All Chapters of Blood Bound Vows: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

The car ride was endless. The reception hall door I never stepped out of, and I didn't remember anything. Who dragged me outside, who opened the door to the car? I only recalled Luca’s grip firm at my elbow, the smell of blood still clinging to my skin. “Get in,” he said. I did. The door slammed. Before I had settled into the seat, the car shifted. Sirens wailed somewhere ahead of us. Or behind us. I could not tell. “Is he alive?” I asked. Luca did not answer immediately. “Luca,” I whispered again, sharper this time. “He is alive,” he said. “They stabilized him on the way.” “Stabilized does not equal fine.” “No,” he agreed. “It is not.” My hands trembled in my lap. I stared at them. Blood had dried in the creases of my fingers. Up until now, I hadn't been aware that there was so much. "I should be with him," I told myself. “You will be,” Luca replied. “They took him ahead. We are right behind.” “I should have been in the ambulance.” “You would have been in the way,” he

The morning of his discharge was unreal. Sunlight streamed through the hospital windows, and everything suddenly looked softer with that kind of air. I stood near the foot of Dante's bed with arms folded, watching the nurse check his chart for what felt like the hundredth time. “Vitals look good,” she said. “The doctor will be in soon to sign off.” Dante, propped against the pillows, was already wearing the baggy black shirt Luca had brought with him the previous night. He looked restless, like someone who is trying to sit still too long. “Not like you’re walking out of here like a film hero,” I said. “You are walking slowly and carefully.” “I am walking,” he replied. “You are barely standing.” “I am standing,” he insisted. The nurse grinned and stepped out. I moved closer to him. “Do not push yourself.” “I am not pushing,” he said. “I am leaving.” “Same thing.” He looked at me then, truly looked, as though he had done for days, like the memory of being still in this pla

I knew he was back before anyone mentioned it. The house felt different. The guards stood straighter. The corridors were a kind of tension, a tremor not fear but anticipation. I learned to read the pulse of this empire in the weeks he had been down; now a thrumming pulse swirled beneath my feet. Luca found me in the study, with three phones on the desk and a map illuminated on the screen. “He’s asking for you,” he said. I did not look up. “Is he standing or sitting?” “Standing.” “Then he is fine.” I ended the call I had just been on and closed the laptop. Only then did I rise. Luca looked at me with that same half-concern, half-amusement. “You didn’t even ask how he felt.” “I’ll look for myself,” I said. “If he were weak, he probably would have sent for me silently. He did not.” Luca nodded once. “He wants a meeting. All of us.” “Of course he does.” *****************We walked as one through the hall. When we arrived at the main office doors, Luca

The following morning, the city seemed to have a different flavor. Not peaceful. Not healed. Just plain quiet, like the noise had pulled back to see what would blossom in its place. There was the aftertaste of something done in the air. Something burned out and settled into ash.I faced down a glass of water with no motion in Dante’s office. The room was dank with smoke and clean linen. Luca paced by a window, phone to his ear, his tone low and measured. He was more of a listener than a speaker. When the call was finally resolved, he turned to face me and let me hear it before he opened his mouth.“It is confirmed,” he said. “Every network is running it. The city knows.”I set the glass down carefully. “And the rest of them.”“They are adjusting,” Luca said. “Some are celebrating. Some terrified. Some are already asking who they answer to now.”“They know who they answer to,” I responded quietly.Luca examined me for an instant. “You are calm.”“I am tired,” I answered. “There is a

⚠️Mature scenes ahead A soft, contented hum vibrated in my chest. I was a puddle of warm, satisfied flesh, every muscle lax, my skin still humming from the aftershocks. Dante’s weight was a welcome blanket, his breathing a steady rhythm against my neck.“Mmm,” I murmured, nuzzling into his damp hair. “Don’t move.”He chuckled, the sound a low rumble I felt through my entire body. “I have to, mi corazon. We’re a mess.”I made a noise of protest as he carefully withdrew, the soft shuffling of our separation making me shiver. A fresh trickle of warmth escaped me, a reminder of his possession. He rolled to the side, propping himself up on an elbow to look at me. His dark eyes were soft, sated, but a new heat was already kindling in their depths.“Come,” he said, his voice a gentle command. He slid off the bed, his naked form a sculpture of powerful lines in the dim light. He held out a hand. “Let me wash you. Properly.”The thought of warm water sliding over my sensitized skin was t