Bound In Blood (Bound In Blood - Book One)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Cassandra appeared as if she'd seen a ghost when I spoke to her the following morning. Her eyes were wide and she stammered all over the place, unable to think straight, it seemed. She glanced about the room in a frantic daze, scrubbing at her pristine tankards feverishly. I walked over to her bar and took my usual seat, looking up at her in curiosity.

"Ya alright this mornin', Cass?" I asked her. She looked down at me, a wild look in her eyes.

"Alright? That don't seem to quite explain it, really," she answered.

"Seen somethin', have ya?"

"Oh I seen somethin', alright. Somethin' I can't quite explain," she told me frantically. "Conner, he's gone, right?" The way she carelessly threw around his name now had me skeptical.

"Gone as can be."

"Then I must be absolutely bonkers!" she exclaimed. "Last night, long after the sun had set and I shoulda been asleep, a man walked in. Quiet, lookin' at his feet. But he was wearin' that outfit you n' Conner both wear, hood up n' hidin' his face." My blood ran cold at the prospect of one of Silva's assassins happening upon this place. "Was strange though. His skin was as pale as the snow fallin' on the street and he looked to be just about starvin' to death yet he didn't ask for no meal. That's not the weirdest part, though. He looked up at me for a few seconds and I swear on my life that it was 'im. Looked like a walkin' corpse, though, he did. Eyes as bloody as can be, just like them nightwalkers ya hunted."

The air was sucked out of my lungs in an instant. Conner had been here and I hadn't known it. He had come but did not find me nor tell Cassandra anything. She must surely have known what had happened to him now after what she had seen. It was impossible for her to be ignorant a second longer. I waited in suspense for her to connect the dots and realise the lie I had told her, ready for the fury and sorrow she was certain to feel.

"Ya said he was killed by a nightwalker, didn't you?" I nodded guiltily. "Ya don't think he..." Again, I nodded, unable to look her in the eye. "He turned and ya said nothin' about it?!" she asked hysterically. "Alex! How could ya have kept such a secret?"

"It was too painful," I admitted. "I didn't want to believe it. Wanted to deny it for the rest of my damned life, prayin' it weren't true."

"Does Ma'am Sapphira know about this?" I shook my head. "Does anyone know about this?" Once again, I shook my head no. "Why'd ya leave 'im in that blasted cave?" I could hear the anger building in her voice as the truth toppled on top of her.

"He made me go," I confessed. "I couldn't control my actions and all of a sudden I was back 'ere," I told her. "I can't go back. He won't lemme search for 'im."

"We need to tell Hamish," she told me. "Then he and I may look for 'im. He didn't allow ya to go searchin' but nothin' says we can't."

"No, please no," I told her, despite my desperation to see him. "If ya do, he'll run. He won't return. He told me that."

"Then why did he come 'ere in the first place?" I had no answer for her for I had been asking myself the same thing. It made no sense for him to come here after forcing me away. Something didn't add up. "Well, what shall be done?" Cassandra asked after I gave her no response.

"Conner is dead. That is all that matters and all I care about."

"Ya cannot avoid the truth yer whole life, no matter how hard ya try. It will catch up with ya, Alex."

"I will be ready, then. I am not now."

Cassandra said no more.

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