The Blood Bracelets #2: Demon Born

Chapter Twenty-One

Kael turned the blood bracelet around his wrist, his forefinger brushing across the letters engraved underneath its glass surface. He remembered how desperate he was to remove the bracelet after he and Taryn had been bound, how it had felt like a giant weight pulling him, limiting his freedom. How things have changed, he thought.

His opinion of the blood bracelet wasn't the only thing that had changed though. Originally, the bracelet had read Vitae Tenetur for "life bound" once it had connected him and Taryn, but now it displayed the word Aeternus which meant imperishable and everlasting, though it all came down to one meaning – eternal.

'How did you know reconnecting the blood bracelets would save Taryn?' Seth asked, standing opposite him in the corridor.

'I didn't,' Kael replied honestly. He had thought it might simply weaken Fury, or at the very least confirm to him that Taryn was still there. It was Julius' words that gave him the idea though, when he had revealed outside Asina's destroyed mansion that the blood bracelet had been intended to bind Fury again if she ever was released. It had been a long shot, of course, been he hadn't known if the blood bracelets could reconnect bindings that had been destroyed. Kael had feared they were a one-chance only deal. But if their true purpose had been to bind Fury, then maybe the first connection they had made hadn't been to the full extent of the blood bracelet's power.

But now, was Kael bound to Fury or to Taryn?

The door to Taryn's room opened and a woman stepped out, brown hair cut closely to her jaw. She was nothing like Cecile, not in appearance or disposition, but she was a Seeress all the same. In fact, she was the Immortal's resident Seeress. Julius stepped out behind her, the door closing behind them.

'The demon is still inside the girl,' said Miriam, her brow knitting together thoughtfully, 'though at times it's almost hard to distinguish the two.'

'What?' Seth said sharply, his eyes widening.

Julius shook his head. 'Not like that, Seth. She means that Fury has weakened considerably, so it's hard to distinguish them because there's a balance in power now.'

'Is it because of this?' Kael asked, lifting his wrist.

Miriam nodded, though she didn't touch the blood bracelet to inspect it like Cecile had. She almost seemed wary of it. 'I believe so. I don't claim to know a lot about the blood bracelets, so this may not be plausible, but I would assume that the device has now bound all three of you together.'

'Because Taryn's lineage is Angel – and if we follow blood bracelet myth – she would be deemed the more powerful, despite Fury's strength,' added Julius. 'It would seem that because Fury wasn't released at the time you and Taryn were originally bound, she couldn't be. With you reinstating the connection, Fury was bound as well.'

'Which was why she wanted to destroy it,' Kael said in understanding. 'She was scared of it binding her too.'

'Can we get rid of Fury?' Seth asked, sounding almost impatient. 'If she's weak, why can't we remove her from Taryn completely?'

'At this stage, I believe it would kill Taryn,' Miriam told them apologetically. 'Their consciences are too entwined, their souls too linked. It would be dangerous to separate them.'

Kael voiced the question he had been dreading. 'Is she awake?'

Miriam and Julius exchanged looks, which was more of an answer than they probably intended it to be. Kael's fists clenched. 'Unfortunately,' Miriam said, 'she's in what I can only liken to a coma, though her body is functioning as if it were merely just a deep sleep.'