to me.” If only because he’ll enjoy the chaos the confirmation will bring about.
“Mina.”
“Malachi.” I match his censoring tone. “I am not a child, and if you hide things from me, I’m going to resent it. Tell me the truth.”
His sigh is nearly imperceptible. “Yes, I can…sense things.”
“Things being my emotions.” The sheer intrusion of it has my chest getting tight. This bond is bad enough. Knowing where they are at all times is horrible. I never thought to ask if it goes both way, but of course it does. They know where I am without fail. It’s how they recognize exactly how far the bond stretches before things get painful.
“Things being your emotions,” he confirms. “Not all of them. I get spikes of pleasure or anger or fear. It only seems to be the extreme versions of them.”