Page 101 of Broken Souls

She sits down on the sofa, her ankles crossed, her hands in her lap, her chin lifted. “What is this about?” she asks.

“I will ask you each question once,” I say as I pick up my phone and click on Aleric’s name. “If I even think you are lying, you will never see any of your children again and you will never meet your grandkids.”

Her back goes ramrod straight.

“Now.” I place the phone down on the arm of the couch so she can see the screen. Her eyes dart to it, then to Micha, then me. Holding her gaze, I press the call button. “Am I infertile?”

The phone rings.

“No.”

“Did you tell Maddox to shapeshift into me and fuck my wife?”

Her eyes widen. “Of course not!”

“Why can’t I feel the blood bond?”

She presses her lips together.

The phone rings again.

And again.

On the third ring, her eyes dart to it.

But I’m not asking again. If Aleric answers, she’s sold.

The ring gets cut off as the line starts to connect. “I think you’re starving,” she blurts, and I end the call, but my finger does not leave the screen, telling her she better keep talking.

She glances at Micha.

“I told her I’m a hybrid.”

She breathes out slowly as she looks back at me. “A born vampire can eat just like we can, so when I cursed you, I also bound your bloodlust. You don’t need it to survive, but I guess part of you must still crave it, and it’s consuming her blood too fast.”

I stare at her, wondering why that explanation caused her pause, urging her with my silence to fill in the gaps. Her lips purse together. She doesn’t say anything for a while, but then she says, “I might’ve made it…” She clenches her jaw and looks away. Then breathes in deeply and holds it. After letting it go, she continues, “You might always be under the influence of the Craving when you change.”

Fuck.The Craving is when werewolves or vampires lose all sense of themselves. They react instinctively, primitively, driven by nothing but the hunger. They feed until they kill, ripping apart their prey like a pack of starving dogs. No control. No thoughts. They are the closest things to zombies we have, albeit much faster, much stronger, and much more dangerous. Knowing that is what I become sickens me. That loss of control goes against every value I hold myself to.

But it also means I wasn’t responsible for what I did to –

I stop.

Clench my teeth.

Because I am fucking responsible. Under the Craving or not, Ihurther. And I will have to live with that for the rest of my life.

Disgusted by all the shit that’s unraveling, I want to kick Mother from my office, from this damn house, but I have another question I need to know. “Will I be able to feel her after we’re fully bonded?” I ask.

“I don’t know.”

My finger hovers over the call button.

“I don’t see why you shouldn’t,” she says. “Before the bond is finished, the blood you share is the only tie between you. Afterwards, your souls are tied. Your vampirism can’t eat that.”

I stare at her, searching her face before asking over my shoulder. “Any other questions you want to ask, Micha?”

“Am I pregnant with a hybrid?”