Crimson Bound (Blood Oath #7)

6. Lex

6

LEX

I spend a good part of the morning grumpy over Kade going after Calla without me. He’s the closest thing I have to a best friend—besides Atlas, who I’m bonded to by blood since he sired me—and the fucker ditched me.

“I think it’s best Kade went alone. We don’t want to overwhelm Calla again,” Gabriel says as I drop into a chair in the living room with the book I started a few nights ago.

I snort. “Agree to disagree. I was ready to have some fun.”

Gabriel shoots me a look that I promptly ignore, sticking my nose in my book until the sound of Kade’s car reaches me an hour later as he pulls into the garage. I hear Calla’s heartbeat almost immediately—suffice it to say she isn’t thrilled to be back here.

I keep my grip on the book but peer up when the garage door closes. “Look what we have here. Little girl lost found her way home.” I can’t help myself; I shoot a wink at Calla.

She shakes her head. “What?”

I can’t quite decipher her tone, but the dark look on her face is telling enough. She’s had enough.

Too fucking bad .

“Perhaps we should get you a leash,” I offer in a playful voice, the corner of my mouth kicking up when her pulse does. She’s just so easy to get a rise out of.

“Perhaps you should?—”

“Coffee is fresh,” Gabriel interrupts smoothly as he gets up and walks toward the kitchen. “Calla?”

I watch her as she drags her gaze away from me to follow Gabriel and says, “Yeah.”

Kade and I exchange a look before I drop my attention back to my book, trying to ignore the conversation between Gabriel and Calla across the room in the kitchen. Granted, it’s a bit difficult with vampiric hearing and considering our main floor is one huge room. Gabriel confirms how Calla drinks her coffee, and there’s a small stretch of silence before she asks, “Why am I here?”

Gabriel’s response is gentle. “You belong to us, Calla.”

She doesn’t miss a beat. “To what end?”

I lower my book and glance over at them. “Yours, I suppose,” I tell her with another wink.

She keeps her attention on Gabriel, and he says, “The agreement becomes void upon your natural death. We also have the option to terminate it.”

I press my lips together to keep the laughter at bay, because there’s no chance in hell we’d do that. Not after waiting so damn long for her.

Gabriel continues, “Don’t look so hopeless, angel.”

Refocusing on my book, I find myself reading the same line several times before giving up, surrendering to the pangs of hunger in my stomach. Considering I can’t act on the other, far more primal hunger, I’ll do the best I can with what we have— bacon .

I toss the book onto the coffee table and haul my ass off the couch, prowling toward the kitchen, where I pull out a package of bacon and a carton of eggs to start breakfast.

Calla shifts out of my way but makes no move to leave the vicinity, leaning against the counter while she sips her coffee. Small victory. I half expected her to retreat to the bedroom we set up for her and stay there until one of us dragged her out.

Kade joins us as I’m putting the bacon in a frying pan on the glass stovetop. He sits at one of the kitchen islands, and Calla casts him a glance that he doesn’t notice while he’s engrossed with something on his phone. Without a word, she crosses the room and opens the fridge, retrieving a container of berries, which she takes to the sink to rinse.

Once the bacon is sizzling, I start turning it over in the pan, glancing in Calla’s direction to find her already watching me. The thrill that sends through me has my lips curving up at the corners. “Hungry?” I ask her.

She nods, munching on a blueberry. “So you guys eat human food then.”

Kade chuckles, setting his phone on the counter. She has his attention now. “Yes, Calla. We eat like normal people. Well, most of us. Only born vampires don’t need human food to survive—just blood.”

She doesn’t miss a beat. “So turned vampires can survive on either?”

“We need both,” I chime in, cracking an egg into a separate frying pan before scrambling it with a spatula.

“Are all of you turned then?”

I exchange a short glance with Kade. We didn’t discuss what information, if any, we’d keep from Calla—in hindsight, we should have—not that this particular piece is incredibly sensitive.

Calla speaks again before either of us can provide a response. “What? Is that some sort of secret?”

Atlas’s entrance from the back of the house grants us reprieve from answering her. He’s glistening with sweat, likely just back from a run, and Calla’s eyes snap to him immediately. Confusion flickers through me at her brief frown, and she takes a sip of her coffee, as if to hide it from view.

Atlas comes closer, pausing at the counter near Calla, where his gaze shifts slowly from her to Kade. My interest is piqued when his brow arches and her cheeks flush, though neither say anything before Atlas leaves the room.

I open my mouth to ask Calla how she likes her eggs, but she takes off after Atlas before I can get the words out. “What the fuck was that about?” I ask Kade.

He sits back, setting his phone down, and shrugs. “What?”

My eyes narrow slightly as the bacon continues to sizzle in the pan behind me. “What’d you two get up to at the hotel this morning?”

His lips twist into a smirk. “Why? Jealous?”

“Probably.”

Kade’s eyes glimmer with dark amusement. “I simply gave her a proper welcome.”

I scowl halfheartedly, adjusting my cock in my pants as I turn back to the stove.

From the second level, I can hear the thundering beat of Calla’s heart from going after Atlas. The catch in her breath. The panic in her voice when she says, “Shit, sorry.”

Atlas’s level response comes a moment later, and they volley back and forth, while my sire manages to evade actually answering any of Calla’s questions.

I peer over at Kade, who is also clearly listening. “I don’t think she’s going to play nice very easily,” I muse as I plate the food, bringing it over to the dining table.

“Yeah, but that’d be so boring.” He drags out the last word as he moves to the table, and I chuckle. He’s not wrong. Calla being here is going to be anything but boring.

A few minutes later, the aforementioned human returns with flushed cheeks and a clenched jaw. Kade and I have already dug into the food, devouring the bacon and eggs as Calla approaches and sits, glancing between us and frowning when she seems to realize that we heard her exchange with Atlas.

“Where’s Gabriel?” she asks.

“He left for work,” I tell her, downing half a glass of orange juice.

She nods, reaching for the container of strawberries and biting into one before asking, “What does he do?”

Kade shrugs, smirking. “I don’t actually know.”

I roll my eyes, tossing a blueberry into my mouth. The sweetness explodes on my tastebuds, and I savor the taste. “That’s because you don’t pay attention to anything.”

“That’s not true.” The twist of his lips deepens when he looks toward Calla again. “Isn’t that right, Calla?”

She returns his look with a glare as Atlas comes into the room, out of Calla’s view as she grumbles, “You did not just say that.”

Kade’s glee remains. “Oh, come on.”

“You should eat something,” Atlas says, and Calla jumps at the sound of his voice as he pulls out the chair next to her and lowers himself into it. She’s sitting where he typically does, but I was too curious to see what he’d do to tell her that when she took it. His reaction is lackluster, honestly.

“Lex ate all the bacon,” Kade comments as Atlas scoops a pile of scrambled eggs onto Calla’s plate.

He ignores that, angling himself toward Calla, ordering her to, “Eat.”

“Fuck off,” she shoots back. “I’m not a child.”

I seal my lips shut to keep from grinning. Her fire is absolutely delightful, especially watching it press Atlas’s buttons. His jaw ticks, his pulse remaining steady as he catches her gaze, snaring her mind with glamour.

“You’re going to eat what I put on your plate and you’re not going to argue with me about it. Understood?”

She nods, though she looks downright pissed as she eats in silence for a few minutes before she glances my way. “Do the rest of you have jobs?” Her gaze drops back to her plate as she pushes around the remaining scrambled egg.

“I’m a kindergarten teacher,” I say.

A choking sound escapes her lips as her gaze snaps back up, and I smirk at her. “Funny,” she deadpans.

“Hey. I’m great with kids,” I insist. Not that I have much—any, really—experience with them. But I’m fun. Kids like fun, right? Easy peasy.

“That’s terrifying to even think about,” she mutters, focusing back on the remnants of her breakfast.

“He works for me,” Atlas chimes in, drinking his coffee.

“Best boss ever,” I remark in a dry tone, though Atlas doesn’t react. So damn stoic, my sire.

“Doing what?” Calla asks in a lower voice.

“Boring communications shit,” I tell her, which seems to be satisfactory because she doesn’t have any follow-up questions.

“I’m a model,” Kade adds, “though you could probably have guessed that.”

With an arched brow and deliciously sarcastic voice, Calla says, “And a humble one at that.”

She has the potential to knock poor Kade down a few pegs, and I fucking love that. I think he does too, considering he’s still grinning like a moron.

“Seriously, though. What do you guys do all day when you’re not kidnapping university students?”

I snort. “We typically travel a lot for work. Between Washington and New York City mostly.”

“Right,” she says, “and what exactly does that entail? If I’m going to be here a while, I think it’s fair that I get to know something about you guys.”

“What about us makes you think we’re fair?” Kade challenges, flicking his gaze in her direction.

“I just…Fine. Tell me something else then. Anything.”

“We built this house,” I say, jerking my thumb toward my sire. “Atlas designed it.”

Her eyes widen; I think she’s impressed. “Wow.”

“Yep. It’s a pretty fancy prison, don’t you think?” I’m baiting her, yeah, but it’s just so easy. Damn entertaining too.

She shoots me a glare. “So Atlas designs stuff. What do you like to do?”

I shrug. “I like pain.”

Calla blinks at me. “I don’t…” Her gaze goes to my tattoos, though I don’t confirm or deny that’s what I meant before she continues, “Oh. That’s…cool.”

“Do you have any tattoos?” Kade asks.

She’s still looking at mine when she says, “Pretty sure you know that I don’t.”

Kade chuckles. “Fair point, though if they were on your back…” He trails off, and she rolls her eyes.

“I don’t have any tattoos,” she says in a firm voice.

Atlas remains silent through the whole exchange, drinking his coffee as if we aren’t here.

Calla lays off the questions and finishes her breakfast, pushing her chair back. “Do I need to ask permission to leave the table, or do I still have some free will around here?”

“Watch it,” Atlas warns with a look in her direction.

She crosses her arms. “You four have been watching me for god knows how long. You’d think you would have learned enough about me to know I’m not going to make this easy for you. You want a quiet, complacent human to boss around and bite?” Something passes over her, making her eyes widen, but she quickly continues, “You chose the wrong person.”

I can’t help but roll my eyes. She’s being a little dramatic now. “Well, we didn’t just pick you.”

Calla gets up and steps away from the table, the three of us watching her. “Yeah, well, you still chose to take me. I’m betting there was nothing in that agreement you made with my family that forced you to ruin my life, and yet here we are.”

“You’re being narrow-minded,” Kade says in an agitated tone. “Have you considered that this arrangement could be a good thing?”

She laughs, though it’s humorless and bitter. “Don’t fucking kid yourself. This arrangement is a death sentence. Four vampires and a single human in one house? Wonder how that’s going to turn out.” Her heartbeat kicks up as realization seems to dawn on her, and she moves backward as her pulse races.

“Calla—” Atlas starts.

“No.” Her voice cracks. “I…need to study.” She grabs her book bag and hurries out of the room. A minute later, the door to her bedroom shuts, and the lock clicks.

Kade sighs, then shakes his head with a soft chuckle. “Well, that could’ve gone better.”