Daughter of Stars and Nightmares (The Eternal Bond Saga book 1)

Tribulation of the Heart

Alex was the first at Julia's side, quickly followed by Ren. Damien crouched down beside them and gave her hand a squeeze as he said, "I will tend to Véronique's wounds," then stood up and headed after her.

When Damien left Alex gave Julia a hard look and barked at her, "I could kill the pair of you for that stupid stunt."

His reaction stunned her, and it hurt that he was angry with her. Before she could look away or say anything, he scooped her up into his arms and kissed her. Once again everything else melted away as she passionately met his lips with hers. It didn't matter that she had two huge gashes on her or that Ren was staring at them. All that mattered was the love she felt for Alex.

Ren coughed interrupting their moment. "I know you two lovebirds can't get enough of each other, but rein it in. Julia's still bleeding and I for one don't want her to bleed to death because you two couldn't stop kissing long enough to patch her up."

Reluctantly she let Alex go and then Ren lifted her top off of her. The huge laceration on her side had stopped bleeding, and it distracted her enough not to be embarrassed that she was only wearing a sports-bra. She quickly looked at the wound on her arm it had started to heal as well. All she could do was gasp in wonder.

"You healing this fast is probably another reaction to the blood Mormo gave you." Alex stroked her hair and reassured her. "If I had to guess I would say it was probably the blood of a pureblood dark faerie. Our blood has the strongest effects on others."

Ren wrinkled his face and Julia asked, "What's wrong, Ren?"

He shook his head. "It's nothing. I was just thinking there's only one pureblood I can think of that Mormo would have such easy access to."

As soon as Ren said that Alex's face turned cold, and he hissed, "Thorsen," as if saying the name left a bad taste in his mouth.

Just thinking about the fact that she may have that vile man's blood running through her veins sent a wave of nausea through her. She looked away from Alex as shame washed over her.

He seemed to pick up on this; he pulled her closer to him and kissed her cheek. "You have nothing to be ashamed about. Mormo forced you to drink the blood."

Julia looked up at him and nodded. Before she could say anything Damien walked back down the stairs.

"Véronique will be fine in a day or two. You really drove that anti-dark fae sword into her leg deep," Damien said.

Ren grunted. "Serves the evil cow right. I only wish you got her in the stomach."

Julia rolled her eyes. She didn't have any ill will toward Véronique over this. She knew that in Véronique's own twisted way she was only trying to help. "What would that have accomplished? Look, I don't like her any more than you do, Ren. But she was helping me, and I for one am grateful to her."

Damien crouched next to Julia. "She has a point, Ren." Then he looked at Alex. "You should probably talk to Véronique. Let her know you're not going to kill her and everything is all right. You too, Ren."

As Alex and Ren stood up Damien said, "I'll take Julia home after I get her cleaned up."

She could see Alex's reluctance to leave. "Both of you need to let her know that everything is okay. We have other things to be worried about like Thorsen, and the last thing we need is a rift between any of us."

With that said both boys walked off in a bit of a sulk. Damien chuckled as he walked off and grabbed some bandages, a bowl of water, cloths and disinfectant. "You know, there aren't many people out there that could get either of those guys to do something they don't want to," he said as he set it all down and started to clean her up. "You should consider yourself very special." He paused and looked into her eyes. "I do."