Semua Bab Bound by Fangs and Blood: Bab 41 - Bab 50

EVE I knew something was wrong the moment Adam walked through the door. His face was a careful mask, but I'd learned to read him. The tension in his shoulders, the tightness around his eyes, the way his hand automatically went to his weapon. "What happened at the border?" "Nothing we can't handle." He crossed to me, his hand going to my stomach like always. "How are you feeling? Any more bleeding?" "Don't change the subject." I caught his hand. "Adam, what's going on?" He looked at me for a long moment, clearly debating whether to tell me. Then he sighed. "The Council hardliners are organizing against us. They're planning to attack within the week to take our daughter." The words hit like a physical blow. "Attack? As in war?" "As in fifty packs' worth of warriors coming to take our baby by force." His jaw clenched. "But it's not happening. I'm calling in every ally we have. Circe brought vampires to help defend us. We'll be ready." "Fifty packs." My hand went to my

EVEI woke up not knowing where I was, which had started to feel normal in a way that scared me. A different cabin, smaller than the last one, the ceiling low and the light coming through the window gray and thin. My body felt like it had been wrung out and left to dry. My head was worse. I lay there for a moment just breathing, taking inventory of myself the way you do when you're not entirely sure what you'll find.Circe was quiet. Not gone, never gone, but sitting back somewhere with the patient stillness of something that knows it doesn't need to rush.You can't fight forever, she said, almost gently. Almost like she meant it kindly.I pushed her back and got up.The voices reached me before I got to the doorway. Adam, Lucian, Crystal, Marcus, all of them huddled around the table with a book open between them, speaking low and fast the way people do when they're trying to solve something impossible before they run out of time. I stood in the doorway and watched them for a second an

The dawn had barely broken when the ritual began.Eve stood at the center of the circle with the ancient symbols drawn around her feet and the candles burning low on all sides and her arms bare, the dark veins covering them from wrist to shoulder, reaching up toward her collarbone, branching and spreading with every hour that passed. She had stopped trying to cover them. There was no point anymore.Lucian stood across from her, the ritual book open on the ground between them, his face pale and set with the look of someone who has decided to do a hard thing and intends to see it through. He had been her ally in this. She had asked him to be and he had agreed and she knew it was costing him something, standing here while his brother screamed her name from the edge of the clearing.She could hear Adam behind her. She did not turn around.Marcus and Crystal held him back and his voice broke on her name over and over and she let herself feel it, all of it, every bit of the love in that soun

EVEEverything happened too fast.One moment we were standing in Dr. Chen's clinic, the next Adam was throwing me and Lucia behind an examination table while Circe engaged the vampires."Stay down!" Adam roared, shifting into his massive black wolf.I crouched over Lucia, my body shielding her as glass and debris rained down. She started crying, her little face scrunched up, and I felt power surge from her tiny body."No, baby, not now," I whispered frantically. "Please not now."But Lucia's fear triggered another energy burst. Golden light exploded from her, throwing back one of the attacking vampires."Did that baby just..." one vampire started."Told you she was special," the lead vampire snarled. "Get her. NOW!"Adam tore into them, his wolf form massive and deadly. But there were three of them, all older vampires with speed and strength to match his.Circe was fighting two at once, her movements a blur. "Eve! Take Lucia and run!""I'm not leaving you!""You have to! Get her somew

EVE I woke up to silence. That was wrong. Lucia never slept silently. She snored, made little grunts, moved around in her sleep. But right now, there was nothing. I shot up in bed, panic flooding through me. The bassinet beside our bed was empty. "Adam!" I shook him awake. "Where's Lucia?" He sat up immediately, alert. "What?" "She's gone! The bassinet is empty!" We both scrambled out of bed, racing into the main room of the cabin. What we found made us both stop short. Circe was sitting in the rocking chair by the fireplace, holding Lucia. Both of them were glowing softly, that same silver and gold light from yesterday. But this time it was controlled. Gentle. Almost peaceful. "What are you doing?" Adam demanded. "Teaching her," Circe said without opening her eyes. "She woke up an hour ago. I felt another surge building, so I came to help before she exploded again." "You should have woken us." "You needed sleep. Besides, this is something only I can do." Circe's eyes open