I’d honestly never seen the woman move so fast.
Antonio came and put a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “I must apologise on Eloise’s behalf. Her behaviour is truly unacceptable, and I shall have a conversation with her about it later.”
Sam waved a hand. “I wouldn’t bother yourself with the whole thing, Antonio. Let her dig her own grave.”
“If you are not too busy, could I speak with you both for a moment?” Without waiting for a response, he gestured for us to follow him and Luther through the patio doors. Exchanging a look with Sam, I shrugged and took her hand. We trailed behind them down the eternally long hallway, not stopping until they reached one of his parlour rooms. With his hand on the doorknob, Antonio said, “There’s someone here to see you both.”
When he opened it wide, Sam and I stepped inside. Almost instantly, we froze. I wasn’t in the fucking mood for this. I groaned at Antonio. “Why is she here?”
“I think you should listen to what she has to say.” He motioned at the empty sofa that was positioned opposite an identical one on which a nervous redhead sat gingerly.
I was ready to object when Sam squeezed my hand and tugged. Let’s just hear her out. There’s no harm in that.
Fine, but two minutes is the most I’m staying here.
Alora smiled nervously as we took a seat opposite her. Antonio sat beside her and took her hand in his. Luther sat at her other side. After a moment of silence, she cleared her throat. “I know you don’t want me here”
“So why are you here?” I snapped. I winced when Sam pinched my arm.
Tears shimmered in Alora’s eyes. “Because it’s Evan,” she said simply – there was a confusing amount of adoration in her voice.
“You love him,” whispered Sam. She nodded.
In my opinion, her actions said something totally different. “Then why did you reject him?”
Alora seemed bewildered. “I didn’t reject him. I just…I couldn’t give him what he wanted.”
Cryptic shit. I hated cryptic shit. “What does that mean?”
“He didn’t tell you?” When I shook my head, she straightened in her seat as if bracing herself for impact. “I’m Bound to someone else.”
I could only gape at her. “What the fuck?”
She averted her gaze, seemingly embarrassed. “Please understand I was only nineteen years old. What’s more, I was no more than eighteen months old in vampire years and I didn’t truly understand just how serious a Binding actually was.”
I looked down at the third finger of her left hand and saw a bulky emerald ring that no doubt covered a Binding knot.
“I bought every lie that Gregory ever told me. I agreed to Bind with him after only being with him for three months. It wasn’t until after the Binding that things changed, he changed.” She sounded as angry with herself as she was with him.
“He hurt you,” Sam guessed.
“In about as many ways as a person can hurt another.”
“Does Bran know?” I asked.
“Yes. Bran saved me from him. It’s a long story, but he got me away and he kept me as his ‘consort’ to give me added protection. I think you know why he really keeps female consorts. The arrangement worked well for both of us, in that sense.”
I considered that for a minute. “So your loyalty to Bran kept you with him? Bran refuses to let you leave him?”
“No. Bran would let me leave if I wanted to do so. In fact, he doesn’t think there’s any safer place for me to be than here, with Evan. But Gregory wants me back. Because we’re Bound, he knows exactly where I am at all times. But he’s not powerful enough to take on a High Master vampire and he’s not stupid enough to try. But it means that I’ve always felt trapped, knowing that if I left Bran, Gregory would be able to take me back to him. I hate him, hate him, but I’m stuck with him.”
“I take it you didn’t tell Evan in the beginning.”
“No. I just felt so ashamed of myself. Ashamed for being so gullible as to Bind with someone I hardly knew. But at the time, it had felt right.”
I couldn’t really vilify her for Binding with someone after only knowing them for a short time. Not when Sam and I hadn’t known each other for long.
“I understand,” said Sam. “It felt right for me and Jared, even though we hadn’t been together long.”
“Yes, and it would have continued to feel right for me if Gregory had really been the person that he pretended to be. But he’s a far cry from it. He’s violent and he’s abusive, and I didn’t want Evan to be responsible for keeping me safe. I didn’t want him in any form of danger. So I gave him a bunch of excuses as to why I couldn’t be with him, but they never deterred him. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone so persistent,” she added endearingly. Her face fell as she continued. “When he asked me on the night of your Binding ceremony to stay here with him permanently, I finally told him about Gregory.” She gave me a sad smile. “Imagine how well you would have taken it if you found out that Sam was Bound to someone else.”
I would have wanted to hunt down and kill the fucker…but to do that would have been to kill Sam too, because she wouldn’t have survived the severing of the bond. Fuck, no wonder Evan’s head had been in a shitty place. “So you didn’t reject him?”
“No. It was actually the other way around. I asked if he could handle being with someone who he could never Bind with, someone who would always be tied to somebody else – even though I despised that somebody else. He didn’t answer me. He just…walked away.” Tears began to trail down her face and she brushed them away with her thumbs. “Then when it was time for me to leave the next evening, he didn’t come. Not to ask me to stay or even to say goodbye.”
Sam puffed out a long breath. “Alora, I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, me too. Evan doesn’t want me and he’s never going to want me – I don’t blame him. In his position, I’m not sure if I could handle it either. It would be agonising to know that he was Bound to someone else, to know that I’d never have that same bond with him. But I still want to help him. Maybe I can’t. But I need to try. I need to do something. If you were me, Sam, if Jared had made it clear that he didn’t want you, could you still have sat back and ignored the fact that he was dying?”
Sam snorted. “I would have done whatever I could to help, whether he wanted me to or not.”
I might have smiled at that if I wasn’t so pissed with how things had worked out – or, more specifically, how they hadn’t worked out – for my brother. I mean, really, could the situation be any more fucked up? I ran a hand through my hair, sighing heavily. “Where is Gregory?”
Alora dabbed her wet cheeks with the tissue that Antonio handed to her. “Canada.”
“He doesn’t try to contact you?”
She shook her head. “He’s too scared of Bran. Please don’t ask me to go back home. I need to do something.”
I was silent as I thought on that. “I won’t ask you to leave,” I eventually said. How could I expect her to do that when she was clearly in as much agony as Evan was over the whole thing? “But I’ll be honest, Alora, I don’t see how you can help. None of us have been able to come up with a solution. I have one condition, though. If you stay, you can’t try to see Evan.”
“I’m guessing he made it clear that he didn’t want me here. It’s okay.” Another sad, wobbly smile.
“That’s not what I mean. Evan just doesn’t want you to see him like that.”
“Nice of you to try and spare my feelings, but I know he doesn’t want me around.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure of that.” My words didn’t seem to affect her.