Seraphina pauses for a moment, her brow furrowed in deep thought.
I plop onto the sofa cushions, bouncing under my weight. "But...?" I prod, my eyebrows waggling with drunken curiosity.
Seraphina meets my gaze, her golden eyes swirling with a kaleidoscope of emotions. "But... I do feel something. Something I can't quite put my finger on, something that both terrifies and thrills me in equal measure. It's like... like a spark—" She shakes her head, her hair cascading around her face in a curtain of gold silk. "No, this isn't right. It can't be right."
I let out a long-suffering sigh, my head spinning slightly from the alcohol. "Ok, listen up. I know what you're used to and what Atheria has drilled into your pretty little head, but times have changed. Some vampires have evolved. No offense, but you guys just sit up in the sky with your halos and harps, not really keeping up with the Joneses down here."
Seraphina huffs, her feathers ruffled by my less-than-flattering assessment of her kind. "We are not allowed to spy or watch all the time, it goes—"
"Against the rules, I know, I know," I interject, waving my hand dismissively. "But let's be real here, Sera. Look at me and Rhyland. We're mated, and it's freaking magical."
I lean forward, my eyes locked on Seraphina's, trying to make her see the truth in my words. "If I've got this right, fate is calling the shots here, not us. We don't get to pick and choose who we fall for, who our souls are bound to for all eternity."
Seraphina sits on the sofa beside the window, the breeze ruffling her hair. "Yes. And I'm happy for you. But they're tied to darkness, Dani. We've had this discussion already when I warned you about mate-bonding with Rhyland."
"Ah, yes, you did," I acknowledge, a sly grin on my face. "But you also said that Rhyland is not lost to the darkness and still has light in his soul. Did you not?"
Seraphina shifts uncomfortably, her gaze darting away from mine. "I... I may have said something to that effect, yes."
"Ha!" I crow triumphantly, pointing at her with a slightly wobbly finger. "So, if Rhyland can have light in his soul, why can't Lucian? Why can't any vampire, for that matter? Maybe it's time for Atheria to update their playbook, hmm? You can't just paint them all with the same broody, bloodsucking brush, Seraphina. That's like saying all angels are stuck-up, rule-following prudes with sticks up their asses."
Seraphina gasps, her hand flying to her chest in offense. "Dani!"
I wave her off, my inhibitions lowered by the alcohol coursing through my veins. "Oh, don't get your halo in a twist. I'm just saying maybe it's time to open your mind a little. Trust what you feel, not what you are told."
Seraphina blushes, her eyes darting away from mine. "I don't know, Dani. It's all so... confusing. I've never feltthis—whatever this is—before."
I lean forward, my hand resting on her knee in a gesture of drunken camaraderie. "That's because you've never met your mate before, silly. Trust me, I know exactly how you feel. When I first met Rhyland, I was all kinds of confused and conflicted. But then I realized that sometimes, the heart wants what it wants. And mine? It's screaming for that broody, possessive, Viking alpha vampire like he's the last slice of pizza at 3 AM."
Seraphina giggles, her hand covering her mouth in a vain attempt to stifle the sound. "Dani, you're terrible."
"No, I'm honest," I correct her, my words slurring slightly. "And honestly? I think you and Lucian would be perfect together. He needs someone to keep him in line, and you need someone to loosen you up a bit. It's a match made in... well, maybe not heaven, but definitely in some cosmic, fate-driven universe."
Seraphina falls silent, her gaze drifting out the window to the endless expanse of the sea.
"Seraphina, I need you to listen to me," my voice low and intense. "Love is love, no matter what form it takes or who it's between. And if fate has decided that your soulmate is a vampire, then who the hell is Atheria to say otherwise?"
I sit back, my arms crossed over my chest, my expression defiant and unapologetic. "So maybe it's time for Atheria to get with the program, to stop judging an entire species based on some outdated, narrow-minded bullshit. Because I gotta tell you, Sera, if they can't see the beauty and the magic in a love like mine and Rhyland's? Then maybe they're the ones who need to do some soul-searching, not us."
My head lolls against the back of the sofa; I can't help but smile at the thought of Seraphina and Lucian together. They may be an unlikely pair, but something tells me they're exactly what each other needs.
"I always assumed that my mate—my Soul-Tie, would be someone from Atheria. Never in a million years would I have imagined this," Seraphina says, her voice tinged with wonder and disbelief.
I quickly sit up straight, my alcohol-addled brain latching onto the mention of theSoul-Tie. "Seraphina, that reminds me, how exactly does this whole Soul-Tie thing work for you guys up there?"
Seraphina ponders my question for a moment, furrowing her brow in thought. "Honestly, I haven't a clue. With your father and mother, they weresupposed to find someone to help with their Soul-Tie, but you know what happened with that," a hint of sadness creeps into her voice. "Since I can remember, our kind haven't needed to tie ourselves to one another, as we've stayed safe and secluded in Atheria, far away from everything."
I chew on my bottom lip, my mind whirring with possibilities. If a vampire's mate bond is, in fact, a Soul-Tie, then that would explain why Calypso only mentioned Erik and Lucian's souls being untethered while Rhyland's was conspicuously absent from her little roll call of unbound vamps.
According to Erik and Rhyland, vampires haven't had a true mate since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, with Rhyland and I being the freaky outliers. Oh, and now Lucian and Seraphina are joining our exclusive club. If that's the case, Rhyland and I are already Soul-Tied. It's like the universe is screaming at us, "Hey, dumbasses, you're Soul-Tied! Congrats, now go forth and make sweet, sweet love!"
I turn to Seraphina, my expression serious. "Sera, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I truly believe that a mate bond with vampires is, in fact, a Soul-Tie. And if that's the case, then you need to understand that if you don't accept Lucian's bond or tie yourself to him in the way that fate seems to be pushing you towards, bad things can happen to him. Like, really bad things. And as much as he drives me crazy sometimes, I kind of love the big idiot, and I don't want to see him suffer."
Seraphina's eyes widen, her face paling at the implications of my words."What... what kind of bad things?" her voice barely above a whisper.
I sigh, running a hand through my hair. "I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. But from what Rhyland has told me, a vampire who is rejected by their mate, who is denied the bond that their very soul craves... it can drive them mad. It can twist, warp, and turn them into a shell of their former selves. And I don't want that for Lucian. I don't want that for you, either."
This gets me thinking—What if all these vampires who have gone off the deep end, diving headfirst into the bloodlust and evil pool, did so because they lost their mate? Or worse, get rejected by them? Or, even more tragically, couldn't hold out long enough to find their one true love?
