“If only my great grandfather hadn't created that relic,” Rebeka clipped bitterly.
The man gripped her chin and dropped a kiss on her lips. “It's not your fault, darling. What you're doing is making sure that Alister has a safe place to grow up in. A place where he can be what he's supposed to be. A vampire with a witch mother.”
“I have a feeling that was a little bit like an insult.” She giggled as tears filled her eyes, and she turned to face us again. “I love you, Alister. I know that your father is going to do such a great job raising you. I'm leaving you with a gift. Since you seem to love crystals just as much as your father and I…”
The vision faded, and the crystals dimmed around us.
Alister’s jaw ticked as he gripped the locket in his hand.
I slipped my fingers under his to pry them off it and plucked it from his hand. “This is so special.” I stepped behind him and wound the locket around his neck and clasped it back. I stepped back beside him. “Your mother really loves you. And clearly, your father did too.”
“It feels like closure, but it opened another wound I didn’t know I had. I didn't know I had resentment for her. My father never did.”
I nodded. “I can feel it through our bond.”
“I shouldn't feel resentment. Everything she did was for us, for me, and for all of Kalista.”
“But she's your mom. I understand.”
He cleared his throat, flicking his gaze to me. “Rowan and Damien are still searching for the facility holding your dad, right?”
A sigh slipped out of me, and I nodded. “It’s almost been a month, and they haven't found the facility the woman had told us about. It's extremely frustrating.”
“It is, but we're here for you if you want to talk.”
When the human had claimed they took my father to a facility deep in the south of the human territory, I had been so hopeful. At least we had something to go on to find him, but everything we’d tried hadn’t led us to him.
“I don't think I have the energy to talk about it anymore, honestly.”
I hated not being able to do anything when all I wanted to do was help my father. Nobody had been successful locating the facility. Not even Kian, Blair, Jan, Trixie, or Tabitha. They had triedeverything.
“I’m disappointed that you're not going to be in my class again this term.” Alister huffed, pushing his bottom lip out as his fangs dug into it.
“I know. It’s not fun having professors other than you,” I teased as we went deeper into the cave.
He chuckled. “Well, I have to admit, I'm more productive without you in my class.”
I gasped, whipping my head to the side to stare at him. “Why do you say that?”
“Because I'm not distracted by thinking of you bent over my desk constantly.”
My giggle echoed through the cave as my shoe slid on a wet stone.
Thanks to his vampire speed, Alister caught me before my entire body hit the ground, but a stinging pain seared through me.
“Fates!”My leg twisted to the side, and my inner thigh snagged on a sharp crystal sticking out of the floor.
I growled in pain as he hissed from all the blood oozing from the gash.
He held me to his chest and sped us farther into the cave where there was a flat surface of the stone floor, free of debris and stalagmites. He set me down before spreading my thighs and running his tongue over the gash, shooting sparks of pleasure mixed with the pain.
If that crystal had cut any higher… I winced.Ouchwouldn’t have covered it.
“Fuck,” he moaned, pulling away and looking at me with blood smeared on his mouth. “Your blood is too tempting.”
“Fuckis right. It hurts so bad, doesn’t it, little bird? Why don't I feed off some of that pain?” Damien's dark chuckle boomed off the walls, sounding like it was coming from every direction as he stepped out of the shadows behind Alister.
“Damien,” I breathed, catching his glowing silver eyes just as Alister’s head dipped and his fangs embedded into the gash on my inner thigh. “Alister!”
