Bloodbound: The Alliance
Chapter 120 - 122

Chapter 120: Chapter 122

Botan POV

It’s a long and tense way up. A ride that takes moments that builds the bridge over to a lifetime. Akio’s eyes dart to the gun in my head pointedly and I tuck it back, tugging my shirt over it. When the elevator dings open, I gesture to the interior invitingly, imploring her to go on her own. She doesn’t. She just stands there, quivering fingers rubbing hard on the old scar carved into her palm. Her breaths are so jagged, every exhale kicks loose strands from her face and it kills me.

I would rather take a thousand blades than be the one to elicit such fear in her.

Akio makes a gesture, and she latches onto his forearm. It feels like a burn on my skin where her touch should be—a phantom heat searing my skin, while she finds solace in him instead. Akio sends me an apologetic look, and he leads her out of the elevator. I follow from behind, folding my arms behind my back to keep from shattering his.

Black granite floors pave the way to the main living room with glass walls swallowing the skyline. Vaulted ceilings that cradle the opulent expanse. Akio places her by the fireplace that casts golden whispers against sleek leather and velvet drapery.

She can’t use him as a buffer forever.

To make that point, I say in English, "Akio, will you give us a moment?"

He snaps his head and disappears down the hallway.

I wait and wait, but she remains with her back turned to me.

"Will you at least look at me?" I try to demand, but it comes out so beseechingly, almost as desperate as the night I lost her, groveling on the ground for her to not leave me—to forgive me.

"Did you mean to kill Vance and Landen?"

Irritation gnaws at my grief. "No, I meant to kill all three of them," I say, brutally blunt. I reaped the consequence of concealing things from her and I will not repeat my mistake. "But Colton had a last-minute meeting that came up and—"

"The moment the alliance was over. You... killed them."

"The alliance wasn’t what was protecting them. You were," I clarify, inching closer slowly, hoping not to alarm her. "Even that arrangement was desecrated by Colton’s scheming. He had no plans to allow the alliance to end. No plans to let you go. You should know we found something out about Colton that’s... related to you."

"That he had an intimate relationship with my mother?" she murmurs absently. "Believe me, I know all too much. I think his secret obsession with me comes from his infatuation with her. My mom left him for my dad. He couldn’t have her, so maybe he can have me."

"That’s never fucking happening."

"You can’t go slaughtering every man that comes near me."

I already have and will continue to do," I profess. "Even if it means you stand on a bed of bodies. I think by now you have a sense of the dangers around you." I begin to circle her, as meaningful as it is menacing. "But none near you—never near you because I am your weapon." I stop to stand in front of her. "Even if you won’t be mine. I will always be yours."

She lifts her eyes, and when our gazes collide, it’s like a supernova—blinding and endless. Those dark brown jewels shimmer, holding the weight of both beauty and sorrow, and I curse myself for every moment I wasn’t there to shield her from it.

My hand moves of its own accord, drawn by something deeper than thought. I expect her to flinch, to recoil in disgust, but she only watches—tormented by a longing she tried to teach herself to abandon. When my palm cups her cheek, her lashes flutter shut, a single tear escaping the prison of her silence.

"Forgive me... for all my faults... for everything."

Her eyes squeeze shut, as if the weight of my words is too much to bear.

"I feel like I’m drowning." Words so soft, like whispered under water.

I take her face in both hands, enticing her eyes, and her gaze grips my soul. "Then let me lift you up so high that you remain untouchable to all but me. Let me have the privilege to fall, to give you fragments of myself until you’re made whole. Breaking beautifully, piece by piece, until every shard of me fills the void in you." I rest my forehead against her own. "Allow me to be the man you deserve and the monster you need."

"I know you heard my call with Kelsey."

I thought an accusation is imminent, but she then clutches onto my wrists and I inhale a sharing breath at the surge—the symphony of the scorch and the burn of the cold. She doesn’t try to remove my hands. Instead, she holds fast onto me.

"So I know you heard what I said. About what I felt... how I’ve always felt."

"I need to hear it again, and again," I say with my hand still cradling her face, the excitement that thrums through me shakes her vigorously as now her grip tightens to try to keep steady as I almost shake the confession out of her. A small laugh slips, the sound a trill of something divine.

"I... need to go home."

I release her slowly, and almost as if regrettingly, she leans in where my hands were before dropping her face away from me.

"I have... a lot to think about. My family... my life... I’m struggling to see what’s true. And what isn’t."

"Doing what’s right always seems to have you as its center. You need only to see that."

She stares back at me for a short while, a soft smile ignites a glimmer in her eyes and that electrifies my veins.

"It feels unwarranted." Her smile dims as her lips pull into a terse line. "Your high regard for me."

"It’s more than esteem. It is a belief that sits upon that altar of my faith."

Another smile steals across her face as she shakes her head at me. "I’ve missed you, too."

"Akio," I call out, grinning goofily. "Avara is ready to go home."

Shortly, he arrives with a velvet black box in his hands and I explain the heritage of what lies inside.

"Do you know what is the most expensive gem on our planet?" I ask.

She shakes her head, her eyes flicking to the box with guarded anticipation. When he’s close enough, he lifts the lid ceremoniously. Her eyes swell at the sight of it. Legendary 45.52-carat deep blue diamond as its centerpiece. The diamond is set in an elegant pendant surrounded by 16 white diamonds, enhancing its striking color and brilliance. The chain of the necklace consists of 45 white diamonds, each meticulously cut and arranged in a symmetrical design.

"The Hope Diamond." I liberate the exquisite piece meant to only loan grandeur to the marvel that stands before me. "The world believes that it currently sits at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. A fake. After it was in the possession of King Louis XIV of France in 1668—it was stolen and replaced before being acquired by Henry Philip Hope. The replica does sit in Washington, but the true gem awaits to adorn your pretty neck."

She gawks at me like I’m holding a bomb vest. "Botan... I couldn’t."

"You can," I offer, injecting gentleness to stave off any sense of a command. "It’s the symbol of my eternal vow to you. If you forgive me... you’ll wear it."

She turns around and lifts her hair to lap the dark waves over her one shoulder, exposing her bare nape of her neck. Even just a slither of skin unveiled to me is enough to turn my mouth arid. I approach and I hoist it over her head to plant it on her chest, bringing it around until the clasp meets.

Desire tugs at me and I find my finger on the long trail of her zipper, tracing its path.

"Is it okay if I hug you goodbye?"

She glances at her shoulder with her back still turned to me and nods wordlessly. My hands find purchase on her hips. Impatience threads through my fingers as I draw her back into me, my arms winding around her waist in a possessive embrace. She slants her head to the side in quiet surrender, baring the curve of her throat, granting me passage as I press my face into the hollow of her neck, drinking in the warmth of her skin, the faint, sweet whisper of vanilla.

I lift my head to place my chin on the ridge of her shoulder. "Can you promise me something?"

"I don’t think I can refute even if I wanted to."

"When you’re away from me. Always wear the necklace so that I will be."

"... Are you saying that you bugged the most expensive necklace on the planet?"

"All to safeguard what is truly most precious."

She tries to wiggle out of my grasp.

"No," I breathe into her. "Just a little longer."

She settles, nestling into place against me as her hands mould into my own. "Promise me something in return. I’ll wear the necklace, if you promise that the killing ends. All of it."