Blood Bond Saga, Book 1 by Helen Hardt

Author:Helen Hardt [Hardt, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642630121
Publisher: Waterhouse Press

Chapter Thirteen

Dante

Bill rubbed at his chin, looking pensive. “I’m not sure you’re ready to hear it yet, Dante.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t know where you’ve been, what you’ve been through. You might be scarred, and I don’t want to add to your trauma.”

He didn’t know the half of it. “What you need to tell me is traumatic?”

“No. But it may be for you. I don’t know how ready you are. You were barely eighteen when you left.”

“Correction. I didn’t leave. I was taken.”

“You and your cousin went to Bourbon Street. After your fathers and I told you not to.”

“All kids go to Bourbon Street. It’s a rite of passage. You know that as well as I do. And I was eighteen.”

“But we warned you about the paranormal activity there, activity that’s too much for a young vampire’s acute senses. And you went on Mardi Gras, when the veils between the worlds are nearly as thin as on Samhain.”

“So you’re saying this is really all my fault? That I was separated from my family for ten years? You have no idea what I went through!”

“That’s right. I don’t. And no, it wasn’t your fault.”

“How did River get back?”

“He didn’t. The police found him. The sun had already risen. He was badly burned, though not enough to raise any suspicions.”

“At least he got back.”

“Yes, and we were thankful for that. But don’t for one minute think that we didn’t mourn your loss.”

“I know that. I don’t know why I’m still angry. I don’t know why I’m saying half of the things that come out of my mouth.” Emotion bubbled through my gut. My anger launched itself toward Bill, though he’d done nothing wrong.

“Your sister suffered the worst,” Bill said. “Losing first her brother and then her father.”

A spear of regret lanced through me. I had been focused on my own trauma and hadn’t thought about how any of this had affected my family. “I’m sorry.”

“None of us blame you, Dante. We never did.”

All those years I spent in captivity I had tried to remember exactly what had happened that night. But no matter how hard I concentrated, all I had in my head was a jumble of blurry pieces to a puzzle that I could never quite put together. “Does River remember what happened that night?”

Bill shook his head. “No. He doesn’t even remember you being taken.”

“I don’t either. I just remember waking up…”

“Where did you wake up, Dante?”

I closed my eyes. Hunger. Hunger and pain. I woke up naked and shackled to a bed.

I couldn’t sit here and tell my grandfather, who I admired more than any other person in the world, what had been done to me. How I’d allowed myself to be tortured. He would lose all respect for me, all love for me. How had I not been able to defend myself? How could I have let it happen?

How could I tell him I had been violated? Had my blood stolen?

How could I live with any of this?

No. Couldn’t talk yet.

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