Chapter 8 Blood Memory 2
The door exploded inward. Soldiers poured in. The man—my father—threw himself at them. Bought seconds. My mother ran. Out a window. Down a wall. Shadows wrapping around her like living things, carrying her to safety while screams echoed behind her.
Then I was back. Gasping on the training yard floor with Kael crouched in front of me looking almost concerned.
"Sera. What happened?"
"I saw—" The words would not come. "My mother. The night she ran. When your soldiers came."
His face went blank. "You saw a memory."
"Her memory. Through blood." I grabbed his arm without thinking. "Lyra said my bloodline had gifts. Is that what this is? Can I see the past?"
"Shadowborn were seers. Memory walkers. They could touch blood and see its history." Kael's voice was carefully neutral. "If that ability is waking in you, it changes things."
"Changes what?"
"Everything." He stood and pulled me up with him. "Theron. We are done for today."
"But—"
"Now, Theron."
The commander nodded and left. Kael grabbed my wrist—not the one he fed from, the other one—and dragged me toward the palace.
"Where are we going?"
"Somewhere private. If you can see blood memories, we need to test it. Control it. Before you have a vision in public and reveal what you can do."
"Why does it matter?"
"Because memory walkers can see truth, Sera. They can look at blood and know how someone died. Who killed them. What secrets they carried." He pushed open a door to a room I had never seen. Small. Dark. Warded with symbols that made my skin itch. "That makes you either the most valuable person in Nocterra or the most dangerous. Depending on whose secrets you uncover."
He lit candles with a wave of his hand. Magic. Pure vampire power that made the bond hum with want.
"Sit," he ordered.
I sat. He pulled a knife from his belt and I tensed.
"Relax. I am not going to hurt you." He dragged the blade across his palm. Blood welled up black-red. "I am going to teach you control. Take my hand."
"Why?"
"Because if you can see through blood, you need to learn how to direct it instead of having visions ambush you." He held out his bleeding palm. "My blood. My memories. See if you can access them deliberately."
I stared at his hand. At the blood dripping onto the floor. At the test he was offering.
What would I see? His past? His crimes? The night he ordered my family killed?
Did I want to know?
Yes. I did. Because ignorance was weakness and I was done being weak.
I took his hand.
The world exploded into crimson.
A boy with red eyes standing over two bodies. His father. His brother. Blood everywhere. He was shaking. Nineteen years old and suddenly king of a realm that wanted him dead.
Flash.
A throne room. Soldiers kneeling. "House Shadowborn has fallen, Your Majesty. Every member eliminated as ordered."
Flash.
A woman with kind eyes and golden hair. Elena. His wife. Her smile. Her laugh. The way she looked at him like he was something other than a monster.
Flash.
Elena screaming. Dying. Choking on her own blood while he held her and begged and could not save her.
Flash.
Decades alone. Decades hungry. Decades watching himself become the very thing he swore he would never be.
Then me. The blood bond forming. Crimson light. His shock. His rage. His desperate hope that maybe, finally, he could be saved.
I yanked my hand away and gasped. Tears poured down my face without permission.
"You loved her," I choked out. "Elena. You actually loved her."
Kael's face was stone. But his eyes burned. "What else did you see?"
"Everything. Your father's death. My family's execution. Elena dying. All of it." I wrapped my arms around myself. "You became cruel because you lost everything you loved. Not because you wanted to be."
"Do not romanticize me." His voice was harsh. Brutal. "I made choices. I chose power over mercy every single time. Elena's death did not make me a monster. It just stopped me from pretending I was not one."
"You are not—"
"Yes. I am." He grabbed my face, forced me to look at him. "And you need to accept that. Because we are bound now and there is no escape. You will see my worst. My darkness. Everything I have done. And you will still have to stand beside me."
His thumb brushed my cheek. Wiping away tears. The gesture was so gentle it broke something in me.
"I do not want to feel this," I whispered.
"Feel what?"
"This. You. The bond making me understand you when I should hate you." My hand came up to cover his. "It would be easier if you were just a monster. But you are not. You are broken. And I cannot hate broken things no matter how hard I try."
His eyes went black. Then his mouth was on mine.
Hard. Demanding. Hungry. His hand fisted in my hair and I gasped and he used the opening to deepen the kiss. I tasted blood. His or mine. Did not matter. My hands grabbed his shirt and yanked him closer and the bond sang with approval.
This was wrong. This was the man who killed my family.
But he was also mine. The bond said so. My blood said so.
He pulled back, both of us breathing hard. His forehead rested against mine.
"This cannot happen," he said.
"I know."
"You are too young. Too human. Too—"
"I know."
"And I am too broken to give you anything except pain."
"I know." My fingers tightened in his shirt. "But the bond does not care."
"The bond is going to get us both killed."
He kissed me again. Softer this time. Almost careful. Like I was something precious instead of a half-blood abomination he was stuck with.
The door exploded inward.
Kael shoved me behind him as three figures in black burst into the room. Assassins. Blades out. Moving fast.
One lunged at Kael. He caught the blade bare-handed, snapped it, and broke the assassin's neck before I could blink.
The other two came at me.
Training kicked in. I dodged left. Grabbed a candlestick. Swung it hard into the first assassin's skull. He went down. The second one was faster. His blade caught my side and pain exploded bright and hot.
I fell. Hit the floor hard. Blood poured from the wound.
The assassin raised his blade for a killing blow.
Kael was there. He grabbed the assassin's head with both hands and twisted. The sound of breaking bone was very loud.
Then he was kneeling beside me, his hands pressing against my wound.
"Sera. Look at me."
I looked. His eyes were black with rage.
"You are not dying. Do you hear me? You are not allowed to die."
"Hurts," I managed.
"I know." He bit into his own wrist and pressed it to my mouth. "Drink. My blood will heal you."
"That is not how it—"
"Drink!"
I drank. His blood hit my tongue and power exploded through my veins. The wound in my side sealed shut. Bones knitted. Skin closed.
The bond flared between us so bright it hurt.
When I could breathe again, I realized I was in his lap. His arms wrapped around me. His face buried in my hair.
"Three assassins," he said quietly. "Someone knew we would be in this room. Someone wanted you dead."
"Cassian."
"Probably. But he would not act without support." Kael pulled back to look at me. "This is war now, Sera. Not politics. War. And you just became the most valuable piece on the board."
"Because of what I can do? The memory walking?"
"Because you are mine." His hand cupped my face. "And I protect what is mine."
Footsteps pounded in the corridor outside. Guards. Too late.
Kael stood with me still in his arms like I weighed nothing.
"From now on, you do not leave my sight. Ever. Understand?"
I nodded against his chest. Because what else could I do?
Someone had just tried to kill me.
And they would try again.