Original Sin (The Order of Vampires 1)
Guilt swamped her and she wrapped her arms protectively around her stomach. “I’m trying to make the right decision. But I didn’t ask for any of this.”
“If we were only given the things we asked for, imagine how many gifts would be missed. Sometimes, God gives us exactly what we need, no more, no less.”
She envied their beliefs. Her own weren’t as strong.
“My father saw my uncle’s treachery as his responsibility. Family is a great honor and obligation. The lives lost were our burden to bear. We had a duty to find him. To ... end him.”
She sat up, realizing this story might not have a happy ending. “Did you?”
“We found him deep in the northern woods, just beyond the border of Canada. The scent of bloodshed saturated the air around him. He’d been draining the body of a woman who had drawn her last breath hours before. Fetid blood can cause insanity, and by the trail of bodies we’d found, he’d been living off the blood of corpses for weeks. Not just drinking them, but...” He looked away. “He’d use them until there was nothing left, shredding their flesh like ribbons, claws buried as their organs fell out.”
Each breath became a chore as she tried not to imagine such a grotesque sight. She could envision the monster so clearly the hair rose at the back of her neck. She’d glimpsed Adam’s rage in the field, when his twin thought to pretend he was Adam. She’d thought an animal had attacked, but no.
“It was up until that moment,” Jonas continued, “seeing my uncle rutting into a corpse, feeding on her cold blood as it leaked from her scored belly and stained his skin, that I believed there might be a chance he could still be saved.” He shook his head. “We were so naïve. A soulless monster... It would have destroyed Isaiah to know what he’d become. But he was already gone.”
“Did you kill him?”
“There’s a potency to human blood that animal blood lacks. He’d glutted himself for weeks and his strength surpassed ours. He nearly killed my father, almost severing his head completely from his neck and spine. I had to pump his heart with my bare hands while others fed him blood, his own spilling too fast to heal his injuries.”
Her hand lifted to her racing heart. The painful memory etched into Jonas’s face, setting deep lines of tension around his mouth and eyes.
“My father’s hair turned white that night. A streak, right here. Our kind doesn’t get gray hair. Our bodies remain in their prime, never appearing to age beyond early adulthood.” He touched his jaw. “It’s why we don’t wear full beards.”
“But your father survived.”
“Yes. Though he couldn’t speak of his brother for many years.”
He stood and Annalise suffered a rush of uncertainty. How could she live with herself if such a fate took Adam?
“Only you can save my son.”
Her vision wavered under a wall of unshed tears. She nodded, unable to make any promises, but now truly understanding the consequences of her options.
Seeing her understand, he placed a hand briefly on her shoulder and walked away.
A chill raced up her spine and she stood. “Jonas?”
His eyes found hers, his expression weathered with worry and tension. “Yes, my child.”
“What happened to Isaiah?”
He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “We can only hope he’s dead.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Adam sensed a shift in Annalise’s emotions when his father came into the house. Moments later, Annalise followed, but avoided eye contact as she rushed upstairs.
Rising from the table where he talked with his mother, Adam quickly apologized for having to leave in the middle of a conversation and went after his mate. When Adam entered his bedroom, Annalise’s frantic emotions pelted him like buckshot. She paced and wrung her hands.
“Anna, what is it?”
She spun to face him, her eyes tight with worry. “Adam, I need to go home.”
His heart knotted, her decision gutting him and knocking him back a step. His hand pressed into the wall, holding him up as his gaze dropped to the floor. Eviscerated by her choice, his heart split in two and he rasped, “I’ll have a carriage readied.”
“Thank you.” She let out a breath, her relief at complete odds with his pain.
He couldn’t bring himself to meet her gaze. “My father will accompany you. It’s best we say our goodbyes now.”
His hands trembled as his mind worked through the methodical steps he’d need to take. First, he’d notify the Elders. They’d place him in a holding cell. She’d be safe from him then. At that point, he’d have his grandfather inform his mother and sisters.
His eyes closed. This was what he’d wanted. He’d promised the decision would be hers and he was honor bound to respect her choice, no matter how it gutted him.