Unbound (The Captive #7)(87)

“I understand,” he said as he smoothed the lose strands of her hair back from her face. “When I first woke, I nearly killed Daniel and Jack.”

“Are they all right?” she demanded.

“Yes, but I do owe them an apology.”

She smiled at him as she cuddled closer. “That might shock them more than you rising from the dead did.”

“I think you’re right.”

“Braith, how is it possible you and your family are able to do such a thing?”

“I don’t know. I’m sure Sabine has some knowledge of it, but I don’t think Atticus had any.”

“I don’t either,” she said. “Goran is your uncle, but he’s not as powerful as you.”

She’d already revealed that to him, but a small kick of shock still went through him when she said it again. He had an uncle, who was just as malicious as many of his other family members had been.

“No, he’s not,” Braith replied. “He may be around my age, as I feel he is old, but whatever is in Sabine, was in Atticus, and is in me, is not in Goran or Jack. I think that whatever it is that makes the three of us different than other vampires, is why I was able to see you that day on the stage without having tasted your blood first.”

“Hannah can’t walk in the sun without sharing Jack’s blood on a regular basis,” she said.

“Exactly, but something in my blood allowed me to see you, and to regain my vision without your blood.”

“It’s because you are the first born of your line,” she murmured and stifled a yawn.

“You have to rest.”

“I’m afraid if I close my eyes, I’ll wake to find this really was all only another dream of you.”

“It’s not,” he promised.

“You came back stronger,” she said as she curled up on her side again and her eyes drifted closed. Her lids popped back open at once and her hand clenched around his as if it were a lifeline. “I can taste it in your blood. It is more powerful. Your vision and scars are completely healed.”

“Yes. I also heal faster and move a lot faster. There were fourteen vampires in the woods. I killed them all.”

She burrowed closer against him. “They couldn’t have been allowed to live.”

“No, they couldn’t.”

When you d-died,” her voice broke on the word. “Did you know?”

“I knew I was dying,” he said as he recalled those last moments of coherency before he’d woken again in the cave. His hand rested on her shoulder, and his fingers slid over her silken skin as she rolled over to look at him. “I tried so hard to stay with you, to not go, but I couldn’t stop it.”

“You lived for a while after you were shot. I had to take out the arrow that was in your heart.”

“You will never have to do something like that again.”

“We don’t know what the future holds.”

“I will do everything I can to make sure you never go through such a thing again. No matter what happens, not even death will keep us apart.”

She started beneath him, her eyes widening as she gazed at him. “I had a dream about us in the garden, all the roses turned black around us, and you said those words to me then too.”

“I am wise even in death,” he whispered and bent to taste her lips once more.

She smiled at him when he pulled away. Her fingers ran over the stubble lining his cheek as he watched her. “You are.”

“Rest, love,” he whispered and kissed her nose.

She rolled over to stare at the wall for a minute before closing her eyes again. This time, they didn’t reopen as sleep finally claimed her.

***

Braith

Braith closed the door behind him as he stepped from the room and into the main area once more. There were far less humans in here now; in fact, the only ones remaining were Daniel, Timber, Max, and the girl.

He didn’t know who she was, but he may have to kill her, he realized as he studied her pale face. The knowledge of him being able to rise from the dead was best kept under wraps. There was no way of knowing how others would react to it, how many would try to kill him because of it, or worse, how many would go after his and Aria’s child while they were still young and vulnerable.

They all knew Atticus had come back, but many believed Atticus hadn’t actually been dead when they’d placed him in the ground.

Jack lifted his head from Hannah’s hair as she slept against his chest. Tempest sat up in William’s lap, her brown eyes following his every move when he walked over to the table to stare down at the crude drawing on it. Xavier watched him with his arms folded over his chest and the light of the lantern behind his shoulder flickering over him.

“I am sorry about your throat and what happened in the cave,” Braith said to Daniel as he lifted his gaze from the table. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, or you,” he said to Jack.

“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” Jack replied.

“The bruises will fade,” Daniel said.

“Aria informed me of everything that has been going on here,” he said.

“Hopefully the storm breaks soon,” William said. “It will slow down the runners we send to gather the troops and we have to send them soon. We can’t take the risk of the palace walls being breached and those within being unable to protect themselves from Sabine.”