Page 41 of Bound By Blood

“No,” he said simply with just the slightest shake of his head. “No, because after we see Kata and she tells us how to break this thing, it won’t matter anymore.”

Even though he wasn’t looking at her, he could feel Carly’s gaze narrow at his back. “I’m in your world now, Landon. Whether you like it or not and whether you choose to let me. There’s no way I’m going back to being just Carly. Your world calls to me.”

He didn’t like it, but he knew she meant every word. He knew that she wasn’t just going to let it go now that she knew there was a whole other dark underworld out there. “I never expected you to go back to your normal life. But once the bond is broken, it won’t be my problem anymore.”

“You mean I won’t be your problem anymore.” The pain in her voice was evident, but he forced himself to ignore it. He couldn’t go back now. Not now that he had come this far when it came to putting her behind him.

Landon shrugged and took a sip of his drink. “If that’s how you want to see it. Like I said, you changed me. In ways that I don’t like. I preferred it when I couldn’t feel a damn thing.”

“Why is feeling such a bad thing? If I make you feel, why is that bad?”

That caused him to face her, his eyes narrowed. She was asking him why her making him feel was a bad thing when that was the exact thing she had been fighting from the very beginning. He found it condescending that she would even ask.

“I could ask you the same fucking question,” he ground out through clenched teeth. “I was willing to try, Carly. I went out of my way to make you feel welcomed and accepted. I shared things with you that I have never shared with anyone else, and you spit in my face. I know I make you feel things, but you’ve been fighting them from the very beginning. So, don’t go asking me a question you already know the answer to. It’s a waste of time.”

She nodded rapidly and leaned toward him. “I get that, I do. I have a lot of things to work on, and I’ve already apologized. I just don’t want it to end this way. I don’t want it to end at all!”

“So, I’ll ask you again.” He held out his arms, nearly knocking his glass of bourbon off the table. “What do you want from me, Carly? What do you want from this? How do you think this is going to go? Be in my world for what, sixty or seventy years or so? Use me for sex whenever you feel the need to get off? You aren’t a vampire, and I will not change you. So, what’s the fucking point? I’m not going to spend the next several years of my immortal life fighting with you either. It’s not worth it; you already proved that.”

A tear gathered in her eye, and she leaned back as if he had slapped her. It felt like a dagger being shoved into his chest. “Then I guess there’s nothing left, is there?”

“I guess not,” he stated simply.

It hadn’t been his intention to make her cry, and it made him feel like shit, but she needed to understand that she had pushed him too far. She fought him so hard that she had completely pushed him away. He wasn’t going to keep trying if it wasn’t going to get him anywhere. He couldn’t live like that. He needed to go back to the way things were before Carly when he didn’t care about anyone but himself. Besides, she may say all this now, but the moment he started thinking things were going well, she would be back to fighting him. That was just the kind of person she was.

Carly angrily wiped the tear away and turned back toward the front of the jet. “What should I expect from this Kata woman?”

Landon almost snorted at how easily she could change the subject. That was her default setting. When things got too difficult or too hard, she ran. Whether physically or in the middle of a conversation.

“Darkness like you’ve never seen before,” he replied, picking up his phone again and scrolling through his work emails. “She’s been banished for centuries. That kind of isolation brings out the worst in us.”

He didn’t bother telling her that he would make sure Kata didn’t go near her. He had no desire to hear her claim that she could protect herself. She would eventually learn the hard way that it wouldn’t be the case when it came to his kind. Especially one like Kata, who had been cut off from the rest of them.

“Wonderful,” she whispered. “How long are we staying?”

“Couple days at most. I got us a cabin a few miles away from where she’s staying. Two rooms, so don’t worry, you won’t have to deal with me.”

“Right,” she muttered.

She didn’t sound too thrilled about the sleeping arrangements, but that could have been wishful thinking on his part. He wasn’t thrilled with the idea either, but it was better for both of them. They needed to keep as much distance between them as possible. Otherwise, breaking this thing might end up being harder than they realized. Which also meant that he couldn’t feed from her again, and she needed to understand that so that there were no surprises.

“And I’ll need to feed when we get there before we go see her,” he added. “I haven’t fed in four days, so I’m not at my strongest, and I need to be when it comes to her. Depending on how long it takes to convince her to speak to us and help us break this bond, should only be a day or two after that.”

Carly was quiet for a little while before she spoke again. “Will it hurt?”

He looked up at her when he heard the concern in her voice. “Honestly, I don’t know. But you’re tough. You can handle it.”

“What if the only way to break it is through death? My death?” Her eyes never left his as she asked this question and he could see the fear that she tried to hide from him. But she didn’t need to be afraid.

Landon had thought about this as well and knew that it was a possibility. A bond as strong as the one between them wouldn’t be broken so easily. But if the only way to break the bond was through death, then it would be his death. He’d accept that if it meant that she was safe from him and the horrors of his world.

“I won’t let that happen, Carly,” he told her firmly, making sure she could see the truth on his face. “If the only way to break it is through death, then it will be my death. Not yours. I’ve lived for centuries. Your life is just getting started.”

Without another response, Carly took a blanket from a nearby chair, snapped it open, and tucked her legs to her chest. She nestled into the chair and draped the blanket over her, keeping her back to him.

He didn’t know if she believed him, she had already proven that she didn’t trust him, but if things came down to it, he’d show her. He always kept his word. Granted, he never thought he’d see the day when he was willing to die for a human, but this human would always hold a special place in his cold-dead heart. Even when they broke the bond.

Chapter 16