Chapter 12

Evelyn s POV After having breakfast for dinner, I head into the lounge room. Sitting on the couch, Orion follows me out before sitting next to me. "We should head to bed soon," Orion tells me. Thaddeus and Ryland walk out and head upstairs and I see Orion watch them go. "Come on, you should sleep," he says, and I shake my head not wanting to go to bed. I definitely didn t want to sleep in a bed with Thaddeus and Ryland. I had spent most of the day and night asleep. "I m not tired, you go to bed" I tell him. Orion chuckles to himself, making me look at him. "What?" I ask, wondering what he thought was so funny. "Nothing, I don t sleep. I wish I could, I miss sleeping," he says making my eyebrows furrow. "You don t sleep?" Orion nods. "At all?" "I m not human, Evelyn. I don t require sleep. Not like Ryland and humans," he says. "But Thaddeus sleeps." Orion nods in agreeance. "Yes, but he is a tribrid, so like Ryland he needs sleep. He can go weeks without it, but he becomes manic without sleeping." Manic? Great, not only do I have a psychopath for a mate he fucking bonkers. I had heard so many rumours about the dark king and I knew that most of them were correct, but how was it even possible for someone to be more than one thing? Probably a stupid thought considering the world just found out that there was an entirely different world from that I grew up in. "So exactly what is Thaddeus?" "It complicated. He is vampire and Lycan, but his mother is a witch hybrid, so it s too hard to explain. Just be careful, Evelyn. I don t mean to scare you, but Thaddeus is the first tribrid and not even he understands it completely, he s…" Orion thinks, trying to find the right word when Thaddeus answers for him. "A monster," Thaddeus speaks, making Orion look up. I hadn t even heard him sneak up on us or notice him walk down the stairs. Knowing he heard us made me a little uneasy. "I wasn t going to say that. Don t put words in my mouth, Thaddeus," Orion tells him. "Not like you weren t thinking it," Thaddeus replies. Orion shakes his head disagreeing, but Thaddeus doesn t even glance in his direction, his eyes not leaving mine. "What about your sister?" I ask, wondering if she was the same as Thaddeus. "Amara is the same, but she isn t effected by the darkness. Her magic is purer, mine is old magic. Tainted and dark and not of this realm," Thaddeus answers, making me more confused. "Enough with the questions, now get up and come to bed," Thaddeus says, stepping closer to the lounge. "I m not tired, and I am not sleeping in any room you are in," I tell him. Thaddeus growls, and his eyes darken. It was like a switch just went off in his head or like an alter ego took over. Walking over, he rips me off the lounge. "Ow Thaddeus you re hurting me," I tell him, trying to pry his fingers from my wrist. "That s nothing compared to what I will do if you don t get upstairs now," he growls, making goosebumps spread all over me and a shiver to run up my spine. "What the fuck is your problem? You don t just force people to do what you want," I tell him, trying to pull my hand away. "And who is going to stop me, Little one? Not Orion, not Ryland. No one can do anything, no one can save you from me. You are weak and human, no match for me." "Thaddeus, please just let her sleep down here till she is ready." That will be never, I thought to myself. First chance I get, I am out of here and will happily live my life on the run if it means never seeing Thaddeus again. Thaddeus glares at Orion. "Clearly you re forgetting the deal we made, Evelyn, for your friend s life," Thaddeus says, his eyes darting to mine. I watch as veins run down his face and his fangs protrude. Orion stands up moving to my side, and I feel his hand on my lower back. My breath gets caught in my throat, and I feel a panic attack coming on. "You know you can t, especially when you are like this, Thaddeus. You could kill her." "I don t care," Thaddeus says, shoving him away from me. "That s exactly my point. I won t let you mark her while you re surrounded by darkness. Ryland!" Orion yells, and I hear footsteps running before I see him coming up behind Thaddeus as he runs down the stairs. Ryland grips his arm but Thaddeus back hands him, not letting my arm go. Thaddeus pulls me towards him, pressing me against his chest. Orion reaches for me when I hear a menacing growl escape Thaddeus, and the lights suddenly flicker, the air around us becoming dense. I can hear the sound of static. "Thaddeus," Orion yells at the same time I feel my arm start burning, my skin burning so hot I thought it was melting off. I scream, his grip searing into my flesh, and Orion tackles him forcing him to let go, while I am thrown violently onto the ground my head smacking the ground with so much force, I see black and my vision turns blurry. Sitting up, I clutch my head feeling blood trickle down the side of my face, pulling my hand back. It s coated in blood, and I feel my eyes rolling into the back of my head. Orion s voice reaching my ears, but I don t know what he is saying. All I can think about is the throbbing in my head and then darkness takes over. I feel weightless and so cold, then I feel nothing. Orion POV The moment I tackled him, I knew instantly I shouldn t have. His grip on her was too tight, and she was thrown like a rag doll from the force, her head smacking into the edge on the fireplace. She sits up, swaying slightly before clutching her head. Pulling her hand back, I see blood running down her face, bleeding everywhere onto the floor. "Evelyn," I gasp, making Thaddeus eyes snap to her. I feel panic run through him. He moves so quickly I thought at first, he was going to attack her. I knew he needed to feed, and she was bleeding everywhere, and I could feel his bloodlust through the bond when he burnt her. Thaddeus grabs her pulling her onto his lap before biting his wrist, but Evelyn is all floppy and limp as her eyes roll into her head and she slumps against him. Ryland rushes to his side and all I can do is watch, completely paralysed by fear of seeing her in that state. Thaddeus bites into his wrist again, and Ryland opens her mouth, letting his blood run down her throat. Her skin turning so pale she looked like she was dead, her skin turning blue. Thaddeus rocks her in his arms, her head falling backwards, and I can hear her heart rate getting slower. It didn t work; she was going to die. He killed our mate; I knew we never should have pursued her. I knew she would never survive him, and all I could feel was anger. Her breathing became shallow, her heart rate slowing right down when Ryland rips her from him and blows air into her lungs before his hands perform CPR. "It s no point she is gone" I tell him. Ryland growls, his eyes snapping to mine. "She isn t I can feel her. We just need to keep her alive long enough for his blood to work," Ryland snaps at me. Thaddeus has his head in his hands, and I can feel darkness wrapping around him, consuming him like never before. I know if she dies, he will kill us all when he releases it. Ryland, noticing the darkness in him, looks to me panicked, and I finally move, going to her side and trying to help. Biting into my wrist, I hold it over her mouth while Ryland keeps pumping her chest. A minute feels like hours as we wait to see if our blood helps her. When suddenly she chokes on our blood and Ryland stops before falling backwards in relief. Evelyn trying to spit it out as she gasps for air, the long gash on her head escaping into her hairline healing and she rolls on her side retching spewing our blood onto the floor. "I m so sick of spewing," she gasps before Thaddeus rips her to him, crushing her against his chest. Relief flooding through the bond as he cups her face and I feel the darkness leaving him, feel him relaxing with her in his arms. "Get off me, asshole," she says smacking his chest making me chuckle. Yep, there she is, our feisty little mate. Nearly died and doesn t even realise just pissed off she woke in his arms. Thaddeus loosens his grip letting her move, and she looks around confused before looking at the floor where her blood pooled. "What happened?" she asks shocked, and I realise she can t remember. "I m sorry I didn t mean to," Thaddeus tells her guilt flooding into me through the bond mixed with fear of her rejecting him over what he did. "You re fine, you will be fine, Evelyn," I tell her. I see her look up at Thaddeus as she realises he did something yet she doesn t understand what. I hold my hands out for her and she moves off his lap, coming toward me warily before gripping onto me like I was her lifeline. Ryland, standing up, bends down kissing her head before walking into the kitchen. Thaddeus is staring at her like she is about to vanish in front of him, and I can feel his longing and jealousy that I am holding her, that she always seems to gravitate towards me. Yet he needs to understand every time she has been in his presence, he has hurt her or scared her. I have done neither. Humans tend to go where they feel safest, and at the moment that was me. "She is fine, Thaddeus, go get some sleep and calm down," I tell him, and he growls at me. Ryland touches his shoulder making him look up before he stands reluctantly leaving me with her. "What happened?" she asks. "You hit your head. Ryland s quick thinkin, just saved your life. You will be fine, Evelyn." "And Thaddeus?" she asks, turning her face into my neck. "Thaddeus didn t mean it; he just wants you. He isn t particularly good at being gentle. He had no intentions of hurting you. I am partially to blame I shouldn t have tackled him." "Why can t I remember?" she says pulling back, looking at me. "Might be best you don t," I tell her. Getting up, I place her on the lounge before grabbing a wet cloth and a blanket. Chucking the blanket over her, I then clean the blood off her face and peel her shirt off. Evelyn eventually falls asleep just as the sun comes up, and I carry her upstairs, laying her on the bed next to Thaddeus and Ryland. Going downstairs, I pull the mop bucket out and mop to clean up the mess left from last night. Praying that she never remembers what happened. For this to work, Thaddeus needs to learn control, and she needs to accept him. After tonight though, I feel the shock of almost losing her might be enough to make him realise she is only human and can t be manhandled like Ryland and myself. I know Ryland is holding himself back. He feels the pull to her the most because he has marked her, feels what she feels. Somehow, he has pushed the parts of him that remind me of Thaddeus aside for her. Thaddeus though struggles with who he is, struggles with his own identity. Me, I have lived among humans for centuries and have grown to like their humanity, like the way they perceive the world and understand emotion better than they do. I just hope Thaddeus can find his in her. Because if it comes down to choosing, I will choose her over him, and I know Ryland feels the same way.