I flex them again. Each of my fingers is tipped with a shining silver claw. They’re almost pretty, dainty and deadly with a wicked curve that’s designed for slicing and tearing. “No, I mean I literally have claws. Like Rylan.”
“Funny story…” Wolf lifts his arm off his eyes and flicks his fingers. Sparks dance in the air above him, morphing into a ribbon of flames. It dissipates almost immediately, but there’s no denying that it was there.
That puts the strength back into my body. “What the hell is going on?”
Rylan’s arm shifts to some kind of large cat and then back to human. “I still have my powers.” He frowns. “But I can feel the flames, too. And the blood coursing through all three of your bodies.”
Now that he mentions it, I can as well. The fire sounds almost like a siren song. It makes me want to reach out and…
The flames flare up in response.
I silence the thought and they die back down to normal levels in response. “This is bad.”
“Is it?” Malachi hefts himself up to lean against the couch. He looks as exhausted as I feel, but there’s a contemplative expression on his face that means he’s thinking six moves ahead. “This will be incredibly useful.”
“If Cornelius gets ahold of us, it will be useful tohim.” Rylan doesn’t sound as icy as normal. He’s too busy toying with the flames of the fireplace, making them surge and flow. “This is fascinating. It feels so different from mine.”
I start to wrap my arms around myself, but stop when I scratch my skin with my new claws. “How do I put them away?”
“Concentrate.” Rylan’s still distracted with the flames. “Picture it and they’ll retreat.”
How am I supposed to concentrate when my world has just been turned upside downagain? Having seraph powers is one thing—I still haven’t come to terms with it. Having Bloodline powers? My throat gets tight and panic flutters in my chest. “I don’t know how to control this.”
“Mina—”
“I don’t have training. I can’t shield. I have no experience.” My voice is getting higher and higher with each word, but I can’t make myself stop. “This is too much! I’m going to get us killed.”
“Mina.” Malachi crawls to me and pulls me into his arms. “It will be okay. This is a good thing.”
“It doesn’t feel like a good thing. It feels like I’m a fucking freak. How am I supposed to deal with this?” I wave my hand, and it’s as if my powers snag on every drop of blood in Wolf’s body. He jerks several inches to the side. “Oh my gods.” I clench my fists and bury my face in Malachi’s chest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
Wolf laughs, the sound a little hoarse. “Kinky.”
“It might not be permanent,” Malachi says slowly. “Relax. Let’s get cleaned up and we’ll figure it out like we have everything else up to this point.”
“By fighting and snarling at each other?”
His chest moves against my cheek in a soundless laugh. “Together.”
The chair is ruined and blood has stained the rug. There’s no cleaning this up. I dread what replacing those things will cost, but the men don’t seem overly worried about it. When I ask, Rylan gets a strange smile on his face. “The owner of this place has cleaned up worse messes than this. It will be fine.”
Withthatcryptic statement, we all head into the master bedroom and take turns showering off. Under other circumstances, it might have turned into some sexy fun, but I’m barely managing to stay on my feet, and the men don’t seem like they’re doing much better. Malachi orders us into the massive bed before we fall down, and no one argues with his command. That, more than anything, speaks to how fucked up things are right now.
I end up wrapped in a blanket, cuddled between Wolf and Rylan while Malachi reclines on Rylan’s other side. It’s a strange sort of puppy pile, but it feels effortless. Especially when Rylan idly sifts his hand through my hair.
As tempting as it is to close my eyes and let them comfort me with their presence, we have to talk about this and we need to do it now. I twist a little to see Rylan’s face, but not enough to dislodge his hand in my hair. “Did you know this might happen?”
“No.” He closes his eyes, his expression strangely peaceful. “But the seraphim weren’t exactly sharing the inner workings of their powers with everyone else. The bond was common knowledge at the time, and everyone was aware that it could cause compulsive obedience, but beyond that, it wasn’t clear.” He frowns a little. “Though it doesn’t make sense that it would share powers like this. Plenty of vampires who were forcibly bonded would rather die than stay linked like that. I can’t imagine they’d hesitate to use more power against the seraph who held their leash.”
Kill the seraph likely meant killing every vampire they were bonded to. “Is that possible even with the compulsion?”
“Yes.”
He doesn’t need to elaborate. If he says it’s possible, then it is. Sharing power the way we have would make it much easier to kill the seraph involved. “Maybe it happened because we chose this. Tonight, I mean. Maybe the bond responded to that willingness.”
“That seems likely.” Malachi’s staring at something off in the middle distance. “In the end, it doesn’t change the end goal or the plan. We’ll stay here as long as we can. It will give us time to figure out if this is temporary and teach you what you need to know to control them.”
That makes me laugh, but not like anything is funny. “It takes Bloodline vampires decades to learn to control their powers.”