A Slave to Broken Hearts (A Slave to Love Sequel)

Chapter 35: House Warming

Blade POV

Leave it to Lexi to tattle on me to Mom and ensure a lengthy lecture and rant about respect and the "sacredness" of a blood bond.

Seeing Kiana writhing in bed and enduring that torture, barely able to even sit up and eat, was a far worse punishment than anything my mother could ever come up with. It was going to haunt me until I died, right alongside her birthday and everything else she'd endured since we met.

Kiana may have mostly recovered, but leaving her alone for hours and hours was counterproductive to keeping her that way, which apparently Mom found acceptable purely so I could learn my lesson.

My feet dragged as I headed to the front door, brain halfheartedly trying to place the familiar scent in my driveway. It had been a long day and all I wanted was to talk to Kiana about how we were going to deal for the foreseeable future now that she was better, then grab a drink and go to bed early and put the whole miserable fucking day, this miserable week, behind me.

My attempt at planning a few days ago had been...unsuccessful, to say the least, but whether we liked it or not and whether she fucking hated me or not, we had to figure this out. We just had too.

I had hoped it would have gone better since things had somewhat calmed down and we were getting to a place where we getting along, so I wasn't sure exactly what had prompted her to suddenly flip back to being so angry, angrier than I'd ever see her be, before I'd even walked in the room. Unless it really was just the idea of dealing with me and facing our issues that had set her off and reminded her of just how furious and upset she was, had finally pushed her over the edge.

Heading upstairs to Kiana's room, a sudden realization had me stopping cold in my tracks, pushing every last thought out of my head.

I couldn't feel her.

Why the fuck couldn't I feel her?

Before I knew it, I was tearing through the halls, racing past a startled Eliza to her very empty room. Not just empty of her, but empty of all of her things.

I was yanking drawers open so violently they were nearly coming off their tracks, each one empty like the last, save for her nightstand, which had only three sole items in them.

Her key.

Her necklace.

And her ring.

I stared down at the drawer, not quite understanding what I was seeing, not ready to understand what it meant, why she wasn't here anymore, when the scene itself was terrifyingly familiar.

"Blade! What's wrong? What's going on?" Eliza asked, worry coloring every word as she came to crouch next to me, because somehow I was on my knees even though I didn't remember getting there.

I just kept staring down at the drawer, unable to form the words.

"Oh," she said softly, peeking over my shoulder. "She left a little while ago."

A strangled sound came from the back of my throat, but still no words.

"I thought you knew. She seemed so firm about leaving and you wanting space apart..."

"Did...did she say where? Where she was going?"

"I think to live with Ace?"

Somehow, that made this so much worse, it was just like the last time, it was happening again, she disappeared--

"I have to go," I said, on my feet now though I couldn't recall getting up, already halfway to the door.

"Blade? Are you alright?" She said, a hand going to touch my arm but I stepped away, and her hand fell to her side.