All Chapters of BLOOD & RHYTHM: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

The hospital smelled like antiseptic and fear. I'd been here a hundred times before—a thousand, maybe. The fluorescent lights that never seemed bright enough. The squeak of nurses' shoes on linoleum. The low hum of machines that measured out life in beeps and pulses. I knew this place like I knew my own heartbeat. But today, something was different. I felt it the moment I walked through the doors. A prickle at the back of my neck. A weight in the air. The bond pulled at me, Alexander's presence a steady hum at the edge of my consciousness, but there was something else beneath it. Something wrong.

The hospital room was empty. Alexander stood in the doorway, his hands clenched at his sides, his breath coming in short, sharp gasps he didn't need. The bed was made. The machines were silent. And Luna—Luna was gone. He had felt it the moment it happened. The bond had flickered, dimmed, like a candle guttering in the wind. Then the call had connected, and he'd heard Dorian's voice, heard Luna's fear, heard the phone shatter beneath a heel he couldn't stop. He'd been too slow. Too careful. Too afraid of what he might do if he let himself be what he was.

The first thing I felt was warmth. It spread through my chest, slow and steady, like sunlight breaking through clouds after a storm. The bond was there, pulsing faintly, and through it I felt him—felt his presence, his love, the steady beat of his existence against my own. But something was different. Something had changed. I opened my eyes. The warehouse was empty. The shadows that had pressed against the walls were gone, the lanterns dead, the only light a pale gray seeping through board

The apartment was nothing like the manor. It was small—barely more than a single room, with a bed that folded into the wall and a kitchen that was really just a hot plate and a sink. The windows faced a brick wall, the floors were worn, the walls were thin enough to hear the neighbors arguing three floors down. The heat came from a radiator that hissed and clanked, and the only light came from a single bulb that flickered when the wind blew. Alexander stood in the center of it, turning slowly, taking it all in. His shoulder brushed the ceiling. His arms, hanging at his sides, nearly touched the walls on either side. He looked like a lion in a cage, a king in a pauper's cell, a creature who had spent four hundre

The city was waking up when we slipped out of the apartment. Dawn was still an hour away, the sky a pale gray that promised light but hadn't yet delivered. Alexander moved through the streets like a ghost, his hand wrapped around mine, his senses stretched to their limits. I could feel it through the bond—the tension, the fear, the desperate need to keep me safe. "They're everywhere," he said, his voice barely a whisper. "Hunters. The Council's people. Dorian's people." He pulled me into a doorway, his body pressed against mine, his cold breath on my cheek. "They're looking for us." "Let them look."