Icarus; The Kindred (A Paranormal Romance) by J. S. Chancellor Page A

once heard Jacelynd. The repercussions of what this means rip through me.
    "This is how you knew, you evil son of a bitch." Guilt surfaces as I recount the last few days. "How you knew I'd been with Jacelynd, how you knew their names. It isn't just about the Rebellion is it?"
    "The past doesn't matter now. You have a life before you that you haven't dared dream of before. So much lies ahead for us." I've never seen Trinity excited about anything, at least not to this extent. "The Rebellion and all those humans who have made our lives so difficult since we came into this world are about to learn who truly has the upper hand here. But I'm on a tight schedule this morning and I don't have time to lay this out for you. We'll talk about it when I get home."
    I shake my head, numb. "I don't understand."
    He ignores me for a time, going about his daily routine of pulling out clothes to wear and laying them on the bed. I'm frozen where I stand.
    Trinity tucks his shirt into his overpriced slacks and threads his belt through the loops. "I can tell that you aren't going to let this go until you hear what you
think
you want to hear. Everything Jacelynd told you about your relationship with him is true. Irrelevant, but true. What is relevant is my past with Jacelynd. Bad blood between us, pardon the pun." He looks at me with gleaming triumph in his eyes. "I have simply taken back what is rightfully mine."
    There is so much flooding my senses right now that I don't even know where to begin. "Trinity, quit messing with me! What are you talking about? What relationship?"
    Trinity stops shuffling around and dumbly stares at me. "He wasn't lying to you when he said that you were his wife. I don't know what else he told you, but there's no way in hell that he didn't tell you that."
    I can't breathe.
Jacelynd is my husband?
    "Was. Jacelynd was your husband. You are bound to me now. It's called a Blood Tithe, I'm sure you've heard of it." He smirks. "Jacelynd really didn't tell you?"
    Why is the floor moving? Oh, wait, that would be my knees buckling. A Blood Tithe—to be perfectly honest, I thought it was an urban legend. The very idea that vampires could be bound by blood seemed ridiculous until now. If the legends hold true, a Tithe can only be broken by death or near-death. Explains the burns. It also explains why drinking from Jacelynd revived the Tithe.
    "No, he didn't tell me. I wouldn't have believed him even if he … that's why he said I wasn't ready to hear it yet. I wasn't just married to him, I was Tithed to him. How could I have been connected to Jacelynd yet tricked into a Tithe by you? Two Tithes can't exist at the same time, can they?"
    Why didn't I listen to those stories when they were being passed around in academy? If I had, maybe I would have known what was happening last night.
    "Well, Jacelynd was with you for about five hundred years or so. He certainly knows you well enough to know when you will and won't believe something. And I didn't trick you into anything. You drank of me in oath, willingly, just like you swore your oaths as an assassin." Trinity breezes past where I'm crumpled into a lump near the foot of the bed, completely unmoved by how seriously distressed I am. "You revived a
shadow
of your former Tithe with Jacelynd, though I didn't see that coming. An unintended perk, I suppose. You can't hear him now, but he can certainly hear us."
    "Five hundred—what?! Trinity, what the … wait, Jacelynd can hear us?"
    "And feel us. You were a little too blood drunk last night to keep your emotions in check and I'm sure he knew exactly what was going on." Trinity casually pulls my underwear from between the sheets. "Every moan and sigh. And correct me if I'm wrong, but there was a whole lot of moaning going on."
    I'm speechless. I mean … what do you say to something like that? I'm not old … I'm archaic. And he can hear us! Still! This is so not good.
    "You can't tell me that wasn't the best sex you've ever had." He