Blood Bound To My Enemy

CHAPTER THREE

💐 CHAPTER THREE 💐

The sound of my front door splintering jolted me awake.

I shot upright in bed, heart hammering as heavy footsteps echoed through my apartment. Multiple sets of footsteps and my heart beat accelerated with full force.

I rolled off the mattress and hit the floor, scrambling toward the window. Maybe if I could get to the fire escape—

“She’s in the bedroom.”

The voice was deep, unfamiliar, and way too close. I pressed my back against the wall beside my dresser, trying to control my breathing. My hands shook as power flickered under my skin, responding to my terror.

Control it. Don’t let it loose.

The bedroom door burst open. Three men filled the doorway—tall, broad, moving like predators. The one in front had kind eyes that didn’t match the gun in his hand.

“Easy, Maya. We’re not here to hurt you.”

“Funny way of showing it.” My voice came out steadier than I felt, “breaking into my apartment.”a

“Just come with us quietly, and this doesn’t have to get messy.”

“Hard pass.”

I lunged for the window, but they were faster. The kind man grabbed my wrist, and that’s when my control snapped.

Power exploded outward like a shockwave. The bedroom window shattered, raining glass onto the fire escape. Picture frames on my dresser cracked down the middle. The overhead light fixture swayed dangerously.

But instead of releasing me, the man’s grip tightened. The other two closed in, unaffected by the magical chaos I’d unleashed.

“Definitely her,” one of them said. “No human throws that kind of tantrum.”

I twisted in the kind man’s grip, panic making me clumsy. “Let me go!”

“Can’t do that.” He sounded genuinely apologetic. “Boss’s orders.”

I threw my free hand toward his face, trying to channel something—anything—that might help. Instead, every piece of glass in the room lifted into the air, hovering like deadly snowflakes.

All three men froze.

“Now that’s interesting,” a new voice said from the doorway.

I turned, and the world tilted.

The man standing there looked like he’d been carved from shadow and starlight. Dark hair, pale skin, eyes the color of winter storms. He was beautiful in the way that dangerous things were beautiful—wolves, lightning, the edge of a cliff.

And when our eyes met, something inside me ignited.

Recognition slammed into me like a physical blow. Not his face—I’d never seen him before. But something deeper, older, written into the marrow of my bones knew exactly who he was.

The glass around us trembled, responding to whatever was happening between us.

“Well,” he said softly. “Aren’t you full of surprises.”

I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. The connection between us felt like touching a live wire, electric and consuming and completely beyond my control.

He stepped into the room, and the air itself seemed to thicken. “Let her go, Marcus.”

The kind man—Marcus—released my wrist immediately. I stumbled backward until I hit the wall, trapped between him and the stranger who made every instinct I had scream danger.

“You’re coming with us,” he said. It wasn’t a question.

“No.” The word came out as barely a whisper.

He smiled, and it was sharp enough to cut. “I wasn’t asking.”

Power surged through me again, wild and desperate. Every piece of glass in the room shot toward him like bullets.

He moved faster than anything human should be able to, batting the shards away with inhuman reflexes. But one caught his cheek, drawing a thin line of blood.

He touched the cut, studying the crimson on his fingertips. When he looked at me again, there was something predatory in his expression.

“That was a mistake.”

He closed the distance between us in two strides. I threw up my hands, trying to summon another barrier, but he caught my wrists and pinned them above my head.

The moment his skin touched mine, electricity shot through my entire body. Not pain—something else. Something that made every nerve ending come alive.

His eyes widened slightly, like he felt it too.

“What—” I started.

“Sleep,” he commanded.

Darkness swallowed me whole.

-----

I woke up in a room that wasn’t mine.

Stone walls. High ceiling. No windows. A single door that probably led nowhere good. I was lying on a bed that cost more than my monthly rent, wearing the same clothes I’d gone to sleep in.

My head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and my mouth tasted like I’d been licking batteries.

“You’re awake.”

I jerked upright, immediately regretting the sudden movement as the room spun. He was sitting in a chair by the door, watching me with those storm-grey eyes.

Now that I could see him clearly, he looked even more dangerous. Tall enough to dwarf the furniture. Broad shoulders under a black t-shirt that showed off muscled arms marked with scars. Everything about him screamed predator.

“Where am I?” My voice came out scratchy.

You are in my home, Maya.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “I believe it’s time for a proper introduction. My name is…Jaxon Red.”

The name hit me like a sledgehammer.

Jaxon.

The little boy from my mother’s stories. The child whose fate she’d sealed with blood and rage and magic that should never have been touched. I’d carried his name like a stone in my chest for twenty-three years, wondering if he was still alive, if the curse had claimed him yet.

And here he was. Alive. Grown. Beautiful and terrifying and staring at me like I was either his salvation or his executioner.

“Oh god.” I pressed my hands to my mouth, but the words came anyway. “You’re him. You’re actually him.”

His expression didn’t change. “So you do know.”

“I’ve known your name since I could speak.” Guilt crashed over me in waves. “The little boy my mother cursed. The family she destroyed.”

“Among other things.” His voice was carefully controlled, but I could see the rage simmering beneath the surface. “Tell me, Maya—do you know why I brought you here?”

I shook my head, even though part of me suspected the answer would destroy what was left of my world.

“Do you want to kill me?” The question slipped out before I could stop it. “For revenge?”