Page 30 of Bloodstained Chrome

Something that is about to change my way of life forever. Because giving in to it, facing it, means opening my eyes and seeing exactly why my lion calms when I’m touching her.

Chapter

Seventeen

Sibley

The minute Corbin gets Aziz on the phone and utters the word Kakos, all three of them, including Orpheus, appear at the clubhouse, using a power that only Orpheus has ever had until recently, when Aziz was granted it after drinking the nectar of the gods from Apollo. I unfortunately don’t have the same ability.

Upon seeing both of them, they looked ready to commit murder, or at the very least, tear someone’s throat open. The three of us might not need blood to survive, but we’ve drunk plenty of it. At first, I thought I needed it to live, but over the centuries I learned I didn’t need it because I was turned by Orpheus. Though he’s turned others many times since Aziz and me, whatever he did with us, he didn’t do with them, and that’s something I’ve never understood, though I’m grateful for it all the same.

The moment they locked eyes on me, their eyes blazing with rage, I knew what was about to happen. They were ready to lay into me for not telling them everything. Granted, I had told them, vented and ranted about it, but I hadn’t told them about being followed. They’d have put a bodyguard on me instantly and moved me back in with one of them.

I was more than ready to stand up for myself, but I didn’t have to. Primal stood in front of me and ordered Orpheus and Aziz to back off.

It shocked the hell out of everyone else in the room, including me. No one ever spoke that way to Orpheus.

If it came down to a fight, I knew Orpheus and Aziz would have the upper hand. Primal would go down fighting, but he’d go down.

Everyone knew it. Even Primal. So for him to step in front of what would surely be a losing fight sent a clear message to everyone. He wasn’t going to let anything or anyone get to me. And I wonder whether he realizes what he’s done.

Corbin was right to say he was the ideal person to protect me.

Once the tension had died down a bit, Orpheus agreed with Corbin and even said he’d have some of his men, vampires he trusted, help with the search for Kakos.

Part of me wanted neither group to find him. I want Kakos to just be gone. To vanish all over again. I want him to come to the conclusion on his own that he would never get what he wanted.

It was a pipe dream.

Shortly after they arrived and everything had calmed down, Primal put me on the back of his motorcycle and drove us back to my house. I’d never been on the back of a motorcycle before, and it’s an experience I know I would have loved if it had been any other time. Even the part where I held onto Primal, touching him as he guided his bike down the winding roads.

The oddities didn’t end there.

Now, Primal is sitting in my living room, watching my every move.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt this uncomfortable around anyone.

“How’s the head?” he asks, stretching out a little more on my couch, which suddenly looks too small.

“It’s better. I don’t know why I can’t control the influx anymore. Ever since that vision, my abilities have changed.”

“You can still see, though, right? I mean, you still have a link to the future?”

“As far as I can tell, yes, though my brothers have come up with a different theory.”

Primal leans forward, elbows on his knees, fingers clasped together, completely engrossed in what I’m saying. “What’s that?”

“They think my gift may be evolving, that it’s somehow growing stronger. I don’t see how that’s possible, though.”

“Getting stronger?" Primal’s brows furrow, and his head cocks slightly. "You don’t believe them? Maybe you just have to go through this as a transition period or something.”

“I don’t know what to believe. Maybe they’re right. I hope." I pace, hands coming up to run my fingers through my thick black hair. "I’m not going to be of much use if I don’t have my abilities.” I stop at the edge of my living room and lock eyes with him.

“That’s not true. You’re still useful even if you don’t have your seer abilities anymore.”

“In what way?”

He shakes his head and looks away. “You’d still annoy the hell out of me.”