Fear and Blood

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

“Your shoulder!” Rome exclaimed as she walked into the guest room carrying a tray of food. Ly was just pulling a shirt on over his head, giving her a clear view of the bandages that still covered the top half of his body. “It's not bleeding any more.”

Ly nodded mechanically. He hadn't told her his shoulder had started healing just hours after she had given him her blood, that it was most likely her blood that had healed him. It still hurt, and he was still weak, but it was healing.

The young woman frowned as she set the tray down on the bedside table and sat beside Ly on the bed. He could feel her concern over his condition, concern and worry that had only grown since he revealed his past. For the first time that emotion in her didn't spark a reaction.

The truth was, since telling her about his past the day before, he felt numb, hollow, as if part of him had been removed with the telling. He couldn't remember the last time he hadn't felt even slightly angry and the lack of that anger unnerved him. What replace his anger was a burning desire for all of this to be over.

“Ly?” Rome said anxiously. He had been acting differently ever since she left him the day before. She had stayed with him for a long time after he told her about his past, a long time after she had stopped crying. He held on to her as if he needed her there and she had been happy to stay. Now he didn't seem like the Ly she knew at all, and that worried her. “Are you all right?”

Again he just nodded. He was healing and that meant Rome would give him the name of Matthew Scott's hunters club. That meant, very soon, he would come face to face with the person that had framed him for Scott's murder. Soon he would get his revenge for Tristan's death, and soon he would have to leave Rome behind. Soon it would be over, but would he be able to leave her? The link between them tied him to her, he could feel her always. Would he be able to ignore that feeling until one of them died? Would he be able to do what needed to be done, knowing that his actions might lead to a war that would rip her world apart?

“You never answered my question from before,” Rome said softly, breaking through Ly's thoughts and letting him know that her own thoughts were running along the same tracks. “What are you going to do after you find who's behind all this?”

“That depends on who it turns out to be,” the vampire replied as he stood up and started packing things into his backpack, forcing himself to ignore the questions running through his head. “After I deal with them I'm going to go after Tricia and then...I don't know.”

“Tricia? Why her?” Rome asked, confused. She knew that Tricia had been Tristan's fiancée, or that the had been pledged or whatever it was Ly had called it, but she couldn't see how the woman fit into this.

“I called Val a while ago,” Ly replied, not looking at Rome. The question helped, forcing him to think of something other than her. “I couldn't really hear him properly, but he said Tricia was involved in this in some way. He seemed to suggest that she had betrayed Tristan, but...well as much as I don't like her, I can't ever see her doing anything against him. Their marriage had been arranged from when they were very young, but she did love him. I think they would have married anyway. They definitely would have pledged. At any rate, from what Val said I think it would be best not to trust her until I find out what's going on.”

“If they were engaged doesn't that mean that they were already pledged?” Rome asked, unable to fight her curiosity. She was finding now that the more she learned about vampire society the more confusing it became.

Ly did look at her then, only to raise a eyebrow. “No,” he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You can be engaged to someone without pledging to them. The pledge begins a year before the wedding date. If the couple decide they can't live with each other, be devoted to and rely on only each other after that year they go their separate ways.” Anticipating Rome's next question Ly decided to go on. “No blood is exchanged before the wedding so there's no obligation between the two vampires, however blood is exchanged at the wedding ceremony and there is no way back after that unless one of the couple dies. That's why the pledging period is so important. It's a time to find out exactly who the person you're marrying is.”