Page 7 of Wedlock (Vampire Bachelor Games #3)

“Amazing,” the doctor says as he straightens up and removes his gloves. “Miraculous, one might say.”

Eleanor frowns as she meets my eyes, and I return her stare, unblinking, willing her to understand the importance of what the doctor is saying.

“You came in here having just given birth,” the doctor goes on, “and yet your body has completely healed in a matter of days.”

Eleanor raises a quizzical eyebrow, so like her son’s.

I’d previously speculated Falcon inherited this mannerism from his father, who held a reputation as being a bloodthirsty psychopath, but also as being devilishly handsome.

But clearly this little quirk came from his mother.

I wonder, briefly, if my son will do this too.

It’s not something I can do, I’ve tried.

But eyebrows aside, there’s something more important I need to focus on right now, and this doctor might just be the key to my freedom, if I can focus.

I stare at Eleanor and try to impress upon her, without words, that I’m under an obedience bite, that I’m not in control. Pleading silently with her to save me .

‘Can’t you see, Eleanor? I’m under a thrall, even though it’s not a marriage hupotasso.

I have healing capacities that normal human women don’t have.

If I’m not murdered, I’m also going to live a long, long life while I’m under this spell.

Oh shit, please don’t let me live forever under Viper’s control. ’

“Thank you, Doctor, that will be all.” She gives him a quick nod, indicating he’s dismissed.

When he’s gone, she sits on my bed and gives me a calculating look.

“Do you know where Falcon is, Angelina?”

“How could I?” I frown. “You’ve told me nothing.”

“Do you have,” she looks up at the richly embroidered velvet bed canopy as she seems to be searching for her next words, “some, ah, some sense of where he is? Close by or far away? Or an impression, if you like, of his surroundings or companions?”

“How the fuck would I have any of that?” I scowl. “Do you think I avoid the castle guards, get into some invisible plane, and fly around the world after dark?”

“If Falcon’s bite had worked on you after you gave birth, the bite he inflicted while you were pregnant,” she clarifies, “then you would have a sense of where he is — it would explain why you’re healing so rapidly.”

My throat begins to constrict as she circles a dangerous subject and Viper’s control on me tightens.

“I thought,” I squeak, “that vampires bit their brides so they could track them .”

“Yes,” she says quietly, “but the bond sometimes allows a little trickle of power and thought to be shared between the two. It’s not common, but I always knew where Falcon’s father was.

Sometimes I had impressions of the landscape around him, and the people, sometimes snatches of conversation — it was as though our minds were linked. ”

I frown as I think this through.

“I discussed hupotasso with Falcon before we married. He never said that could happen.”

“He doesn’t know,” she snorts. “Do you think vampires would react well if they learned that their human wives also gained power, besides immortality, when they were bitten?”

“No,” I shake my head. “I expect they’d stop the bite altogether. Which would be a good thing, wouldn’t it?”

She gives me a ‘don’t be an idiot’ look.

“In present times it’s hardly ever used for control. Other than by those most evil, Angelina. It’s solely considered a bounty for those who marry vampires.”

“I guess,” I frown, thinking through her answer and recognising the sense of it.

‘No woman would, surely, marry a vampire if it were not for the fact that they gained immortality. No woman except someone stupid enough to fall in love with one.’

“The Games wouldn’t exist if women didn’t seek immortality through vampire husbands,” I muse out loud, “that’s the main reason humans marry vampires.”

“The Games would still exist,” she snorts in disgust, “as they once did. Women would not volunteer, and so they’d be hunted. Without the bite they wouldn’t last long. A vampire might catch and marry thousands of women in his long, long lifetime.”

“Oh.”

“I’ve once again shared knowledge with you that no vampire can know,” she sighs heavily, “even as you rip the heart out of my castle. So, answer me truthfully, Angelina. Do you have a sense of where Falcon is?”

I shake my head, once more wishing she could read my eyes when I answer, because by-fuck I’m trying to impress upon her that something is very, very wrong.

“No.”

She looks down at her hands, folded in her lap, nods as though I’d confirmed what she needed to know and, rising, heads for the door.

“Eleanor!” I shout to her retreating back, but she doesn’t turn, merely shaking her head as she keeps walking, as though she can’t bear to hear any more from me.

After she’s gone I lie back on the pillows, one hand resting on my sleeping baby’s head, and allow my mind to wander and seek.

It doesn’t take long to find him.

“Gotcha,” I whisper, frowning as I concentrate on Viper’s surroundings.

Impressions float through my mind like tendrils of coloured smoke. He’s far away on a castle grounds somewhere. The castle is bigger than this one, and older. There’s a big forest in the background, pine trees, I think, no, spruce. I can smell them, and something else…

I gasp and pull back from his mind as I sense through his perception someone’s terror — and his excitement.