Chapter 111

Anna stepped out of the shower feeling much better. She was glad to find most of the blood was not hers, though she had quite a few bruises. Part of her wished she knew what had happened. How had she managed to kill Jack? How could she possibly be that strong?

She pulled on a comfortable pair of sweats and a cotton camisole, and went back out to the living room. She could hear the deep voices of Hugo and Aaron as she opened the door, but they stopped talking once she entered the room.

Hugo stood. “How are you feeling?”

She shrugged. “Okay.” She stood in the hallway, twisting her fingers into the hem of her camisole. Did he still want her? He hadn’t left, but?—

“Wilhelm called,” Aaron said. “He wants you to call him.”

Anna grimaced. “I don’t want to talk to him. Besides, it’s the middle of the night there.”

Aaron gave her a look. “He wants you to call him.”

She crossed her arms. “I don’t want to talk to him.”

Aaron sighed. “It’s not a request.”

Wilhelm had commanded her? “Fine.” She turned on her heel to return to her room and picked up her phone. She pressed his picture on the screen and waited for him to answer. Maybe he’d gone to bed and wouldn’t?—

“Hello, Anna.”

“Hello, Wilhelm,” she said coldly. “Aaron said you wanted me to call you.”

There was a pause. “I wanted to make sure you are alright,” he said softly.

“I’m fine.”

“You do not sound fine. You sound angry.”

Anna sat on her bed with her head in her hands. “I’m fine. Aaron and Hugo are taking care of me.”

“Hugo?”

“My boyfriend. The one I called you about weeks ago.”

“Ah. I remember. You have gotten serious with him, then?”

“I guess so. Is that okay? Do I need your permission to date someone?” She knew she was snapping, but really didn’t care at the moment.

He was quiet for a few minutes. “Anna, I am sorry I did not call you when Jenna died. It was unthinking of me.”

“Are you going to come see me dance tomorrow?”

“I cannot do that. Showing up in New York, especially now, would arouse Devin’s suspicions.”

Anna clenched her jaw and blinked back angry tears. She wanted to yell at him, to tell him how much he was hurting her by not being around for her. Any other time, he would have been here in a heartbeat. Now that she was safe in New York, he seemed to think she didn’t need him anymore. Well, maybe she didn’t need him anymore. “Is there anything else you need, Wilhelm?” she asked coldly.

“ Nein, Liebling .” His voice was as gentle as it always was . “I just wanted to make sure you were okay and that you know I love you.”

“I’m okay.”

“I love you, Anna.”

She didn’t respond and he was quiet.

After a long pause, he spoke again, though his voice was strained. “I will let you get on with your evening.”

“Good night.”

Alex stared at his father as Anna hung up after a cold farewell. “You should have called her.”

Vati frowned. “As everyone has reminded me, yes, I should have. But I cannot go back in time and change things. I can only try to make it up to her in the future.”

Alex paced in his father’s study. “Vati, I need to see her. Seeing me would make her understand what happened. Would make everything better for her.” Alex ran his hands through his long hair. He had been patient with his father’s insistence on staying in Frankfurt until he and the other Elders figured out what to do next. But it had been over a month and his patience was wearing thin. Even his men were eager to see their families, but Vati insisted on keeping their return a secret. “My heart can’t stand it much longer.”

Vati stood behind him and put his hand on his shoulder. “I know, son. But the situation needs to be handled very carefully. Devin is still very strong. If you go out and announce you’re alive, he will find you. And Anna. You’re not ready to confront him yet.”

Alex clenched his fist as a surge of anger shot through his body. He wanted to lash out at his father, but Vati was right. Anna had only just escaped after Devin had been consuming her powers for years. He was too strong and would remain so for several months.

“I miss her,” Alex whispered after a long silence. “My heart aches for her...” He turned suddenly. “I could touch her. The last few times... I could touch her. I could kiss her.”

Vati’s eyes widened in surprise. “You could?”

Alex nodded. “Ever since I got sick—?” He paused. “Did Devin know she dreamed of me?”

Vati shook his head. “No, I told her not to tell him. When were you sick?”

“During Vitaly’s funeral.” He flinched at the memory. He hadn’t told his father about what Devin had done to him and Seth. It was too shameful.

Vati pressed his lips together. “Anna was sick too. She must have been—?” He paused and then chuckled. “When you’re bonded, you’re really bonded, aren’t you?”

Alex raised his eyebrow, perplexed by his father’s amusement.

“Because Devin arranged for your disappearance and insisted on you being put in the cellar, so Anna got sick with you.”

Alex grimaced. He had a strong suspicion that what Devin had done to him in that cellar had made him sick. But regardless... “Devin must have done something so she could touch me without disappearing. He wouldn’t have thought to remove the ability because he didn’t know she visited me.”

Vati nodded and the two men were quiet for a long time. Alex clenched his jaw, trying to push away the insistent memory of Devin’s touch. There were few days when the memory didn’t rear its ugly head and he’d wondered more than once if Devin had somehow manipulated his mind to make him unable to forget. The thought was more than a little disturbing. Seth had a similar struggle, but it was the pain that haunted him the most. For Alex, it was the pleasure.

Vati broke the silence. “What have you learned from the third book?”

Alex sighed, but was glad of the distraction. “Not as much as I hoped to. As I understand it, the final bonding ritual is very similar to the first one, with a few subtle differences. The most important element seems to be the strength of the bond that has formed between Master and slave since the first ritual.” He gave his father a sad look. “Vati, I don’t want to take Anna like that. I don’t want her to be my mindless slave. I want her to be free.”

Vati stroked his chin. “The whole point of that ritual is to get the mindless slave...”

“I want my wife, not a slave.”

“What would happen if it wasn’t performed?”

The silence in the room grew heavy as both men contemplated Vati’s words. “Is it... possible?”

“You would know better than I.”

Alex chewed his lip. What would happen if the final ritual simply wasn’t performed? Would her bond to Devin dissolve? Would her bond to himself dissolve? Would something even worse happen? “I need to study more.” He turned to leave, but his father stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Alex, you can’t bury yourself in the library again.” Vati gave him a sad smile. “We’ve missed you too.”

Alex nodded. “You’re right.” He had missed his family terribly. “Please help me find a balance. I’ve been isolated for a very long time.”

Vati chuckled. “Your mother will drag you out if you stay away too long.”

Anna threw her phone down on her bed and sat down hard on the floor, drawing her knees to her chest. Wilhelm had abandoned her. He had his own family to worry about and he had finally realized that he needed to attend to them first. She was just a side distraction. A plaything.

She stared at the floor in front of her until there was a soft knock on her door. She looked up to see Hugo standing in her doorway, looking concerned. “Is everything okay?”

Anna shrugged. “As okay as it ever is.”

He walked over and sat behind her, hugging her to him. She sighed and relaxed into his embrace. “I’m glad you’re here.”

He kissed her cheek. “As long as you need me, I will be here for you.” He kissed her cheek. They sat together in silence for several minutes. “Do you want me to leave so you can go to sleep?”

Anna bit her lip. “I don’t want you to leave,” she whispered. “But I understand if you need to.”

Hugo hesitated. “I don’t want to leave you like this, Kittycat,” he said softly. “I’ll stay if you want me to.”

Anna nodded. “I want you to.”

“Okay. Let me tell Aaron.” He stood and helped her to her feet. “And I’ll be right back.”

Anna sat on her bed. This wasn’t how she’d envisioned the night going, but she was glad he was willing to stay. He’d been adamant about not staying with her for weeks. Was it because he knew what she was now? No, he didn’t really know what she was. He just knew her guardian had abused her. He wanted to take care of her and she was grateful for it.

Several minutes later, he returned, closing the door softly behind him and held up a pair of sweats. “Aaron lent me something to sleep in. Jeans aren’t very comfortable.”

“Oh! I hadn’t even thought about that.” She smiled shyly. “What do you normally sleep in?”

He grinned. “My underwear or sweats.” He wagged his eyebrows and she giggled. “What do you normally sleep in?”

She looked down. “Something like this, I guess. Or naked.”

His grin widened. “I can’t say I’m not looking forward to the second.”

Anna looked away and bit her lip. The idea of being naked with Hugo made her body tingle with excitement.

“I’ll go change if that’s okay?”

She nodded, realizing she hadn’t even seen him with his shirt off. That was very unusual. Normally, she saw a man naked first and rarely got to know him better.

The door opened and she turned, butterflies in her stomach. Why was she nervous? Well, there was reason to be nervous, she supposed. They were spending the night together, although she had a feeling there would be no sex involved, which was fine with her. She was sore from Jack and really wanted to be able to enjoy their first time together.

He smiled and walked to her bed, pulled down the covers, and looked at her. “You sleeping over there?”

Anna shook her head and walked across the room and stood by the bed, looking at him. Hugo. Her boyfriend. She smiled at the thought.

“What’s that smile for?” He sat and patted the bed next to him.

“I was thinking about you being my boyfriend.”

“I’m glad that made you smile.”

“Me too.” She was stretching out her legs under the covers when she remembered... “Oh, the light!” She sat up, but he put his hand on hers.

“I’ll get it.” He got up to turn the light off, and then slowly made his way back to the bed and chuckled. “It’s dark in here.”

Anna giggled. “That happens at night.”

“Mmm.” The bed dipped beside her and he moved around for a moment, then reached for her. “Come here.”

She moved under the blankets and stretched out on her side next to him, head resting on his chest as he lay on his back. He played with her hair. “I’m glad you’re okay. I was so worried when you didn’t come backstage. Especially when Aaron freaked out.”

“I’m sorry I worried you.”

“What matters is that you’re safe, Kittycat. I can’t ask for anything more than that.” He tucked her closer to his side and she rested her hand on his bare stomach. When she moved her fingers, she could feel the ridges between his abdominal muscles. There was no chest hair to tickle her nose, and he smelled good. A spicy vanilla scent of some sort. She closed her eyes and was sound asleep within minutes.

“You’re kidding, right?” Devin stared at his phone sitting on his home office desk and pushed away in shock.

“I wish I was.” Tom’s voice through the speaker was tense. Devin could tell he was shaken even through the phone lines. “It was... really disturbing. His skull was caved in, his neck was broken, and his dick... I can’t imagine what happened. He must have put up a fight, though. His room was all torn up and... God, did he have mob connections or something?”

“With him, you never know.” Jack didn’t think things through sometimes. Devin stood and paced over to the window, gazing out at the downtown skyline, the lights of the buildings sparkling like the stars in the night sky.

“Why didn’t you tell me he was here? I could’ve offered him a place to stay or something. Kept whoever wanted him dead off of him.”

Devin sighed. “I wanted him to see if Anna was there and to keep out of sight until he confirmed either way.”

“I really don’t think she’s here. I’ve looked and I don’t sense her.”

“I can’t figure out where she went. I should be able to sense something from her. The bond is still active.”

“I’ll keep looking.”

“Thanks, Tom. Let me know if you find out anything else about Jack’s death.”

“I will.”

Devin shook his head. Jack was a smart man, but sometimes his passions got ahead of his brain. He couldn’t imagine what trouble he could have gotten into to deserve such a horrible death, though.

Shit. Now who would train his red girls?