Blood Betrayal

Chapter Fifteen

Having thoroughly enjoyed his trip to court Alistair returned home in a genuinely good mood. Sam seemed to be floating on air. If he had known all it took to make his wife purr was a day away from home he would have suggested it long before then.

Once inside it became painfully obvious that at least four of the children had overindulged in liquor and perhaps more whilst they were left unsupervised.

Tomas, Benjamin, Nicholas and Liam were clutching water bottles and barely able to greet their mother over their alcohol-induced headaches. Disturbingly, Zion was nowhere to be seen. The youngest was the most likely to take things too far making his absence worrying.

In order not to upset his wife Alistair ushered her upstairs and into a hot bubble bath before inquiring further. By the time he had gone back downstairs the boys had scattered.

He hated having to go downstairs where the boys slept. He was relieved when he heard the sound of water running in one of the never used bathrooms located off of one of the many spare rooms. He should have been more relieved when Zion emerged but the look on his face made it hard to feel anything besides suspicion.

The boy's face was damp with water and he was holding a tray of mostly eaten food. He froze the moment their eyes met then winced and scuttled towards the kitchen.

"You missed it. Marthus showed up," he mumbled on his way past.

Unsure how his maker dropping in would cause the type of behaviour Zion was displaying Alistair followed him to the open kitchen. Hs studied the boy's frantic movements while he cleaned up.

"What did he say?"

Sighing deeply Zion abandoned the tray he was scrubbing and turned to face him with a troubled look in his eyes. "He said that he was sorry but there was no other way and he left Ghanny here and asked me to look after her."

At the mention of her name, Alistair felt a sharp pain in his chest. If he were still human he would worry it was a heart attack. Marthus had always been a safe place, he was a protector yet he had brought the means to ruin everything Alistair worked to create.

The Queen was a narcotic and he was an addict. It had taken so damn long to get her out of his mind. Now Marthus had brought her back. She was some wonderful dream you couldn't wake from because you didn't really want to wake. The kind of dream that once having it you tried for hours to fall asleep again in the vain hope you could touch it just one more time.

Realising that Zion was staring at him waiting for a response he pulled himself together enough to speak. "Where is she?"

"She's asleep, in there."

His eyes followed Zion's pointing finger to the door he had come from. "Why would he bring her here?"

Shrinking back the boy jerkily shook his head. "I don't know why here. She was attacked by a Fae and I guess is here to hide." His hand ran over the skin of his neck bringing attention to how poorly he looked.

Scrutinising him head to toe Alistair noticed the slight discolouration under his eyes accentuated by his paler than normal pallor. Taking a step closer he tested the air around the boy and caught her intoxicating scent. He was soaked in her.

"You gave her your blood?" he asked through clenched teeth.

"W-what?" Zion stammered as if he would deny before his shoulders sagged affirming the assessment. "I tried to give her the blood from the fridge but it made her sick."

"Go get some sleep we will talk later." With that Zion slipped away nearly running down the stairs leaving a half cleaned tray and two dirty cups.