Bewitch the Darkness by Alexandra Ivy

Author:Alexandra Ivy [Ivy, Alexandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Published: 2021-08-24T00:30:27+00:00

Chapter 13

Locke could sense the moment that Kyi woke. It was in the way her breathing changed, and the beat of her heart. An unexpected pang of disappointment raced through him. Holding her in his arms as she’d slept had been shockingly pleasurable. Not just the warm press of her body, but he’d spent the past hours studying her face in the firelight, almost as if he was trying to memorize each curve and sweep.

The thought of having to let her go was more painful than he wanted to admit.

Slowly her lashes fluttered up, revealing her sleep-dazed eyes. She stiffened, as if she wasn’t quite sure where she was, or why she was lying in the lap of a vampire, but even as he prepared for her to wiggle out of his arms, she reached up to lightly touch the star-shaped scar on the side of his neck.

“Tell me about this,” she murmured.

He flinched. The wound had healed centuries ago, but it still caused him pain. Not physical pain, but the mental torment that would never be eased.

“You’re supposed to be resting.” Reaching up, he pressed her fingers against the side of his neck, hiding the scar. As if he could block out the unwelcomed memories.

“I am,” she murmured, her gaze searching his tense face. “Does it bother you to talk about it?”

Locke conceded defeat. She wasn’t going to let this go. “It’s not a pretty story,” he warned.

“Was it a battle?”

“Nothing so glorious.”

“Battle wounds are glorious?” There was no missing the hint of reproach in her tone.

He turned his head to glance toward the fire. He didn’t want her to see his shame. Not because he was abused. It’d started when he was too vulnerable to fight back. But because it had taken him so long to find the means of escaping his tormentor.

“Better than being brutalized by my sire.”

She jerked, as if horrified by his words. “Your sire wounded you?”

Locke’s lips twitched. The fact she could be shocked by his sire when her own mother was determined to kill her revealed the essential purity of her heart. She obviously wanted to believe in the goodness of others. Locke, on the other hand, had allowed himself to become jaded. He expected the worst and he was rarely disappointed. Except for Kyi. She’d been a complete and utter surprise. In the best way.

“He enjoyed tormenting his children,” he forced himself to confess. She needed to understand his past if—Locke cut off the thought. Now wasn’t the time to think about the future. Not until Xuria was dead and Kyi was safe. “His favorite pastime was tying us to the floor in a special room he had built in his lair,” he continued, his gaze still locked on the dancing flames.

“What was special about it?”

“There were small holes drilled into the roof.”

“Why would he want holes? I’d think that would defeat the purpose of the roof.”

Locke clenched his fangs, unable to halt the memory of his earliest years from forming in his mind.

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