Chapter 71 Seventy-One

Chapter 71 Seventy-One
Amber
Drew and I stood on the balcony as we watched the moon dance in the clear sky.
Surprisingly, dinner was good—better than I suspected. My mother was decent, and Drew was great with her. On the other hand, my dad asked Drew questions from the 20th century randomly and brought up things that only people who were alive in those times would know.
I used our mindlink to tell him to be careful about how he answered his question. We both knew that my dad already knew that Drew was a hybrid, but we didn’t want to push it too much. I made a mental note to talk with my father later, just to see how much he actually knows. When he wasn’t losing his mind, he was actually a brilliant, conniving man who knew how to get his way, not only because he was a royal. Still, I was only grateful that he didn’t seem to disapprove of the entire situation.
I held onto Drew’s arm and rested my head against his shoulder as we stood in silence. We haven’t really talked much about what happened yesterday. Perhaps we didn’t need to. Dageian almost killed us both, but we were alive, and that’s all that mattered.
“So, what do you think about your dad knowing about us?” he asked out of nowhere. I inclined my head to look at him, then eventually shrugged as I rested my head on his shoulder again.
“I don’t know. Weirdly, I’m not even surprised. He was the one who gave me that book, The Truth, I believe it was called?”
“I remember.”
“Then, when I asked him about our blood, he spoke of the legends so clearly, but still told me that it was all made up. I think he has always known about hybrids, and seeing the mark on my hand made him know that you were one.”
Drew stiffened as I said this, and he swung around to face me with wide eyes. “He saw your hand?” he asked, cursing under his breath.
“Yes, but it’s okay, Drew.” I tried to calm him down as I gripped his shoulder. I didn’t understand why it got him so worked up.
“It’s not, Amber. I wasn’t even supposed to….”
“Are you serious?” I asked, my own frustration growing at his behavior. “So, would you rather if I had let you die then? Is that it?”
He sighed and reached for me after I stepped away from his hold, but I flinched away.
“I understand that you don’t want to hurt me, and feeding from me was a hard promise to break for you. But you were dying, Drew. What would you have me do when my blood could’ve helped you? I see how prepared you are to leave me!”
I knew that wasn’t true, but I was too hurt to control my snappy tongue. With that, I spun on my heels and marched to my bedroom door, but I paused abruptly when a shadow appeared before me.
The hairs on the back of my neck rose as I stumbled back, but the figure moved at the speed of light and grabbed me before my foot could even reach the ground. I squeezed my eyes shut. I wasn’t prepared. Not right here. Not right now.
“Let her go,” I heard Drew growl from behind us. I still kept my eyes closed. I wasn’t scared of him, but I hated that he took us by such surprise. We knew that once he was awake, he’d come after us. But I had hoped that we would be ready.
Dageian clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he moved further onto the balcony. I finally opened my eyes, being met face-to-face with the devil himself. He smiled down at me before reaching up to brush his thumb against my cheek.
I heard Drew’s feet approaching us, but I quickly told him to stop in our mindlink. Perhaps Dageian wouldn’t kill me, but Drew? He already showed us both that he was prepared to. Thankfully, he heeded my plea and kept a generous distance. I could feel his turmoil. He was thinking of ways to get me and escape. But we’ve had enough encounters with Dageian now—far too many. This needed to end now. I, for one, was sick of it.
“I hate to see mates fight,” he taunted as he shifted his gaze between Drew and me. His grip on my neck was growing tighter, and my feet were barely grazing the ground. Even though there was a smile on his face, his evident annoyance showed beneath it all.
“I swear if you do anything to her….” I could hear the rage dripping from Drew’s voice, and my skin literally burnt with the anger I felt radiating from him. Just like yesterday, he could just about use this to fight Dageian. But not yet—not while he was anticipating it.
Dageian was obviously trying to get a rise out of Drew, or else he wouldn’t have attacked me.
“But you know what would be the ultimate deal-breaker between you two?” he questioned, avoiding Drew’s statement. Then, in a swift movement, he swung me around so that I was facing Drew, but his grip on my neck never loosened.
I grasped onto his cold, calloused hands as I tried to pry them from around my neck. Drew reached his breaking point, and in a second, he was charging towards us. But of course, Dageian expected this, so he flung Drew into the balcony bars, breaking them as if his body were a wrecking ball.
My eyes watered at the sight, yet Drew was getting up again.
No, I pleaded in his mind. I couldn’t watch him die. Not again.
But my thoughts were flung upon a solid wall, indicating that Drew had blocked our link. No doubt he thought I’d try to talk him out of it, which I was.
“Let me finish,” Dageian laughed. “And then you might have her back if she still wants you,” he added, and Drew’s face twisted in confusion as Dageian finally let go of my neck but rested his hands on my shoulders instead.
“What are you talking about?” Drew demanded. I lifted my head to look at Dageian, seeing his eyes twinkling in mischief before he spoke again.
“You see, Drew, when you fought me yesterday, I remembered how much of a good soldier you once were to me.”
For some reason, Drew no longer looked angry but scared instead. His eyes instantly fell on me as if pleading.
This confused me to the core. What did Dageian mean?
“Amber,” Dageian said, patting my shoulder, “Drew was a little helper of mine. He was sired to me, and he was one of the best ones yet.” His evil smile told me that this wasn’t the part where he was sure I’d hate Drew for. There was obviously more.
But it still shocked me. I had no idea that Drew was sired by Dageian. I didn’t know that Dageian was the one who changed Drew. But why? Drew once told me that anyone who was sired to Dageian had to do something for him to break the bond. And Drew obviously wasn’t sired to him anymore. So, what did he do?
“Are you going to tell her, or should I?” Dageian asked, and I watched as Drew’s eyes flashed to me quickly with regret.
“Amber—”
“Have it your way. I’ll tell her,” Dageian said, cutting off Drew. “You see, Amber, Drew was a very desperate lad to be free of my sire bond. He would’ve done anything to break free.”
“Dageian…” Drew warned, but I found that I was too engrossed in what Dageian was saying.
“That fight last night reminded me of how many times he fought me to have me free him.” He laughed loudly before tilting my head to meet his eyes. “So, I gave him a task, and he more than performed well, my little Rousseaux.”
He caressed my chin with his thumb, and though I already suspected what this was all about, it seemed that I needed to hear it out loud.
“Wh-what did he do?” I heard myself ask.
Dageian only smiled wider. “About a hundred and thirty years ago, he came to this very castle….”
“No,” I whimpered as my eyes stung. He couldn’t have.
“And he slaughtered the entire Rousseaux family, including children.”
I choked on a sob as I swung my head in his direction, seeing that Drew’s gaze was now fixed on the ground in regret.
“And as promised, I granted his freedom.” Dageian sighed in what seemed like annoyance. “But of course, a Rousseaux always remained. Your great-great-great-grandfather was gone on a trip when it happened, and so the bloodline continued.”
I tried to process it all, but I couldn’t. My mate? My mate did that? Memories of my very first encounters with Drew came back to mind. He was so sure that he ‘didn’t deserve me’, and how he had ‘done things that I would hate’. Did he mean this? Was the guilt of what he did to my family decades ago that hindered him from believing I would’ve accepted him? Now I knew what Veronica meant. It was all clear to me now.
“Imagine my surprise when I saw that you two were mates!” Dageian laughed. “I figured that I’d play with you for a while. It was fun indeed, but I am sick of this game now. So, here’s the deal. Give me back Alex and Aliah, and I’ll change you too, so the three of you can live happily together once I establish a sire bond. If you don’t, you both die right here.”
“What’s the sense you told me this if you were planning on killing me anyway, you bastard!” I shouted through tears.
Of course, he laughed again. “Because I wanted to see the look on Drew’s face, that’s why. You hurt me, and I hurt you.”
I spat in his face. “Screw you.”
Suddenly, his hands went around my neck again as he glared down at me. “Where are they?”
“Dead,” I said through gritted teeth. I wasn’t lying, but of course, he didn’t believe me.
“I’ll give you one last chance, Amber. Where are they?”
I glanced in Drew’s direction swiftly, seeing that he was still deep in thought. He was barely noticing what was happening between us.
“Go to hell,” I mumbled loud enough as my enclosed throat would allow.
His eyes grew cold—colder than I’ve ever seen, and a sliver of fear rose in me as his grip only got tighter. It then occurred to me what he was doing. He was going to snap my neck, and Drew didn’t notice until it was far too late.
“Then I’ll meet you there,” Dageian growled in my face, and as I heard Drew’s voice screaming my name, I felt my entire neck close in.
And then, there was darkness.