Page 21 of Unholy Gambit: Checkmate in Blood (A Paranormal Halloween #5)

She gripped the bottle of tea with both hands and took a long, steady swig. Swallowed. Took another.

This is your body now. One good leg. One healing. Adult bones. Adult strength.

Another drink. A deep breath.

She looked at Dr. Woods. “You saw?”

He shook his head, and Axel said, “The good doctor would need to lower his shields to let me into his mind before I could project into it, and we don’t have enough trust for that.”

She turned to Axel. “One bitch, not a bunch of burglars. They were in my memory and the dreams. There was never a woman in either.”

“How does that change things?” Dr. Woods asked.

She looked at him, considering. “I don’t think it changes anything major. It’s a perception thing. I’ve had a bad reaction to men in groups, dressed all in black, when that wasn’t accurate. I’ve never been afraid of a sole woman.”

“What else is new?”

“I’ve dreamed of trying to attack the bad guys, but that wasn’t in my memories. Axel says one of the reasons he saved me, rather than going to protocol and killing me, was because I’d tried to fight the vampire, so I guess it’s good I did, since it appears to have saved my life.”

“And how do you feel about the fact he intended to kill everyone in the house when he first entered?”

“It was his…” She looked at Axel. “Your job, right? You were supposed to kill all the bad vampires, and if they’d already bitten someone, the human had to disappear. No fang marks in bodies.”

He gave a tiny nod, and she studied his face. “Are you always this calm? Does anything ever bother you?”

“Nothing fazed me until a brave little five-year-old attacked a Celrau vampire to defend her mother.” His voice was quiet, steady.

“And then stood despite having two shattered legs, her weight on her hands, leaning on a table, and screamed at the monster again in a desperate attempt to save the mother she loved.”

A muscle jumped under her left eye. Her fingers tightened on the tea bottle. “I can’t be that person to you anymore. I have to be who I am now.”

“He has something else to explain,” Dr. Woods said.

Axel’s eyes shifted, a quick glance at Dr. Woods and back to her.

“Vampires have a way to blood bond a human to them,” Axel said. “It’s supposed to be an involved ceremony where blood is swapped and oaths are exchanged in both directions. There’s a specific magic a vampire must draw upon, and I did not do that.”

He met her gaze, hugged her to him a tiny bit more. “You were bleeding. I was bleeding — the Celrau clawed my arm seconds before I tore her head off, and…” He exhaled slowly. “The only explanation that fits is your blood seeped into my wounds, and mine into yours. And I was mentally…”

He looked away for a breath. Met her gaze again. “I was putting a claim on you, even then.”

His voice went quieter. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I wouldn’t have done it this way.”

There was apology in his eyes. Not just regret, something deeper. Unease.

“It’s forbidden, to blood bond a child. If it had fully taken, you shouldn’t have aged another day. You’d still be that small five-year-old child. I can’t explain how it happened, or how you’ve grown into an adult.”

“So, it’s like we did the ceremony?” she asked.

A short nod. “We are blood bonded. I promise I didn’t realize until I drank your blood for the oath. Marco and Dr. Woods picked up on it immediately, however.”

He sighed. “Marco says he didn’t feel the connection between us when they came through the Haunted Swamp that first night, while he immediately picked up on it when he interrupted our billiards game, so it seems logical it’s been there all along in some kind of hibernation, and the blood exchange during the oath kicked it the rest of the way into being, but it’s just a theory. ”

“And blood bonds don’t act that way, but I’ve never heard of someone blood bonding a five-year-old before,” Dr. Woods told her, “and you clearly grew up, so…” He lifted his hands, palms up.

Axel stroked her cheek, and she looked back to him. He looked genuinely sorry.

“I don’t have any answers for you, and I’m not likely to have them in the near future, if ever. I’m hesitant to ask around, because drawing attention could bring people we’d rather avoid.”

“He’s right about that,” Dr. Woods said.

Aury ran through all the reasons vampires might want to bond a human to them, and asked Dr. Woods, “My guess is all the benefits go to the vampire, and few to the human? Can you explain why vampires choose to bond humans to them, please?”

“There are varying levels, from making them a thrall to taking them as a lifelong companion, but the primary reasons for most are to have a daywalker servant, someone to guard them while the sun reigns, to handle banking, or wait for the cable repair person, back when that was a thing.”

“I’m not a thrall, so…” She looked at Axel. “You didn’t touch me in my memories, that means it happened during the time you had me paused .”

“Yes, while you were catatonic, I checked your injuries to be certain both of you could survive them. I…” He shook his head.

“I gathered my anticoagulant venom on my finger and held it to an artery so you wouldn’t lose too much more blood, but venom isn’t supposed to act as a magical catalyst for oaths. ”

Aury felt the weight of it, even if she didn’t fully understand. Not just Axel’s guilt, but the concern about unknown consequences.

She looked back to Dr. Woods. “I know you’re going to say we need to unpack all this, but I have no idea where to start.”

She inhaled. Took inventory of her mental state. “It doesn’t feel as if I need to talk about it. It’s a relief, finally knowing. Not having to guess anymore.”

He nodded. “That feeling may hold, but it may also change without warning. If it does, it’s okay.

If you suddenly need to cry, scream, rage — it’s as valid a reaction as the relief you feel now.

There’s no right or wrong way to react, just be sure you’re honest with yourself about how you’re handling it. ”

“Thank you.” She took a breath, double-checked her status. “I feel okay. For now, at least, and you probably want to get home to your family.”

“My last appointment Friday is at three. If you want to check in, for any reason, call and tell my receptionist I have you penciled in for four, and you’d like to confirm it.”

Aury nodded. She wasn’t scheduled to see him until Tuesday, and knowing she could see him in a little over forty-eight hours made her breathe a little easier.

“Thank you. You’ve always taken such good care of me.”

Dr. Woods looked to her left, and she felt the tensions shift in the room again. “Take care of her, vampire. Call me if you think she needs me and she’s being hard-headed about it.”

“I value the place you’ve had, and will continue to have, in her life. As you said, we are more than our inner monsters.

* * * *

Axel walked the doctor to the door, thanked him again, and closed it with relief. His inner vampire did not appreciate another male — especially a strong, dominant wolf — having a claim of any kind on his Aurélie.

He’d have to deal with it, though. The man had no romantic interest in her. Purely professional. If he could help her make sense of her life, then he was necessary. And, as he’d pointed out, they were more than their inner monsters.

He turned to see her still sitting on the sofa, so small. So brave.

The plan was to order food in and feed her, but her scent told him she wasn’t ready for food yet. Her body was processing adrenaline and memory, not hunger.

He sat with her, and she curled into his chest like she belonged there. Like he was the only solid thing left in the world, and maybe he was.

Which, of course, she did. She’d always belonged there, even when she was five and he’d kept his distance, even when the dreams carried his face but no name.

Now she knew. Now she’d chosen to know. No matter the emotional cost.

And it was now that mattered. Not that night.

Not the pain, the blood, the bone-deep fear, or the surgeon’s knife.

Now, she was warm and trembling against his side, her breath brushing his chest on the outside of his shirt, her thoughts no longer locked away behind the trauma. Behind the scar tissue.

She remembered him, and she hadn’t run.

He stroked his fingers down the side of her arm, her skin soft through the cotton of her sleeve, her breath slow but shaky against his ribs. Her nerves sparked under his touch. He felt her pulse jump. Heard it. Smelled it.

Her thoughts were an open book to him, as if she handed them to him, rather than him having to peek and look.

Need. Comfort. Skin hunger.

She wanted touch.

Yeah, he could give her that. The beginnings of it, anyway.

He rose to his feet and pulled her with him, hands careful, steady, controlled. She leaned on him more than she realized, her knee fine for the moment, but she’d slipped back into the habit of not putting weight on it. Trust takes time.

He scooped her up, cradled her to his chest, and she didn’t complain this time.

She just relaxed in his arms and trusted him. Breath warm against the crook of his neck. Curled into him.

He laid her across the hotel bed like a treasure finally returned to its place.

When she didn’t protest, didn’t tease or joke or shut him out with words, he leaned over and kissed her.

Soft. Long. Deep. He took his time, slowly opening her.

Claiming her all over again. Her taste hit him like memory and heat and magic.

She kissed him back with more than permission — it was invitation, full-throated and hungry.

Arousal roared through her blood. Her body trembled with awareness, muscles firing under the skin. Her legs shifted against the mattress. Her scent was intoxicating.

His mouth watered, fangs threatened to drop, but this was about her, not him. He redirected blood flow away from his thickening cock, and he settled his inner vampire. All in good time, but not today.