Unbound (The Captive #7)(45)

He was often busy with his sketches and designs. He looked at the world and saw things entirely different than anyone else did. Her vision had been enhanced when she’d become a vampire, but she knew Daniel still saw more detail in their environment than she did.

She’d noticed Xavier’s growing interest in her brother when they’d traveled back to Chippman for Jack’s wedding, and started to notice the way her brother watched him too. They were an odd pairing, but then she and Braith hadn’t exactly been normal. Odd pairings could work well and she thought the two of them balanced each other nicely; Daniel with his dreamer ways and Xavier with his fiercely loyal heart.

“How are you feeling today?” Daniel asked her.

“Fine,” she replied and lifted her hand to her forehead in an attempt to further shade the rays of sun filtering through the rafters and causing the dust motes to dance in the air around them.

Daniel went to pull her hand from her forehead, but stopped himself. “We’ll find you something to eat and you’ll feel better,” he said.

“Yes, that will help,” she lied and really hoped he bought it.

Xavier slid the barn door open and stepped outside. “Stay here,” he said crisply over his shoulder to them.

“I’m happy for the two of you,” she whispered when Xavier disappeared. “You both deserve happiness, someone to love.”

“It’s not like that, Aria,” Daniel reluctantly said, as if he didn’t want to burst her bubble. “Not everything is a love connection. Sometimes two people, or beings, or whatever they are, simply need each other.”

“Could it become more?” she asked, unwilling to give up on her hope for the two of them finding love together.

“Perhaps.”

Having just lied to him, she recognized one when she heard it. “Liar.”

He went to take hold of her elbow, but she moved away from him before he could touch her raw skin. Sighing in frustration, he lowered his hand. “I care for Xavier. He is honorable and confident…”

“But?” she prodded when he trailed off.

“I have no intention of ever becoming a vampire or settling down with one. It’s not something I want, and to be honest, neither is a relationship. Not at this time in my life.”

“But one day you might want a relationship with a man?”

“Or a woman. One cannot help who they love after all.”

She knew that better than anyone. She’d fallen in love with a vampire after all, her greatest enemy at the time. “No, they can’t.”

“The day for a relationship may not even come for me.”

She recoiled from his words. “That day will come! I’ll make sure of it.”

“Aria, you more than anyone, know you cannot will something into being. Whatever unfolds along the way is the course we are to follow.”

“I will not lose any more of those I love.”

He opened his mouth to respond then clamped it shut once more. He was right, they both knew it, but he also knew it would be pointless to argue with her right now. Secretly, she’d always hoped Daniel would choose to become a vampire too, if he survived the transformation. Maybe one day he would change his mind and join her and William, but Daniel had always stayed on his course once he chose it, and she doubted that one day would occur.

Max stepped out of the doorway behind them. His sandy hair stood out in spikes around his face as he rubbed at his swollen eyes. “Did I miss anything?” he asked as he stretched his back.

“No,” Daniel replied

Xavier stepped back into the doorway. “It’s clear and I spotted some deer by the lake.”

Aria’s mouth watered, and her fangs tingled as she hurried out the door. They moved quickly through the woods until they arrived at the lake. She separated from Max and Daniel to hunt with Xavier.

When she’d glutted herself on deer blood, she sat back on her heels and wiped her mouth. Xavier stood beside her, his gaze incessantly scanning the trees for any hint of danger. Aria rested her hands on her knees as she surveyed the woods. Satisfied they were still alone, she rose to her feet and returned with Xavier to where Daniel and Max remained hidden within the forest.

“I think we should try to get closer to Sabine again,” she said.

Xavier shot her a dark look. “No. We have a plan. We stick with it.”

“We have to know more about her. Arrogance can’t be her only weakness.”

“Beheading is another,” Max said.

“We’re not 100 percent sure who she is. If it’s not Sabine, we could be walking into something worse than what we’re preparing for. We need more information,” Aria insisted.

Daniel and Max exchanged a look before Daniel spoke, “We can’t risk people.”

“Not people, me.”

“Absolutely not,” Xavier said.

“I don’t have a suicide wish. I can get close to her without her knowing I’m there, and if by some miracle she catches me, she won’t kill me. She’ll slaughter or enslave anyone else, but not me. Not right away anyway, she’ll use me as leverage.”

“If Braith awakens—” Max broke off when her jaw locked.

“And you have been caught, then what?” Xavier demanded, finishing what Max had been unwilling to say.