The Bloodbound Awakening

he metallic tang of old blood and wet stone, each breath coating her tongue with the taste of rust and forgotten things. Her bare feet slipped on da

seum-voices that weren't hers, memories that didn't b

ide from me,

tolling bell. Elian pressed herself against the rough-hewn wall, her chest heaving as she tried to quiet her breathing. The torchlight from the museum above had long sin

at first unguarded moment of awakening, when his midnight-blue eyes had locked onto hers with a recognition that chilled her blood. T

, her fingers digging into the uneven stone behind her. The

e you

nd stood empty. Then-movement. A shadow detached itself from the wall, resolving into the tall, elegant form of Rae

have time

ainst the unyielding stone, his body pressing along the length of hers. Up close, he was both beautiful and terrible-his face carved from moonlight and sharp angles, his

h smelled of winter air and something faintly

there felt like marble-cold and unyielding. "I don't know what you're tal

ghtened fracti

her sternum, right over the pulsating pe

ld dissolved

-no, not herself, never herself-standing before an ornate mirror in a wedding gown the color of freshly spilled blood. The bodice was

aph

rushing the curve of her neck where the gown dipped low. In the mirror, hi

ured against her skin, "

ach her eyes. Her fingers drifted absently to the dagger hidden in the folds of

hispered back, "you'll

h

back slamming against the opposite wall of the catacomb. Her c

s expression unreadable in the dim light. "N

weight of the wedding gown, the cool hilt of the dagger, the way her-Seraphina's-heart had pounded with somet

mine? Why do the runes answer to your touch?" Another step. The temperature in the tunnel dropped sharply

e with her racing heart, its silver threads pu

broke th

ed her hea

Jason held a rusted iron bar like a weapon, his knuckles white around its length.

ord trembling in the air betwe

gaze flicked to the newcomers, then back to h

e next Jason was on the ground, his iron bar skittering across the stone with a metallic clang. Raelith loomed ove

N

hot and bright and terrifying-the runes on her skin igniting with crimson light that cast grotesque

he m

o crack stone. Dust rained from the ceiling as he impacted, his

le

hoed through the catacombs. He straightened slo

n the dim light. "The last daughter of Seraphina

es wild as they darted between Elian and the vampire. "Elian," he ga

rds came. Because the truth was

just Elia

terrible kind of sense now. The pendant's weight against her sternum, the runes that gl

n part of her ha

e wors

ue eyes, some equally hidden part of her wanted