Bloodchild by Kallysten

Author:Kallysten
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kallysten
Published: 2015-03-10T04:00:00+00:00

* * * *

Only by sheer reflex had Bradan picked up his pants off the floor before storming out of the sitting room. He fumbled into them on the way down to the first floor—down to the kitchen, where he stuck his head under the water spout and pumped water over his head, turning his face sideways so water flooded his mouth and washed away Vivien’s blood.

It had been no more than a few drops, not even a mouthful, but even after he’d rinsed his mouth three times, he could still taste it, taste her, and every part of him clamored for more.

He had to go. He couldn’t stay in the same house she slept in. He didn’t trust himself to be that close.

He rushed out through the back door and, barefoot on the cool, wet grass, half ran, half stumbled away from the castle. He could see the shimmer of the shields ahead of him, getting close, closer. Some tiny part of him shouted a warning before he reached them: he couldn’t go past the shields. That rule had been drummed into him since he’d been a child. He’d already made a terrible mistake tonight; he couldn’t add to it now.

Falling to his knees, he fisted his hands and found himself striking the ground without quite realizing what he was doing. He was the one who deserved to be struck.

And he was sure he would be as soon as Aedan got there.

Without thinking about what he was doing, he sat back, and drew the knife from the sheath attached to his belt. He turned it absently between his fingers, watching the shields, close enough that he could have touched them if he’d reached out.

It wasn’t long before he could hear quiet steps coming up to him and stopping at a small distance behind him. He waited for Aedan to come forward, to say something, but seconds passed, then an entire minute, and still Aedan didn’t say anything or move.

“You were right,” Bradan admitted in a broken murmur, the truth of the words like acid eroding his heart. “I should never have let myself be that close to her.” Lower still, he added, “I could have killed her.”

Aedan finally moved forward, his steps as silent on the grass as his emotions were through the bond. Bradan couldn’t read him at all, and it scared him. He felt alone in his own mind, something that hadn’t happened since he’d returned to Foh’Ran with Vivien. Of all the ways living in the Otherworld had been different, not having his brother with him, if only as a presence through the bond, had been what Bradan hated the most.

Coming up to Bradan, Aedan sat next to him, his legs crossed and his eyes staring straight ahead.

“I should have stopped you,” he said with a sigh.

“You tried. I didn’t listen. Neither did she, but she had no reason to. She doesn’t know what the hunger is like. I do. I thought I could control it. You told me I couldn’t, but I thought I knew better.

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