Chapter Forty Six
Nora's P.O.V
“You were… innocent, Nora.” His voice broke around the word. “You were good. You were mine to protect. You were the one thing in this messed-up world that still felt safe.”
My chest tightened. “Nick…”
“You think I care who you sleep with?” he snapped. “It’s not about Leo, or even that psycho Kincaid—”
Leo’s jaw twitched, but he stayed silent.
Nick’s eyes burned into mine. “It’s about you. You stepping into blood and power like it won’t chew you up. Like it hasn’t already started.”
“It hasn’t,” I said, voice hard now. “I’m still me.”
“No, you’re not!” he shouted. “You’re something else now. You talk different. You move
different. And I don’t know if I’m supposed to be proud or fucking terrified.”
Silence fell again—thick, aching.
Nick stared at me for a long moment… then looked away. Like he couldn’t bear it. Like the sister he thought he knew had already vanished.
I looked to Leo.
He met my gaze instantly, like he’d felt it before I even turned. The bond between us hummed—quiet but pulsing, alive.
We need to tell him everything, I let the words carry in my mind, clear and unshaken.
Leo’s eyes searched mine, darkening. His jaw tensed, unreadable.
Are you sure?
I nodded, just once. He deserves the whole truth, even if it breaks him.
Leo inhaled slow, his gaze flicking to Nick—who stood there, arms crossed, anger cooling into suspicion. He looked like a man gripping the edge of a cliff,
unsure if he wanted to climb back up or let go entirely.
Leo gave me the smallest nod.
“Alright,” he said aloud, voice steady now. “You want answers?”
Nick’s eyes narrowed. “You mean there’s still more?”
Leo turned fully to face Nick, voice low but steady, every word deliberate.
“Killian isn’t the most dangerous man in the city.”
Nick’s eyes narrowed, suspicion sharpening. “Then who is?”
Leo didn’t blink.
“Me.”
The word dropped like a loaded gun between them—quiet, final, undeniable.
Nick froze, something in his expression flickering—confusion, fear, maybe both. His gaze slid to me, then back to Leo like he was suddenly seeing him for
what he really was.
Leo stepped forward, slow and controlled, eyes glowing just faintly beneath the sun. “You think I’d ever let anything happen to her? That I’d let anyone—Killian
included—take what’s mine?”
Nick swallowed hard, but said nothing.
Leo’s voice dropped lower. “I don’t need armies or titles, Nick. I am what they fear in the dark.”
Nick’s voice came out rough, uncertain now. “What do you mean? What are you?”
Leo didn’t answer right away.
Instead, he held Nick’s stare—and then, without a word, let the mask drop.
His eyes flared crimson, glowing like embers fed by something ancient and hungry. The red wasn’t just light. It pulsed, alive, swirling with something that didn’t
belong in this world.
Nick took a sharp step back. “What the—”
Leo’s voice was quiet, almost too calm. “You asked.”
Nick’s gaze darted to me, then back to Leo. “You’re not… human.”
Leo’s lips curled, just slightly. “Not even close.”
I stepped in beside him. “He’s a vampire, Nick.”
Nick looked between us like the air had been knocked from his lungs. “You’re serious. This isn’t some twisted joke.”
Leo’s eyes dimmed back to blue, but the weight of what he was didn’t fade. “I don’t joke about what I am. And I sure as hell don’t lie about what I’d do to
protect her.”
Nick rubbed a hand down his face, his breath shaky, like he was trying to wake himself from a nightmare. “What the hell is happening right now?”
Leo stayed silent. He didn’t need to answer.
Nick looked at me again, like maybe I would break the illusion. Like maybe I’d laugh and tell him it was all a prank. But I didn’t.
I stepped forward, voice steady. “We’re bonded, Nick. Me and Leo. It’s a connection—mental, emotional. We can talk to each other through our minds.”
Nick stared at me like I was speaking another language.
“There are supernatural’s in the world,” I said firmly. “It’s not fiction. It’s not some story written in a book. It’s real. They’re real. Leo is proof of that.”
He shook his head slowly, trying to hold onto the version of reality he thought he knew. “So all this time… I’ve been sitting next to him, talking about school,
football, dumb shit—and he was a vampire?”
Leo’s voice was calm. “I never hid what I was. I just didn’t say it out loud.”
“Yeah, because that’s the same thing,” Nick snapped.
I took another step toward him. “You deserve the truth. And this is it. The world’s not what we thought it was.”
Nick didn’t answer. He just stood there, staring at us.
“Okay,” I said softly. “That’s everything, Nick.”
He just stared at me, expression unreadable, arms crossed, like he was still trying to process the world spinning out from under him.
Then I blinked. “Oh—wait.”
His eyes narrowed instantly. “What now?”
I held up both hands, a grin tugging at my lips despite the chaos still hanging in the air. “Don’t be mad at Amelia.”
Nick blinked. “Why would I be mad at—?”
“She knew,” I cut in, unable to stop the laugh bubbling up. “She knew I’d been crushing on Leo for years. And she also knew when we finally got together. So,
if you're going to be mad at anyone, maybe spread it around.”
Nick’s jaw dropped. “She what?!”
I laughed, the sound breaking the tension like sunlight through a storm. “Yeah. She’s been holding out on you. Guess we both have.”
He groaned, rubbing his hands over his face again. “Unbelievable. I’m friends with a bunch of traitors.”
Leo snorted behind me. “You’ll survive.”
Nick glared at him. “Barely.”
But the edge had softened. The storm had passed—mostly. And somehow, we were still standing.
My phone started vibrating on the table beside the pool, the low buzz cutting through the moment like a blade.
I walked over, heart already tightening, and grabbed it.
Killian.
His name flashed across the screen.
Leo stepped closer behind me, sensing the shift in my energy without a word. Nick was still muttering something under his breath, pacing, half in shock—but
all of that faded as I stared at the name.
I swiped to answer. “Killian?”
His voice came through low and direct. “Where are you?”
“Home.”
A pause. “Good. Stay there,” he said. “I’m on my way.”
Something in his tone made my stomach knot. All the warmth from the laughter seconds ago vanished like smoke.
“What’s wrong?”
His answer was ice. "I'll tell you everything when I get there.”
I turned slowly, phone still in my hand, pulse thudding in my ears.
Nick caught the look on my face and immediately straightened. “What?”
I exhaled, steadying myself. “Okay… I need you to not freak out.”
His eyes narrowed. “That’s never a good way to start a sentence.”
I gave a tight smile. “Killian is on his way here.”
Nick blinked. Once. Twice. “Here? As in our house here?”
I nodded.