Blood Ties Bundle: Blood Ties Book One: The Turning / Blood Ties Book Two: Possession / Blood Ties Book Three: Ashes to Ashes / Blood Ties Book Four: All Souls' Night. Jennifer Armintrout

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      “Kind of. But maybe I should have trusted you. I mean, if I had said, ‘I made this deal with Cyrus, now I’ve gotta go live with him,’ you’d respect that, right? You wouldn’t just come charging in to save me.”

      He arched an eyebrow sardonically in answer.

      “Which is exactly why I didn’t tell you.” With every passing second, I became more aware of how much I’d missed Nathan, and more afraid that I’d made a mistake in coming to live with Cyrus. There was no blood tie between Nathan and me to inspire my feelings for him. Did that mean they were stronger than what I felt for Cyrus?

      As if in slow motion, Nathan reached through the gate, and I lifted my arm toward him. When our hands touched, a current leapt through me, different from any I’d felt from the bond I shared with Cyrus. There was no darkness in these feelings. Nathan’s thumb stroked the back of my hand as our fingers entwined, and we stared at each other for some time before he spoke.

      “Carrie, do you want to leave?”

      My head snapped up. “For real?”

      “For real.” He laughed softly. “I can get you out the same time I get Ziggy.”

      I looked back at the house. The light in Cyrus’s room was on. “I want to go, but—”

      “But the tie is holding you back.” Nathan gave my hand a squeeze.

      A tear fell from my eye and landed on the back of his hand, freezing almost instantly on his cold skin. Why was I crying? I wanted to escape this place, didn’t I? “I don’t know if I’m strong enough to walk away from him, Nathan.” I couldn’t meet his gaze. “When I’m not near him, I don’t miss him, but when I’m with him…I feel like he needs me. It probably doesn’t make sense to you, but I like to be needed.”

      “It makes perfect sense. Why else would you have become a doctor?”

      Nathan’s words brought back the memory of sitting beside Dr. Fuller in the cold, impersonal staff locker room. My mentor’s voice resounded like a requiem bell in my head.

      “Why did you want to be a doctor?”

      I’d thought I’d wanted power. Now I had that power and I didn’t want to use it. Was Nathan right? Had I become a doctor not out of some heartless quest for control, but from a desire to be indispensable and valued by complete strangers? Did I only feel complete when other people needed me?

      The most annoying part of this revelation was that someone else had made it before I had. I must have been the most naive twenty-eight-year-old on the planet.

      “Carrie, are you all right?”

      I looked up at Nathan. “I want to leave.”

      He cocked his head, uncertain. “You mean that?”

      Leaving such sure things as shelter and regular meals should have struck me with fear, but it didn’t. When my parents died, I’d survived on my own. The only difference was this time I wanted to be an orphan.

      “Yeah,” I answered finally. “You’d run like hell, too, if you saw the window treatments in there.”

      Still holding my hand, Nathan reached through the gate and pulled me into an awkward and slightly painful hug. When he stepped back, a slight flush colored his face.

      So, vampires blush.

      “This is the plan,” he said, clearing his throat. “Lie low when we get here, and whatever you do, don’t fight anyone. Stick close to Ziggy. They’re not going to hurt him. And for God’s sake, stay away from Cyrus. He’s a main target.”

      “Just don’t do anything stupid.” After the vision I’d seen, I knew he had a score to settle. It was a good thing he didn’t know what Cyrus had done to Ziggy.

      “I think it’s too late for that.” The intense way Nathan’s gaze roamed over my face lent an uncomfortable meaning to that statement. But in the next moment, the intensity was gone. Nathan dug in his pocket and produced a tiny bottle. “Take this.”

      Without thinking, I stuck it in my bra for safekeeping. “What is it?”

      “Holy water.”

      I fumbled to remove the vial. “Jesus Christ, you could have warned me!”

      He laughed. “Sorry. I didn’t know you were going to stuff it down your shirt.”

      “What do I do with it?” I asked as I held it in my hands.

      “Be careful with it. It’ll cause a nasty burn. But use it to defend yourself if you have to.”

      Hoping to ease his mind, I shook my head. “I’m not going to need it. He hasn’t paid any attention to me for a while.” Realizing I sounded wistful, I quickly added, “Not that I care, or anything.”

      “You do care,” Nathan said softly. “That’s why he doesn’t deserve you.”

      “Nathan—” I began, but he cut me off.

      “I’ve got to go. Keep in mind what I said, and go over the plans again. I’ll see you Saturday.” He turned, took a few steps, and stopped. He didn’t look at me. “Thanks for saving my life.”

      I knew him well enough to realize that when Nathan got choked up, his accent grew thicker. It was almost impossible to understand his next words.

      “And maybe after we get you and Ziggy out, you’ll tell me how you liked the drawing.”

      When I returned to my room, I pulled the sketch from its hiding place. After the party, I’d have to tell him it didn’t look anything like me. Because the woman on the page was a completely different person. Things used to happened to her.

      This person was about to make things happen.

      

      Making things happen proved to be more difficult than I expected. Cyrus was increasingly moody, constantly fretting over the impending fete and his seemingly permanent houseguests. A huge part of my plan to help Ziggy hinged on my ability to manipulate Cyrus, but it was hard to manipulate someone when they wouldn’t talk to you. Saturday loomed like impending death. I grew desperate, and not just because my plan might fall through.

      As sick and dishonest as it seemed, I wanted to spend one last day with him. It was a death wish, considering how adept he was at reading my mind, but he either had been too busy to uncover my deception yet, or he had figured it out and was waiting to punish me for it at a more convenient time. For reasons I wasn’t willing to explore, I would risk being found out for just a few more hours with him, even after he’d made me feel so…used.

      Eventually I decided that if I were to get myself back into Cyrus’s good graces, I’d have to take the first step. Friday morning, I went to his bed without an invitation. Dressed in a white silk nightgown I’d found in my wardrobe, my heart pounding so loudly I thought it would burst from my chest, I stared down the guards at his door.

      When I entered his bedroom, I’d expected to find him with Dahlia or Ziggy, but he lounged on the СКАЧАТЬ