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Author: EMPRESSBIMS
last update publish date: 2026-01-29 23:42:54

ADAM

A WEEK AFTER

I woke to an empty bed.

Panic seized me before I heard water running in the bathroom. Eve had been getting up constantly at night now, the baby pressing on her bladder.

Seven and a half months pregnant, and she was enormous. Beautiful, glowing, and enormous.

I was about to go back to sleep when I heard it. A sharp intake of breath. Then silence.

"Eve?" I was out of bed instantly, at the bathroom door. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. Just... give me a minute."

Something in her voice wa
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  • Bound by Fangs and Blood   removing soon

    EVE The nightmares came back worse than before. Not just mine. Adam's too. We'd wake up at three AM, both of us gasping, reaching for weapons that weren't there. "The factory again?" he'd ask. "The factory. You?" "Same." We'd lie awake together after that. Too wired to sleep. Too exhausted to do anything productive. Dr. Reeves said it was PTSD. Recommended medication. More frequent therapy sessions. Time to process the trauma. "You killed someone," she told me during one session. "Not in immediate self defense. Not in the heat of battle. You made a choice to end a life. That's different from other violence you've experienced. Your brain is trying to reconcile the person you think you are with the person who could do that." "I don't regret it. She was evil. She deserved to die." "Believing something is right doesn't mean it doesn't affect you. You can know intellectually that you made the correct choice while still struggling emotionally with having made it." Dr. Reeves made

  • Bound by Fangs and Blood   96

    EVE Leaving the Void was harder than entering it. We packed up everything we could carry, which wasn't much. Lucia's blankets, some food, the supplies the witches had given us. Adam dismantled the makeshift crib carefully, like he was hoping we might come back someday. "Ready?" Circe asked, standing by the door with her pack. I looked around the cabin one last time. Two weeks. Just two weeks of peace and normalcy. It didn't seem like enough. "As ready as I'll ever be," I said, adjusting Lucia in the carrier strapped to my chest. We walked back through the forest toward where we'd entered. The journey took longer this time because we kept stopping to rest. Lucia was heavier now, and I wasn't used to carrying her for long distances. "There," Adam said, pointing ahead. "That's the oak tree. The boundary." We stood there for a moment, none of us moving. "Last chance to turn back," Circe said. "No," Adam said firmly. "We made a decision. We stick to it." We crossed the boundary

  • Bound by Fangs and Blood   95

    EVE Madam Bella cornered me three weeks after we returned to Umbra Pack. "We need to talk," she said, blocking the doorway to Lucia's nursery. "About what?" I was holding a bottle, prepared to feed Lucia on schedule. Six ounces every four hours. The routine was efficient. "About you. About what's happening to this family." Bella crossed her arms. "Adam is falling apart. He barely sleeps. Barely eats. Just watches you like he's waiting for someone who isn't coming back." "That's an accurate assessment. The person he's waiting for no longer exists." "Stop that. Stop talking like you're some kind of robot." Bella's voice rose. "You're still Eve. Still a mother. Still a wife. You're just hurt." "I'm not hurt. I'm empty. There's a difference." I tried to move past her but she didn't budge. "Please move. Lucia needs to eat in three minutes." "Lucia needs her mother. Not a feeding schedule." Bella grabbed my shoulders. "Look at me. Really look at me." I met her eyes. Registered conc

  • Bound by Fangs and Blood   94

    CHAPTER 56 ADAM Sanctuary looked like a prison. High walls. Armed guards. Magical barriers so thick I could feel them pressing against my skin from a hundred yards away. "This is where you bring people to help them?" I said as we pulled through the gates. "This is where we bring people too dangerous to exist in normal society," Dr. Cross said bluntly. "But also yes, where we help them. The two aren't mutually exclusive." The vehicle stopped in front of a massive concrete building. No windows on the first three floors. Everything designed to contain, not comfort. "I don't like this," Circe muttered. "None of us do. But we're here now." Eve held Lucia closer. Our daughter hadn't moved or made a sound the entire drive. Just stared with those dead eyes. Inside, the facility was sterile. White walls, white floors, the smell of antiseptic and magic. Guards everywhere. Cameras in every corner. "Room 347," Dr. Cross told the intake guard. "Family suite. They stay together." "The ch

  • Bound by Fangs and Blood   93

    CHAPTER 87LUCIAMama was different now.Not bad different. Just different.She jumped at loud noises. Checked exits whenever we entered a room. Couldn't sleep in their actual bedroom because the ceiling made her panic.I understood. Kind of. She'd been buried alive for three weeks. That would make anyone scared of small spaces and heavy things.But it was still weird seeing Mama scared of anything.She'd always been the brave one. The healer who ran toward danger. The one who protected everyone else.Now she needed protecting sometimes. Needed reminding she was safe. Needed help when the panic attacks came.Sophie handled it better than me. She was good at being gentle. At saying the right comforting things.I wasn't good at that. I was good at being direct and honest and sometimes too blunt.Like when Mama had a panic attack during breakfast and I said, "You're breathing too fast. That's not efficient oxygen intake. You need to slow down."Papa gave me a look. "Lucia, that's not hel

  • Bound by Fangs and Blood   92

    EVEThe first week back was harder than I expected.Not the physical recovery. My vampire healing handled that. Ribs mended. Internal injuries sealed. Within days I was physically fine.The mental recovery was different.I couldn't sleep in our bedroom. The ceiling felt too close. Too heavy. Like it might collapse at any moment.The second night home, I woke up screaming. Clawing at nothing. Convinced I was buried again.Adam held me while I hyperventilated. "You're safe. You're home. The ceiling isn't falling.""I know that logically. But my body doesn't believe it.""Then we move. Sleep somewhere else until you feel safe again."We moved to a ground floor guest room with high ceilings and multiple exits. It helped. Slightly.But the nightmares didn't stop.Every night I was back under the rubble. Crushed. Trapped. Unable to breathe or move or escape.I'd wake up gasping. Sometimes crying. Sometimes silent and frozen.Adam never complained. Just held me. Talked me through it. Reminde

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