Page 16 of A Bond Beyond Blood (The Butcher’s Daughter Trilogy #1)

J ack

Bloody and aching, my body riddled with bruises and injuries I hadn’t yet had time to assess, I struggled to make sense of the sight before me. Vinny, my trainer, my fiercely protective friend , was on his knees before the vampire who’d just beaten me horribly.

Even in my battered state, I recognized the gravity of this moment, though I didn’t know what it might mean.

Eli had returned, beaten the shit out of me, and Vinny hadn’t retaliated, hadn’t fought for me.

No, instead, he’d kneeled .

I forced my eyes open, struggling against the throbbing pain in my face and hoping I imagined it all.

Maybe I’d been hit harder than I realized—

Nope. Vinny still kneeled before that monster, the sight of him on his knees sending a wave of a different sort of pain through my chest.

“Oh, do get up,” Eli drawled. “The girl appears quite scandalized by your show of fealty.”

Brows furrowed, Vinny began to rise to his feet and my eyes closed again of their own accord, pulling me back into that place between consciousness and slumber.

The vampires murmured to one another, too softly for me to pick up on any specific words or phrases, but I was too tired to strain to hear them anyway.

Vinny’s irritation was obvious in his tone, and Eli’s indifference only angered him further.

If anyone had asked me a little over a year ago if I would ever allow two vampires into my apartment, we would have had a good laugh and moved right the hell on, because no , not fucking likely.

But oh, how time can change circumstances. A year ago, my father’s dying words had altered my life completely, setting things into motion that would bring me to this moment—though I hadn’t fully realized it then.

Like my father predicted, Eli had come for me.

And, even though I’d planned for his return, trained for this fight, a part of me had held out hope that he wasn’t real. Maybe my father had been confused in his final days. Maybe he’d written to me amidst a fever dream, believing fantasy was reality...

Vampires existed. I knew that. They walked among us and had done so for years.

But being tied to one?

Being indebted to a monster?

Eli made a derisive sound, pulling me out of my thoughts and back to the present.

Slowly, I opened my eyes, looking up at him from below my lashes, eyes hooded as pain and exhaustion threatened to take me under.

He held my gaze, those intense glacial eyes unwavering, almost as if in challenge.

Though, what that challenge was, I had no idea.

I certainly didn’t have the strength to fight him again any time soon.

Ugh , as if I’d ever have the strength to fight him. He’d tossed me around like a ragdoll and never broke a sweat.

His shirt still stained with his own blood was testament to my failure. I’d managed to stake him—just not where it counts.

Shame was a prickly mass in my chest. After everything I learned in the twelve months following my father’s death, I felt foolish now; it had all been for naught. When the moment came to fight the vampire who’d forced my father into a debt that would outlive generations of his children, I failed.

Eli tsked , shaking his head, but didn’t verbally respond to my thoughts.

I was grateful for that, as there was nothing he could say that wouldn’t mock me or the situation in which I’d found myself. The proof of my failure was right there, standing in my living room while I lay in a heap on the couch, unable to move without agonizing pain.

“Are you listening to me?” Vinny snapped, finally loud enough that I could hear his angry words.

I opened my eyes and Eli’s attention wasn’t on Vinny at all, but laser-focused on me. He cocked his head as he held my gaze.

I gave him a thorough once over before my eyes drifted closed again. He was fine . Not a single inhumanly white-blond hair out of place on his head.

“Inhuman?” Eli chuckled quietly. “Astute observation.”

Get out of my head.

He was completely unscathed by our battle, the asshole, whereas even blinking felt like too much for my beaten body to handle.

For twelve long months, I’d trained.

And I’d waited.

Immediately following Dad’s death, Eli didn’t come.

Then, the fifteenth came and went without incident.

The next month, the same.

And so it went.

For an entire year, I anticipated his return; and for an entire year, Elias stayed away.

‘He doesn’t know about you...’

My father’s words crept into my mind once more, unbidden. The way he’d said them with such urgency sent a trickle of fear down my spine.

‘He’ll want you when he sees.’

Eli hummed thoughtfully. “He wasn’t wrong.”

I swallowed, then winced as the motion caused fresh pain to bloom in my jaw.

Goddammit, even swallowing hurt like hell.

Vinny’s hand on my shoulder roused me from my thoughts and that precipice between sleep and awareness.

They’d been whispering again just moments ago, but now I wondered if maybe I’d drifted off.

Dragging my eyes open, I focused on Vinny’s face, but shame quickly heated my cheeks and tightened my chest.

What must he think of me, of the way I failed?

“On the contrary, pet,” Eli said, “you’re the first to stake me.”

Vinny’s eyes widened slowly as he looked back and forth between us, trying to make sense of the conversation he was only hearing half of.

Eli’s platitudes meant nothing; I’d missed .

The weight of my failure sat heavily in the room, a presence I couldn’t ignore any more than I could ignore the two vampires staring down at me.

I’d failed Vinny. He’d taught me everything I knew—and it hadn’t been enough.

Eli tsk ed. “Vinny,” he said, his voice holding a hint of amusement and curiosity. “You’ve been training the girl to fight me.” He clasped his hands at his chest, looking down at us both with a mocking lift of his brow. “How very bold of you.”

“Get out of my head,” I growled, though the words were muffled by the swelling of my jaw, and speaking sent a rush of pain through my skull.

“If only it were so easy.”

Vinny’s eyebrows pulled together as his eyes narrowed, then, ever so slowly, his eyes widened as he put the pieces together, searching my gaze with a mix of concern and confusion. “No,” he whispered, shaking his head. “That’s not—”

“Possible?” Eli asked with a mocking snort. “Right. And yet, here we are.”

I moved to push myself up into a sitting position, but a lightning bolt of pain shot up my spine from my tailbone, and I squeezed my eyes shut as I waited for the agony to subside.

I must’ve broken my ass; I’d never felt anything this excruciating before.

Breathing deeply, I braced myself with one hand on the couch cushion and the other on the arm of the couch, then tried again to shift positions—

“Ah!” I cried out, gritting my teeth as the pain, hot and swift, immobilized me. Fuck .

“What did you do to her?” Vinny forced through clenched teeth, still staring down at me.

Eli tsked , and Vinny was over the coffee table in a flash, standing before Eli with murder in his eyes.

“She does seem to be in a bit of pain,” Eli confirmed.

I winced but didn’t open my eyes. In a bit of pain was an understatement.

Excruciating agony radiated outward from multiple points in my body; my ass was the worst, though, with searing lightning bolts of pain shooting out from my tailbone at random intervals and a throbbing ache that made any position damn near unbearable.

“Poor thing thinks she might have broken her tailbone; isn’t that right, love?”

Fuck you.

“Now, now, pet , don’t go making promises you don’t intend to keep.”

I closed my eyes again, ignoring Eli to focus on my breathing until the pain was at a level I could tolerate.

Tears ran down my cheeks, but I didn’t make a sound as I waited for my body to forgive me for attempting to move a moment ago.

With every minute that passed, the pain became worse, each ounce of fight-fueled adrenaline seeping away until nothing but agony remained.

The rush of the battle was over, and now I had only defeat.

And the bitter taste of failure in my mouth.

When I opened my eyes again, both vampires stood shoulder to shoulder on the other side of the coffee table, watching me with matching concern in their eyes.

My heartbeat thumped wildly in my chest as my gaze flicked back and forth between the two of them, my brain struggling to make sense of the scene before me.

Vinny’s concern was expected, even though he’d just bowed to the monster responsible for my injuries—which he’d soon have to explain in detail—but Eli.

..I narrowed my eyes as I focused on Eli, but when I tried to lift my head, I quickly gave up, squeezing my eyes shut as even that small movement hurt like fucking hell and sent nausea rolling through my stomach.

Too worn out to do much but lay here and wait for death, I thought, Why pretend to care when you’re the one who did this to me?

When Eli didn’t respond, I opened my eyes in time to watch him settle into a worn, brown leather chair on the opposite side of the room.

Grief wrapped cold fingers around my heart. No one had sat in Dad’s La-Z-Boy since he died.

Eli’s gaze caught mine, and his eyebrows lifted just a fraction, then he looked down at the arm of the chair and trailed his fingertips over the soft leather.

A hint of melancholy softened his features before he quickly stood and moved toward the kitchen, disappearing from my line of sight.

My eyes drifted shut again as cabinets opened and closed, the vampire searching for something in my kitchen.

“Whiskey,” he said in response to my thoughts.

Above the fridge.

“She keeps it—”

“Above the fridge,” Eli finished for Vinny. “Right.”