Page 88 of Blood Bonds

He clearly needed a shower and perhaps a heavy drink.

Ezekiel stood waiting, hand outstretched, gaze shadowed.

Sethios frowned. What are you hiding, old friend?

His brain fought to solve the puzzle around him—how he ended up there, why he felt such a real connection to the strange woman beside him, why his father was here in what Sethios considered to be his favorite safe haven…

I’ve never told Osiris about this place. Or Ezekiel. Sethios planned to use it as a retreat should he need it.

His gaze caught and held the beautiful blue eyes of the blonde. Then a vision of him holding her flashed through his mind. Another vision of their lovemaking. A small blonde girl. Their daughter? A life he knew nothing about. Nor one he would ever have desired.

“You’re a Seraphim,” he realized, looking her over. “A bewitching one at that.”

“Don’t worry about her,” his father said. “I’ll handle everything. Just go with Ezekiel and wait for me.”

The hint of persuasion in his tone forced Sethios to take a step forward. He rolled his eyes. “I’m already going, Father. No need for the theatrics.”

“You know how I enjoy a good show.”

Unfortunately, Sethios did. With a final glance at the too-familiar woman, he held out his hand for Ezekiel and watched her vanish from view.

His heart vibrated with agony, causing him to lose his breath as the familiar walls of his old room appeared around him. He fell to his knees with a cry, his world unhinged.

“What’s happened?” he demanded, his voice hoarse.

“Welcome to my world” was all Ezekiel said as he stepped away.

Sethios stared after him, his body too weak to move.

His pulse raced with a sudden fear centering in his gut and radiating through his veins. It left him winded and pained, but he didn’t know the cause. Yet the face of the gorgeous Seraphim filtered through his mind, her emotions a live current inside of him.

He rocked as her terror sifted through his being, followed by a stinging to his lungs.

Fuck. He couldn’t breathe.

Water infiltrated every pore, causing him to gurgle on air.

It felt as if his room had been submerged at the bottom of the sea, yet he could see the sunlight streaming through his open windows.

None of it made sense.

But it fucking hurt. His entire body vibrated with it, shaking with the need to inhale and burning when salt penetrated his insides.

I’m dying, he realized.

Drowning.

In his own room.

He curled into a ball as tears streamed down his face because it wasn’t the agony of life slipping through his fingertips that hurt most, but the sense of loss that filled him. A connection breaking that he cherished so deeply yet knew nothing about.

As the last vestiges of his consciousness melted away, a foreign name drifted through his thoughts. One that would forever live inside his heart.

Caro…

Epilogue

Gabriel flinched as the bond with his mother broke yet again.