Blood & Honey #1

Chapter Twenty-Five

"You are telling us that this human is an immortal who dies? Not only that but if she was part of the Prince of Darkness's Vamperial Garden of Massaru that would make her thousands of years old?" I narrow my gaze at Thron.

"I admit. It sounds strange, an immortal who dies. Unlike our kind whose offspring is born into this world immortal, Kinley is not. She was made into an immortal but the curse attached to her changes things for her. She doesn't get to live out her immortality like the rest of us."

My nostrils flare as the smell of Kinley's sweet blood fills the air. I can hear the drip of it go splat onto the stone floor beneath her. I don't have to look behind me to know she's having a nosebleed. I do look behind me though when Thron is suddenly no longer in front of me.

By the time I spin around, his large hands are framing Kinley's face.

Shit. How the hell does he move so quickly!

"It has begun," he says solemnly.

"What has begun?" I grit my teeth together, trying to keep myself from ripping Kinley away from him. I'd only end up hurting her if he decided to hold on.

I can feel Kinley's trembling against my front as I ignore her shorter stature and step to my father.

This is the least favorable situation I can think of having her between us like this, but there isn't much I can do about it. He's much faster than me.

I place my hands on the tops of Kinley's shoulders. It's my not so subtle way of telling him to keep his fangs to himself because I can see the hunger her freed blood as brought to his surface.

If he was woken up recently, it would make sense for him to be unquenchably thirsty.

Thron's gaze moves from Kinley to my hands. I glance down at what he is looking at. Black veins are crawling all over the backs of my hands, swirling and twisting as they web out as they spread.

"The curse." He raises his gaze to me. "It has begun. She will die soon."

Black. Black consumes my vision. Thron disappears before I get the chance to snap his neck, taking Kinley with him.

"Tristan." He holds up his hand, his arm around Kinley while he keeps her locked against him. "You need to calm down. It is forbidden for any vampire other than the Prince to drink from a massarra. That includes me."

"An immortal can't die." The cords in my neck tense so hard it feels like they may snap.

"In her death, she will be reborn. That's part of the curse. It takes effect on her sixteenth birthday. After that, it is a guessing game of how long she will have before she is consumed by the curse that dwells within her."

"And after she is consumed you are saying she gets reborn and comes back as an infant?" Heat burrows into my core at the same time ice fills my heart.

"Yes, she doesn't get to live out a normal immortal life. She starts over from the beginning."

I don't understand my feelings, yet the thought of losing Kinley is threatening to cause an explosion in me that I am trying very hard to keep at bay. It's in everything Thron doesn't say. When he says she starts over from the beginning, he means she becomes a new slate who holds no memories of the life that gets burned up in the flames that ravage her and turn her into the ashes she will rise from.

"Is her being a massarra the reason she is immune to compulsion and venom?" I attempt to distract myself by seeking the answers to what I have been searching for since I first discovered Kinley's abilities to defy our kind. I have to distract myself because I fee like I am being ripped apart on the inside.