“I’m so sorry, Tarnley,” I whisper, as I run a hand over his smooth cheek. “I’ll make the pain stop, I promise.”
Quickly, I go to work, grabbing my grimoire and thumbing through the pages in search of a spell that would break a mated bond. As far as I know, it’s damn near indestructible, which is why most vampires refuse to give in to it.
They tend to be a selfish bunch—vampire in front of me aside—and don’t like it when their immortal souls are tied to another. From what I know, Allison went off the deep end some thirty years ago—about a decade after their bond was solidified—and Tarnley has had limited contact with her since.
Despite knowing him for well over a century, Allison never cared for me. And while they were together, his contact with me was limited out of respect for her. Something I understood, even if it hurt like hell to lose my friend.
But as evidenced by his reaction, time does not soften the blow when that bond is severed abruptly, as it clearly has been now. “Come on, there has to be something.” I glance up as he groans, head rolling to the side. Sweat beads on his brow, his hands clenched into fists.
Picking up the pace, I scan each page as I pass, feeling the minutes ticking by in rapid succession. Soundlessly, Winnifred slips in with the water and a cloth. Dark hair pulled back in a bun, she looks every bit the part of nursemaid.
“Wipe his face, but keep an eye on him. If he starts to wake, you need to move.”
“I know what I’m doing, dear. This is hardly my first sedated vampire.”
Despite my fear, I offer her a smile and return to turning page after page. Finally, after minutes have turned into well over an hour, I reach a page in the back of the book.
Mated vampires cannot have their bonds completely severed. Once they are connected to another soul, so they must remain. However, with enough power, that bond can be redirected to another, giving them a second chance to live.
Proceed with caution, though, as a mated vampire is a dangerous creature. The two souls must exchange blood often to maintain the power. Should that blood exchange not take place, the vampire will begin to deteriorate. First, their soul will begin to darken, making their bloodlust insatiable. They will kill without mercy. Without rational thought. Next, their body will begin to break down, and soon, death will take them.
And just as they are dependent on their mate, their mate is dependent on them. The bond will not kill the other, but they will be irrevocably altered.
Two souls tied together for eternity.
I read the words scrawled onto the parchment three more times, honestly trying to talk myself out of doing what I know I’m about to attempt.
If this is to be believed, the spell scrawled below will silence the bond, muting it with Allison and attaching him to me. I glance over at him, knowing full and damn well he will probably never forgive me for tethering himself to me.
But if there’s no other way—I glance back down at the page and read through the ingredients. It calls for blood—and a hell of a lot of it—to temporarily replace the bonded’s blood. “Perfect,” I murmur. Tarnley groans.
“Have you found something, then?”
I nod at Winnie. “But it’s risky.”
“Will it put you at risk?”
Swallowing hard, I shake my head. Not a complete lie; from what it sounds like, Tarnley is the one who absorbs all the negative effects. Other than the blood exchange, at least. That sounds…unpleasant at best.
“You need to leave, though. I’m not exactly sure how this will affect him, and I can’t have you caught in the crossfire.”
“I will ensure Brunt and Trey remain close by.”
“Thank you.”
She slips out, and the door shuts softly. “Okay. I guess this is what we’re doing.” Knowing I don’t have much time, I rush around the room, gathering herbs and candles and arranging them around the sedated vampire. Then, I retrieve a silver blade and step forward. “Here goes,” I whisper, then run the blade over my palm.
Power roars around me, swirling as I focus my energy on the blood pooling in my hand. Just as the book instructed me to, I imagine the threads binding Tarnley to his Allison, then picture them severed, replaced with strands of purple light that will serve as a dam that redirects the bond to me, thereby preventing the broken pieces from reattaching.
Then, I slowly, steadily, lower my hand, careful to not spill a single drop of spelled blood until it’s over his mouth. After setting the dagger down, I reach forward with my free hand and grip his chin, opening his slack mouth so my blood can make its way inside his body.
The moment my blood touches his mouth, his eyes fly open, crimson gaze pinning me as he blurs off the table and grips my hand, slamming his mouth to the skin. He blurs forward with me, and metal crashes to the ground as he pins me against the wall, mouth pulling from the lifeforce in my veins.
Brunt and Trey rush in, slamming the door against the wall, but I immediately shake my head. They don’t leave, but they don’t rip him from me, either.
I hang on, knowing that as soon as he’s had enough, I can get him off of me. There’s no fear in my heart when faced with the vamp before me, no pain from where his canines have sunk into my wrist. Rubbing my free hand over his shaking shoulder, I try to soothe some of his pain. Another heartbeat passes before he releases me and drops to his knees.
“What did you do?” he stammers, looking up at me from where he kneels on the floor at my feet. I sink down to sit in front of him. His slumped shoulders and dropped head tell the story of a broken man. Which is so unlike the Tarnley I’ve come to know, that it breaks my heart.