BLOODBOUND

CHAPTER THREE

 "You're slumming it with us, Siv." Nick's mouth was agape as they crossed the platform to the private jet. After the talk with her parents, Siobhan was convinced that the family neede to move back into the castle in London. She still didn't like the idea, but if creatures of the night were going to continue their attacks, they could very well use Nick as leverage, and she wasnt about to let him get forced in the middle of this over a stupid crown.

"I think you're overexaggerating." Two men in black suits collected their luggage as they reached the stairs. "I don't think im exaggerating enough. You have a jet. How the fuck did I not know that?"

Nick still didn't know the real reason for the trip. Siobhan had fed him a lie about some bad people coming for her family, and he might be a possible target via association. She suggested he go with them but expressed that he didn't have to and wasnt obligated to follow her to a different country. Her parents would arrange something for him, something that would allow him to keep living his life, but he refused. He shook his head, insisting that anywhere she went, he would follow. Nick didn't mention that he was scared out of his mind for her. Who would ever have a problem with the Emricks?

"Must've slipped my mind." Siobhan was just as she was when they met at the lake. She looked at war with herself. Tired. Guity. Ashamed. Nick tried his best to cheer her up in all the ways he knew how, but none of them worked. He assumed it had something to do with what happened during that conversation with her parents, but she wouldn't talk about it. In fact, she blocked it out altogether. It was a horrible day.

Siobhan walked like her feet were weighed down by concrete. Granted, she didn't usually bounce with every step, but there was a difference. There was always a glow to her, an aura of love and warmth that seemed to drain out of her ever since that day. Something weighed on her, and she was letting it destroy who she was.

Her mind swarmed with things she wasnt prepared to face. Nick still didn't know the truth about her family, only bits and pieces, but how long could she hold onto that secret before something or someone eventually showed him the truth? What if he saw her as a monster? How could she possibly be able to explain her world, her life to him in a way he'd understand? And to top it off, her nightmare plagued her. Siobhan still knew nothing of what it meant or the reason she dreamt of her best friend's death. She was going to become queen and suddenly, that nightmare was becoming reality far too quickly.

Nick had noticed the change in his best friend, and the fact that he couldn't make the person closest to him feel better was eating at him. He supposed a bit of time away would do them both some good.

The seats were comfortable enough for Siobhan to sink into, wanting nothing more than to sleep the entire flight and ignore reality. A kick to her foot would not allow her, though. "So what's up?"

He sat across from her, his eyes watching her expectantly. Nick wanted answers she couldn't give him. She wasn't ready to give them. Sleep.  She just wanted to sleep. "We're going to London." She said, voice flat and monotonous. He knew that, of course, but she couldn't tell him anything else. "What's your parent's place like?" Lilia boarded next, giving her sister a glare so heated it could burn her from the inside out. Next were her parents who sat near their youngest and the human she insisted on bringing alone. "It is grand," Aria chirped, fingers tangling with her husbands.

"And quite big. It can be overwhelming to see for the first time, so do not feel embarrassed when we arrive." There was something in her mother's tone that Siobhan didn't have the energy to draw attention to.

She was trying to prepare him for the stares he would get from court—the whispers about him in the halls. There was even a possibility he could be killed if left alone.