Chapter 37: Priorities

Blaze’s POV

Laying in bed, I watched the soft rise and fall of Riley’s chest as she slept. I knew I should try to rest. I needed to be in top shape for the battle I knew that would soon be coming. Yet I’d been watching Riley sleep for hours.

Her dreams usually assaulted my senses every time she slept, but tonight her mind was quiet. Sighing, I looked up at the ceiling, wondering what in the fuck I was supposed to do with her now. I hadn’t planned on bonding her to me. In fact, I had been against the whole damn thing. I just wanted her free.

In the short time I had spent with her, Riley had managed to wedge herself so deep into my mind that I had been unable to pull her out. Unable or unwilling, depends on when you asked me.

I had enough fucking problems and now I had just added another huge one to my list. Wumbert had been my number one focus. If I could just track down his location, then I could come up with a plan to break my seal. I’d need help, of course. I couldn’t break my own seal.

But now.

Now I had Riley’s safety to worry about. It had always been my plan to off that asshole ex-husband of hers. Even before I went and made the stupidest decision I’d ever made and bonded myself to her, I’d made Petra promise to watch over her if something happened to me.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I could have watched over her from my throne in hell. I could have commanded others to watch over her. Ones I trusted. Ones I knew that wouldn’t betray me.

I could pinpoint the exact moment I lost my fucking mind with her. It was when I asked her why. Why she wanted me. I knew what she was about to say. I could feel the words thicken in the surrounding air. I couldn’t let her say them, couldn’t let her put them out in the open.

In perhaps the stupidest move ever, I stopped her from telling me she loved me, only to seconds later, cut my fucking palm open for her. She hadn’t asked. She hadn’t needed to. Those stupid tears of hers were my fucking weakness. Tears! Tears never moved me, never invoked any emotions at all. Yet with Riley, I knew I had to stop them. Whatever it took.

I’d done whatever it took to make her feel safe. To show her I wasn’t leaving her.

I wasn’t fucking leaving her?

I fucking had to leave her. What, did I think I was going to take her to hell with me? What if I couldn’t escape Kyler? What if he somehow recaptured me? Leaving her would now hurt her more than she ever realized. She thought she felt empty now. She had no clue.

Cussing, I stood up, going to do the most un-demon thing of me and go make myself a cup of coffee. I’d pop over to Petra’s if I didn’t think the sudden loss of me would wake up Riley. I wasn’t sure how connected our bond made us yet.

I’d never bonded with anyone I my entire life. Never wanted to. Why tie yourself down? That wasn’t me. Bonding myself with a human wasn’t me either, yet look at me now.

What Riley didn’t know was our bond didn’t just affect her. It affected me too. All of her feelings were amplified and while normally I could tune them out, I didn’t hers. Suddenly, me being free of Wumbert wasn’t actually that big of a deal. Protecting her was.

The guy who had followed Riley earlier had, as we said, disappeared, but his magic still remained. It wasn’t Kyler, I’d recognize his trail. Had Lakyn’s grandmother sent someone to check on her? There was a world of possibilities with no end in sight.

If the prick even came within 10 feet of Riley again, I’d be able to sense him. I knew the trail his magic left behind. It was too strong to be just some innocent passerby, and Petra had felt his ill intentions aimed toward Riley.

Feeling her presence, I turned my head just seconds before Petra popped up. “Didn’t take you for a coffee drinker,” Petra said, reaching out her hand and pouring just a sip of demon’s brew into my cup.

“Didn’t take you for a fucking blabbermouth, either.”

Petra opened her mouth, then thought better of it and shut it. Setting the bottle of demon’s brew down beside me, she tilted her head. “I felt your call. What the hell do you want?” When I only turned my head and starred at her, she threw her hands up. “She wasn’t supposed to tell you, I told her. She fucking made me promise not to tell you.”

“So you are keeping secrets from me, baby sister?”

Petra snorted, “you don’t have to know every single conversation we have. She owns you, not the other way around.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that. There was no way for Petra to know I had bonded with Riley. Not yet anyway. She would eventually pick up on the way she acted around me, or the way I acted around her. But if we are being honest, Petra had already questioned me about her several times over.

“Don’t be so sure about that.” I said, looking down at my hand. There was no visible mark, but I could still feel our blood merging, becoming one, binding us for eternity.

“What?” Petra asked, grabbing my hand and inspecting it. “She promised. She…I told her….Blaze I…”

“It was me,” I said, cutting her off. While yes, I loved to see my sister squirm. I refused to let her blame Riley for something I had done. “She is mine Petra.”

“Blaze, have you lost your fucking mind?”

“Probably,” I said, taking a sip of my coffee. “But my reasons are my own. She didn’t force me. In fact, I think she tried to talk me out of it.”

Petra shook her head, “did you even think this through or were you too busy letting your dick do the thinking? I know you care about her, but you are making things worse for her.”

I cut my eyes at my sister. “She’s my problem, not yours.”

Petra glared daggers at me. “I promised you I’d watch her if something happens to you. Believe it or not, I actually like that stupid human. I don’t want to watch her fall even deeper into depression because you go and do something stupid, like getting yourself killed or recaptured.”

When I didn’t respond to her, she crossed her arms. “And what if you succeed and take over your throne? Are you going to bring her with you to hell? Or what, just pop in any time you feel like fucking her?”

“I really don’t think this is any of your concern,” I growled at her, tired of her lecture.

“What are you going to do when she dies? Just move on to the next unsuspecting, naïve human.”

Having enough of her ranting, I slammed my hand down on the counter, making my coffee cup rattle. “I didn’t call you to me to lecture me. You fucking know I hate humans. I’ll be damned if I ever bond with another one.”

“You like her Blaze, I know you do.” Petra looked up at me. “She’s going to grow old. She’s going to die and when she does, she’ll take a piece of you with her.”

“I could kill her now. There is nothing to stop me,” I said, shrugging my shoulders at her.

“You love her, don’t you?”

I snorted. Why does that fucking word keep getting brought up? “Don’t be stupid.”

Petra looked at me, trying her best to figure me out. “Fuck you really do, don’t you?”

“I don’t know,” I yelled at her a little too loud. “I don’t know how to love. I don’t know what it is or how it feels. And frankly, I don’t give a fuck to find out.”

“Never thought I’d see the day that my brother fell for a freaking human.”

“She’s a witch,” I mumbled under my breath.

Petra reached over, putting her hand on my shoulder, “it’s ok to feel Blaze.” Smiling, she reached out, opening the bottle of demon’s brew and pouring more in my cup. “Honestly, I like her better than any of the other girls you ever brought around.”

I snorted at her. “I don’t know what to do with her.”

“Love her,” Petra said. “She needs its more than you even know. I think it might do you some good too. Although your timing sucks and it’s going to end horribly.”

“What do you know?” I said, staring down at my coffee cup, wondering if I even possessed what it took to love someone.

“Believe it or not, smart ass, I’ve loved people before. It’s just never worked out. Relationships are hard. It takes a lot of give and take from both sides.”

I turned to look at my sister. She wasn’t the little girl I had left behind. She was a grown woman now. “Who said shit about a relationship?”

Petra rolled her eyes, “me. Did you forget you just bonded with a human? You did it while you were fucking her, didn’t you?”

“No,” I lied.

“Bullshit.”

I smiled, shrugging. “I don’t like when she cries.”

“Are you that bad that you had the poor girl crying?” Petra busted out laughing as I cut my eyes in her direction. “Face it bro, you’re in love and now you won’t ever be able to get away from it.”

“I’m not in love. It’s just a phase I’m going through.”

Petra laughed, “oh, ok. You’re also fucking delusional.”

She had no clue.