Page 84 of Broken Souls

Once a blood bond is started, it must be paid for in one way or another.

We shared a lot of blood last night – way more than the few drops needed for the ritual to be sated. So maybe I have already paid most of the blood due. But...

I have also lost a lot between the fighting and the torture and Varius feeding from me. If it needs more than I have…

I shift the knife in my grip.

The blade skims across my skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

I don’t want to die.

But I don’t want to live like this either.

So I take a deep breath and close my eyes.

Then I slide the knife quickly across my skin.

Thirty

HIM

“Are you fucking insane?” I rip the knife up as she slides it down her arm, my heart beating so damn loud that I can barely hear the words I’m screaming at her. My eyes go to where she cut, and relief hits me when I see I made it in time. The slice is barely more than a graze.

I throw the knife across the room, but she doesn’t say a word. I pick up the healing wand beside her and shove it into her other hand. “Heal yourself,” I snap, trying to get a rise out of her with the harshness of my tone because I’d rather take her fire, her fucking fury at me than seeing her like this.

Empty.

Emotionless.

Fucking suicidal.

“I told you you can’t leave me,” I snarl as I haul her to my chest. She lets me pull her without any resistance, without any of the ‘fuck yous’ she was all too happy to scream last night, and that is making me fuckingpanic.

Last I remember, she seemed fine. We talked in her room. I apologized for torturing her. I carried her up to my bed. She had her legs wrapped around my waist. Yeah, she was not happy with me, but she wasn’t likethis. She was angry with me, ready to make me pay and beg for forgiveness, but she wanted me to fix us. And I was willing. I told her that, didn’t I?

“Talk to me,” I demand. “Tell me why the fuck you just tried to kill yourself.”

“I didn’t,” she says.

“You had a knife to your wrist!

“I wasn’t trying to kill myself.”

I clench my jaw, force my rage down so I can talk to her without screaming. “What were you doing then?”

She shrugs.

“Micha. What were you fucking doing?”

“I was trying to remove the blood bond.”

“Remove –” I stop as I move away from her, holding her at arm’s length so I can see her face. “We’re bonded?”

“Unfortunately.”

“When?”

She blinks, and there is a bit of soul back in her eyes that I could almost weep over. “What do you mean ‘when?’”