“Holy fucking shit, Lachlan,” I whimper, “what the hell did they do to you?”
I run my stunned gaze all over him, trying to comprehend how this could happen to a person in just over a month. He looks like he’s been starving for years. His cheeks are hollow, and his eyes are sunken and swimming with pain. His golden, light-tan skin is sallow, and he’s so emaciated and fragile looking, I’m terrified he’s going to break if he even tries to move. Lachlan sags against the wall of the cell, proving that just when I think he can’t look worse, he does.
I snatch the canteen from the ground, ignoring my protesting injuries, and hastily screw the top off. I offer him the canteen and then press it closer to his mouth when he makes no effort to take it.
“You said they don’t ever give you anything like this, and you clearly need to get hydrated way worse than I do,” I encourage.
Lachlan’s emerald-green gaze settles on mine, and he watches me for a minute before leaning in. I press the mouth of the canteen to his chapped lips and tilt it up slowly. Lachlan swallows a gulp down and then coughs and chokes on his second attempted mouthful. I lean forward and cradle his head as his lungs fight against the liquid he just aspirated. And I’m worried his brittle ribs are going to snap with each violent cough that wracks his body.
“What the hell is that?” he croaks, and then he stares at the canteen like it just betrayed him somehow.
I bring the canteen up to my nose and sniff, prepared to inhale something disgusting, judging by the grossed out look on Lachlan’s face. There’s definitely a hint of something deep and masculine, which rules out water, but I have no idea how to place the distinct scent that sends tendrils of recognition through me. I take a sip of the canteen’s contents, and a rich, somewhat sweet flavor explodes on my tongue, immediately cluing me in to what this is.
“It’s blood,” I tell Lachlan, offering him more, and his face goes from disgusted to horrified.
“Why the hell would you offer that to me? Better yet, how the hell do you know what blood tastes like?” his question whips out like the accusation it is, and I flinch back.
Well, it looks like they didn’t starve the judgmental asshole out of him. Yay for me.
“I was given some blood after they brought me here. It helped me heal, and from the looks of things, you could go for a shit ton of that right now,” I observe, not admitting that I didn’t willingly take the blood I was first offered either.
The corner of Lachlan’s mouth turns up in an unmistakable sneer, and I huff out a tired sigh. “Whether you like it or not, you need all the help you can get. I don’t know what they did to you, but you look like death.”
Lachlan turns away from me, and his eyes fix on a spot on the wall. It’s clear he’s back to shutting me out, and I fight back the flash of anger it evokes in me. I debate for a second about pinning Lachlan’s head down and forcing him to drink like Siah did to me. He’s definitely weak enough. I could probably get away with it, but a piece of me feels like there’s no point fighting for someone who won’t fight for themselves. I shake my head at him.
“This could very well save your life. Are you seriously telling me that you choose your fucked up stubborn pride over living?” I ask, exasperated. He doesn’t answer, just continues to stare blankly at the wall.
I scoot away from him until my bruised back is flush with my corner of the cell. I raise the canteen to him and toast. “Here’s to the stubborn-to-the-point-of-stupidity gene dying with you.” I bring the canteen to my lips and drain every last drop of blood. My body sings as it hits my system, and I immediately feel better. I take a deep breath testing my hurt ribs, and I’m relieved when the pain is duller than it was before. I pat at my bloody nose and lip, and my hand comes away blood free, my face not nearly as tender as it was. The fact that I’m not revolted, but actually enjoy the taste of what’s in the canteen, is probably proving to Lachlan that I’m some kind of baby demon. The kind of baby demon that’s solely responsible for the death of his brother, but I just don’t give a fuck anymore.
That thought triggers something in me, and my head snaps to Lachlan. “Have you seen Vaughn? Do you know for sure what happened to him?” I ask, and for some reason, my eyes bounce around the barely lit cell like maybe Vaughn is hidden in a different dark corner I just haven’t noticed yet. “Where’s Keegan?” I fire off as well, adding to the pile of unanswered questions when my frantic searching clues me in that he’s missing from this room too.
Lachlan inhales a pained gasp and clutches at his chest. The sound is so full of torment that I’m instantly alarmed. I move toward him and then stop myself.This is Lachlan, he’s not going to want to be comforted by me.I sit there awkwardly, not sure what to do or how I feel about second guessing my initial instinct to offer support. In the end, I sit back down and watch him cautiously. Lachlan shakes his head, and his green eyes grow haunted.
“Vaughn’s gone. He’s been gone for a…” Lachlan pauses and his breath stutters. “He’s been gone for a while. I…I should have known, but I just kept hoping.”
Lachlan’s voice breaks, and he covers his gaunt face in an effort to hide the emotion that’s pouring out of him.
My chest feels heavy, and surprisingly, my eyes start to sting. I press my thumb and my forefinger against my closed lids and breathe through the sadness that’s crashing into me. I told myself that Vaughn was probably gone. The likelihood that he would still be alive after all this time wasn’t high, and yet hearing Lachlan profess it, fucking hurts. I’m stunned by exactly how much it hurts.
From the minute I found out that Grier and Vaughn were my real parents, I’ve tried not to think about them too much. I didn’t see the point in breaking down over people I will never meet, or focusing too much on what my life could have been if I had been raised by them instead of Beth. It would be easy to romanticize how much they would have loved me and how beautiful everything would have been, but there’s no way of knowing what might have been different. Things are the way they are, and that’s that. Or so I thought.
A sob sits at the back of my throat, and in this moment, I realize just how much I was still hoping that my family situation could be different. Grier is gone, Laiken is gone, Talon is gone, and apparently a piece of me I was refusing to look at was desperately hoping that, against the odds, Vaughn was still alive. That somehow he was out there in the world, wanting and hoping for…me.
I watch Lachlan cry into his skeletal hands, and I realize just how badly I wanted a dad. Tears stream silently down my face, and I breathe through the loss I feel about the unknown. The possibility and hope are gone now, and I ache from the brutal finality of it all.
“They took Keegan over a week ago. I don’t know if he’s in another cell or if he’s…” Lachlan trails off, and he leans back into the darkness of the corner, hiding his grief from me.
“I was told Keegan was still alive,” I reassure Lachlan. Siah could have been completely full of shit, but I hope against hope that he was telling me the truth. I debate for a second about addressing my next thought but decide what have I got to lose?
“I read that when you’re Bound to another caster, you feel it when they pass?” I tell Lachlan quietly. “You would know if something happened to him.”
Shadows hide Lachlan’s features, and I have no idea if my attempt at reassurance garners any reaction from him. Silence fills the stone and dirt room, and I get lost in thought.
“How did you know that he and I…” Lachlan finally inquires, and I wonder how much it’s killing him to have to ask me.
“I suspected in the library after you choked me. The way Keegan was comforting you was more intimate than it was with the others. He was always defending you, following your lead, and neither of you ever talked about females,” I explain. “At first I thought maybe you two were hiding it from the whole coven, but then I realized that you just didn’t trust me to know.”
Stifling quiet envelops the last of my words, and I wait to see if Lachlan will say anything. I don’t know why a flash of frustration sparks through me when he stays silent. I should fucking know better than to think he’s going to open up to me.
