Fantasy

AXL
“What the fuck is going on?” Xavier bounces on his toes as we stand on the porch and wait for Ophelia and the professor to return. “You think we should go check on her?”
As much as I’d like to do exactly that, I shake my head. “Alexandros made it clear we were supposed to wait here.” The order he gave us fifteen minutes earlier still rings fresh in my head. His tone, as usual, was commanding and gruff, but there was something different about him.
Xavier jogs down the three steps and stands beside Malachi on the grass. “What do you think it is? Something definitely happened to her, didn’t it?” He glances back over his shoulder at me. “You both felt it?”
I nod and absentmindedly run my fingertips over the thick veins in my forearm, recalling how they burned with pure fire a short while ago. And without a shadow of a doubt, I know the rush of adrenaline that accompanied it had something

ALEXANDROS
Xavier rests his chin on Ophelia’s shoulder, his blue eyes glued to my face as he listens, enraptured. It is unlike him to be so curious, and this side of him intrigues me. “So the fates of elementai and vampires are bound. But how?” he asks.
I run my fingers through my beard and suppress a heavy sigh. I never intended to reveal this part of myself to them, having foolishly convinced myself that my past had no place in my future—and, until now at least, it had been irrelevant. Still, this is not a conversation I am prepared for tonight. But when Ophelia catches my eye and smiles, I am reminded how much all our lives are about to change. My boys need to know everything. The whole story. Everything except Lucian. I lack the strength necessary to answer the inevitable questions that will arise concerning him.
I blow out a breath. “Elementai are the only creature strong enough to 

OPHELIA
2 DAYS EARLIER
The world around me has changed infinitely. Every color is more vibrant, every sound sharper, each scent stronger and more potent than before. Yet I know, paradoxically, that everything remains exactly the same.
“How are you feeling, little one?” Alexandros’s words wash over me, blanketing me in warmth and anchoring me back to the present.
I suck in a deep lungful of air. I have no words to even begin to accurately explain how I’m feeling right now. My head is spinning with new emotions, thoughts, questions. It’s hard to believe that it’s been a little more than an hour since I was in the library with Cadence. It feels like a lifetime ago. “I don’t know. Different. Stronger?”
Alexandros arches an eyebrow. “Powerful?”
That would be an understatement. I feel like I could shoot lightning from the tips of my fingers. I nod and sink my teeth into my bottom lip, feeling both awkward and strangely unrestrained. “Yes. What just happened to me?”
“I believe you just unlocked your powers.”
“B-because we had …” I blush at the thought of saying the word sex to him despite the fact that I’m sitting on his lap and he’s still inside me.
“While I would like to think your powers were unlocked because of how well I fucked you, I think learning of your heritage is the true cause.”
The memory of what happened—of all those women who were tortured and murdered, the children who were torn from their mother’s arms—makes my chest tighten. “The pain.”
He pulls me closer. “I know.”
“Your pain, Alexandros. I’m so sorry.”
“We should get back to the house.” He slides himself out of me, and I wince at the burn and the loss of him. I can already feel him closing himself off to me.
The house. The boys. Where are they? “Why can’t I hear them?”
He shuffles me back enough that he can zip up his pants, and then he tucks my hair behind my ear. His fingertips tenderly brush over my face. He doesn’t have to ask who I’m referring to. “I blocked them.”
“You blocked them?”
He nods.
“But why?”
“Can you imagine how much of a distraction they would have been if they had felt even a fraction of what happened in here?”
I press my lips together and hum my agreement, suppressing a laugh at the thought. “They’d have been breaking the door down to get in here.”
“Exactly, agápi mou.”
My love. I will never tire of him calling me that. “And you can block them from my head too? How?”
“All bloodborne vampires are born with a gift. Mine lies in the power of my mind.”
“Like what? You can⁠—”
“Ophelia,” he says, his tone assertive but somehow still gentle. “Not now.”
“I’m sorry, but this is all so new and …” I swallow. “I want to know everything, sir. About what I am. My power. About you. About your family.”
I feel his heart ache with sadness as though it were my own. I cannot imagine enduring a betrayal such as the one he experienced. “You will. In good time.”
“Do the boys know of your past life? Of your wife and children?”
“No.” His response is a soft murmur as he presses his lips against my neck.
I know better than to delve further into that with him right now. It wouldn’t do me any good—he isn’t going to tell me why he chose to hide such a large part of who he is from them. Besides, I have slightly more immediate concerns. “And they don’t know what happened tonight? What we just did?”
He lifts his head, his dark eyes locked on mine once more. “They know nothing of what we did or of what I showed you, but I have no doubt they will have felt your power awakening within you.”
A shudder runs down my spine. My power! There is so much to know. My mind is buzzing with a bazillion questions, and I want to ask every single one.
Alexandros runs the pad of his thumb over my lip, anchoring me back to this moment. His touch soothes me, calming the chaos in my brain, and I wonder if that’s a part of his power too. There are still so many things I need to know, but most pressing is what we just did and what it means for all of us. Does he not want Axl, Xavier, and Malachi to know? Am I going to be his shameful secret? Locked away in his memories along with the family he lost five centuries ago but who he still mourns every single day?
He places his palm on my cheek, his large hand cupping an entire half of my face. “There are a lot of secrets we will have to keep, agápi mou, but this …” He presses a soft but possessive kiss on my lips, and I melt into him. “This is not one of them.”

AXL
“What the fuck is going on?” Xavier bounces on his toes as we stand on the porch and wait for Ophelia and the professor to return. “You think we should go check on her?”
As much as I’d like to do exactly that, I shake my head. “Alexandros made it clear we were supposed to wait here.” The order he gave us fifteen minutes earlier still rings fresh in my head. His tone, as usual, was commanding and gruff, but there was something different about him.
Xavier jogs down the three steps and stands beside Malachi on the grass. “What do you think it is? Something definitely happened to her, didn’t it?” He glances back over his shoulder at me. “You both felt it?”
I nod and absentmindedly run my fingertips over the thick veins in my forearm, recalling how they burned with pure fire a short while ago. And without a shadow of a doubt, I know the rush of adrenaline that accompanied it had something to do with Ophelia.
Malachi stares out across the lawn and into the distance. “I think it’s her pow

Chapter 60