CHAPTER 135: ICE [PART 2]

I walked closer to the bed, my boots cracking against the ice. The cold was quick to get to my skin, but I ignored the pain like it was nothing until I stood next to Eloise’s unconscious form.

"Just hold on a little longer for me, little wife," I muttered, using my sharpened nail to slit my wrist.

I leaned down and clenched my teeth when my hand pulled down her chin. Her skin was like ice, and I hated how it reminded me of the snowbloods I fought in war.

Their skin was ice, their blood was ice, hair like snow, and eyes like the blue menace.

I shook my head to get rid of the thought. This was Eloise, my wife and mate...she was nothing like them.

I positioned my wrist at her lips, and my blood dribbled, making soft hissing noises as it slipped inside her mouth.

I hoped for an improvement, but after long, excruciating minutes of waiting, nothing was getting better. The room got colder to the point I thought it would start snowing and a blizzard would follow.

My fears spiked when Eloise groaned in pain, clenching the sheets, her head thrashed to and fro.

"Eloise?" I panicked.

The ice got worse, not getting better until the entire room was covered in it.

What’s happening? Why isn’t my blood—.

"Oh brother, that won’t be enough..."

I moved my eyes to Damon stepping into my chamber from the balcony entrance.

"What are you doing here?"

"Is that the question you should be asking? Can’t blame me for being here when the entire castle is about to start snowing."

"Get out!" I hissed.

Damon grinned. "I know what she is... brother."

I clenched my teeth. "How long..."

He chuckled, coming closer, walking into the ice even as it affected him just as it did me.

"By the goddess..." He halted, gaze dropping to his hand, observing as the ice crept through his skin, into his bloodstream.

"Damon..." I said, trying to control myself and not pounce on him.

"A few weeks now," he replied to my earlier question. "Don’t worry, Lou has a special place in my heart. I won’t tell a soul."

I hated that I believed him. If anything, he had more truth than he did in his entire life. It scared me and frustrated me to no end. He was being genuine, for I know the reason why.

"Now do you want her to be out of this before the entire castle figures something out, or are you going to be an asshole or a pain in the ass? Choose."

"I have this under control," I stated firmly. "Get out."

Damon huffed. "Is that under control?"

I leveled my eyes to Eloise, her face contorted in pain as the cold around her grew stronger. The sight of her like this was killing me to the bones.

I moved my gaze to Damon and froze. He was watching Eloise now, and the look on his face was one I had never seen before: Worry.

Then he smirked like the devil as he looked at me. "She needs me now."

"Get out," I reprised as my fist clenched tightly. Whatever he wanted to say, I didn’t want to hear it.

"Put aside our petty disagreement and listen to me, brother."

"GET OUT!" I boomed.

"She needs my blood and I’m here to give it!"

"Enough of your games, Damon."

"Games? Oh, this is no game. Remember the night she drank herself to a stupor? I gave her a drop of my blood."

I grabbed his collar before I could even reason my own actions.

"Can’t resist when she said I smelled like her own personal brand of wine."

My fist clenched hard, and my body shook.

"Tell me, brother, you were the one in the war. Have you known Snowbloods to live only on one blood supply? You should be grateful I added to her appetite."

"You had no right!" I seethed to his face, and then my body went cold, colder than the ice taking over the place.

Did Eloise experience delirium with him?

"What happened after you gave her a drop of your blood?" I demanded.

Damon narrowed his eyes in confusion but kept his smile. "Tucked her right back in bed, given that she passed out in my arms."

An inner relief found me. He doesn’t know what I’m talking about.

I punched him right in the face, a crack echoing through the air.

Damon snapped his broken jaw back in place. "Fuck!" he cursed. "It is either that or bite her."

"What did you say?"

"The night I came to her, hoping to figure out why your little human tried to bite me, I had the urge to mark her. Riddle me this, brother, why do you think I have the urge?"

"It means nothing."

"She’s my mate...Too."

"Shut your mouth!"

"Come on, brother... why else would I have the desire to bite her?" He looked at Eloise, and his smile faded when he noted my mark. "Of course you did."

He stepped closer, but I placed my hand on his chest to stop him.

"You may have won this round, brother, but she needs my blood, or are you willing to gamble her life because you just can’t accept the fact that she’s my mate?"

"You can’t choose her."

"Yes, I can." He shoved my hand off and slit his wrist. "She carves my blood now...maybe her heart will too."

I came at him, but halted my steps when the ice was quick to reverse, Eloise’s once cold body getting warmth as the color returned to her cheeks.

I was thankful to the goddess; she was okay, but I was only more aggravated. This time, it wasn’t my moonblood that saved her but Damon’s.

"She won’t choose you."

Damon chuckled as he faced me. "But she chooses my blood."

"You don’t get to decide that for her!"

"Yes, I don’t," he voiced in a stern voice. "I gave her an alternative, and now brother..." He closed the distance between us, cocky, because he knew I wouldn’t be able to kill him anymore if I wanted to. "She doesn’t need just you anymore."