Page 71 of This Blood that Bonds Us

Thirty

Aaron

“I can’t feel my arms.” I groaned, then Dom released me from behind, and I crumbled to the floor. I didn’t know how my brothers did it. Battling in blood was the worst thing I’d ever done. My entire body was achy and weak, and add in the pain in my chest, and it felt like I was fighting the flu.

“Do you need a break?”

“Kinda.” I groaned and lay back on the mat. The room spun around me. The basement was large and full of mirrors. Like the whole house, it was a major upgrade from what we’d had in Blackheart. While the other was makeshift, this room seemedintentional by whoever built it. Underneath the mats were black concrete and a drain system that made it easy to clean up. Everything was new and wrapped in plastic like it had laid in wait for a moment like ours.

I could barely sit up to stare at myself. Black blood stained the edges of my hair and soaked my chest.

“You’re doing well. It takes practice.”

“Yippee,” I said.

Training wasn’t all of it. I needed to learn how to navigate advanced blood loss. Though it was important and I needed to learn to build on basic defense, Kilian was certain my role would be less about violence and more about getting through to my older brothers and getting them to fight on our side.

“They may not recognize you,” he’d said one day, and my chest hurt so much at the thought my heart skipped.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s possible She could wipe their memories of your time together. It could be some. All. It’s all unknown.”

“Are you saying they may attack me?”

“Yes. You need to be prepared for your brothers to be different when you see them. They most likely will be changed, and not for the better.”

“If She wipes their memories, how do we fix it?”

“By killing Her.”

Dom’s large hand in my face snapped me back to reality. He held out a blood bag for me to drink. The sloshing red liquid was tempting, but I knew better.

“Here.”

I hesitated. “I don’t need it.”

“You need blood.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Dom didn’t argue, clearly not caring if I chose to be miserable.

“Can you help me up?”

He pulled me up with ease, and I held onto his forearm to steady me. “I’ll let Kilian know you want to speak with him.”

Dom spent half of his time training, then the other half away doing more technical type preparation. He’d mentioned once that he had the skill to fly planes and choppers. It was the only hobby I’d found of his. I was a little jealous that he got such a cool job in the whole thing. Kilian said he was the last known pilot they had on the team.

I followed him up the steps and willed my legs to move. Like I had cinder blocks tied to my feet, I took every step slowly, and Dom waited for me with not an ounce of annoyance on his face. Being around him reminded me of Blackheart in a way that added to the collective pain in my chest. I remembered the little things. The times he picked the lint off Skylar’s clothes or the two of them whispering in the corner. The way she’d ask him if she had lipstick in her teeth and he’d answer honestly every time. He had to be in pain, but not an ounce of it showed.

“Can I ask you something?” I finally reached the top of the stairs, and we walked toward the library that unfortunately required another set of steps.

Oddly, I trusted Dom. He saved Kimberly, and that meant something to me. It was more than anyone else there had done.

He nodded.

“Why do you trust Kilian? When he locked us up, Thane mentioned something about Will being the only reason he didn’t kill you and Skylar, but I’ve been trying to figure out if he just said that to get us to turn on Kilian. But even then, why? Why follow Kilian after what happened to your sister?”