Children of the Fallen: Bloodlines (BOOK #3)

Chapter 3: Fractured

Grayson Spencer

We all look around at each other a little taken back by Morgan. For her- that was an outburst. She was nervous. She's been out of it, zoning the whole time but not nervous. "I'll get her, hold on." I say walking out of Victorias apartment to follow her before anyone else could say or do something.

I haven't stopped thinking about that fire in her eyes since that night in that clubs private room, and when I was fucking her against that wall I saw it again. As if feeling her wrapped around my dick and listening to her moans as I make her come wasn't nirvana enough, seeing that flame- seeing her alive made it a million times better. I want that fire bigger and constant. It's like seeing tiny glimmers of the real Morgan, the one hidden beneath all that ice.

When she came into the Silent Room covered in what I now know to be her families blood, that look in her eye I haven't stopped thinking about either. Hollow, fractured. Her mind swirling with a million thoughts yet none at the same time. He killed them in front of her. Just hearing about the death of my family was enough to send me into a spiral for quite some time and I didn't even like most of them. Then watching my mother die in front of me was a complicated moment, the sadness of it was dulled by the years of mental and occasional physical abuse but it still hurt to see her reduced to a lifeless body. I want to ask Morgan about it, I want to let her know that I'm here for her but I don't think her reaction would be great.

Now she's frantic and anxious as she storms down this NYC block looking for some address. I was calling out after her but she's either not hearing me or she's ignoring me. Up ahead she stops outside of a pawn shop banging on the door. Waiting outside for about a minute, banging on the door periodically but no one answers. "What are you doing? Why'd you run off?" I ask as she steps off to the side of the building running a hand through her hair.

"Fucking witches." She mutters to herself and punches the brick wall without so much as a wince at the broken hand she now has.

I reach out and grab her hand, "Let me set it." I go to take her now fucked up fingers to set them back into place so they can heal correctly when I see something on the palm of her hand. She rips her hand back before I can get a good look but it was enough to pique my curiosity and concern.

"I can do it myself." She pops her bones back into place without reaction as her attention is focused on this obviously empty shop. Her eyes pleading for people to appear within it.

I grab her hand holding it tightly looking directly at what's on her palms. A scar at the center of her palm with tinier scars extending outwards from it like pale veins. The beginning of something that trails to her arms. I meet her stare, confusion and anger rise in my body when I see a trace of fear.

I take the sleeve of the hoodie she's wearing and roll it upwards quickly. Rage grips at my heart as the thick scars continue upwards, past where I can no longer roll her sleeve up. I grab her other hand seeing an identical scar on her palm, rolling up that sleeve to find the same thing. They keep going. "What is this?" I ask as calmly as possible.

Her eyes blink rapidly for a second like she finally registered what's going on and yanks her hand back. "They're nothing." She says rolling her sleeves back down.

"That is not nothing." I say unable to remain completely calm. "What is it Morgan?"

"Scars." She says, "They're just scars." I notice her breathing has deepened- her chest rises and falls slower and deeper.

"Scars that someone of your caliber shouldn't even be able to have." I don't even have to ask who did it, I already know. As if I didn't already want him dead. "What did Lucien do?" I say through my teeth in some attempt at containing myself. She remains silent at my question staring at me, absentmindedly- her hand goes to the back of her neck lightly rubbing it. "What did he do?"