No. She couldn’t bond with him. If she did, I’d lose what little of her I had.
Tucking myself away, I tried to ignore the sight of her feeding from him, but as any masochist would be, I was drawn to the things which hurt me. And watching Sunday give herself to someone else was the most exquisite sort of agony. Perhaps witnessing this moment between them was my penance. No flogging came close to tearing me apart the way losing her did.
I felt it the moment it happened. Their bond snapped into place, locking me out, uniting them for all eternity. It was done. I’d lost her before I could accept that I wanted to take her.
Searing pain blossomed on my chest, the burn akin to a brand from a red-hot iron. I let out a harsh cry and tore at my shirt, wondering if this was the moment God sent me to hell. Had He been watching all this time? Waiting for me to earn my spot in torment?
But the pain receded, and clarity returned, a familiar unease curling in my gut as my mind stumbled upon a faint memory from twenty-three years ago. The very night Sunday Fallon was brought into this world.
My fingers traced the decades-old burn over my heart. The small circle barely the width of my fingertip had been there all this time. Signifying that the first seal broke open when she’d been born. A larger circle, raised and angry, ringed the first. Dread twisted through me as I traced the new, still raw scar that had appeared the moment Noah Blackthorne bonded with Sunday.
The second seal of the Apocalypse was broken, and I’d failed in my task to stop it.
An insistent vibration at my hip pulled my focus outward. I knew exactly who would be calling. The only one who had this number. With shaking hands, I flicked off the light and answered my phone.
“Yes?”
“What the hell did you do? The second seal has been broken.”
“She just bonded with Blackthorne. He must have been one of the seals.”
“Well, Priest... what are you going to do about it?”
Clenching my jaw, I took a deep breath. “Don’t worry,” I said, casting my gaze into the room where two naked figures curled around each other. “I’ll take care of him.”