Page 20 of To Vanquish Darkness

“My curse keeps me alive.”

Amalie didn’t have to feign interest at this. She turned her head to look at him. “Is your curse different than everyone else’s?”

He stared back at her, his eyes two shards of midnight. “No.”

“So when you became a vampire, you became immortal.” That thought filled her with dread so heavy she nearly dropped to her forearms on the stone. How could she live like this?How could she live like him?She could not be a killer. She could not?—

“Not exactly.”

Amalie’s eyes snapped to his. “What then?” She worked to keep her breathing even. This was it. If he told her why vampires weren’t fully immortal, she could take the information to Marcel and Olivie.

Theo leaned over the table, his shirt barely rumpled from the night’s escapades. Amalie shrank into herself, realizing for thefirst time how she must look. A feral cat hovering for warmth.When she turned, would she be beautiful?

“You will learn more once we leave this place.” Theo watched the flames curling against the stone.

“I want to know now.” Amalie’s heart picked up speed.

“Eager to attack me again?”

She nearly flinched. “Of course. As soon as my clothes are dry.”

Theo chuckled, and his smile created lines near his eyes that looked almost . . . kind. It was sickening.

Amalie spun back to the fire to keep her head straight. The effect he had on her was lessening, or at least she thought it was. Perhaps a consequence of whatever transformation was happening inside her body. That thought sent ice sliding down her spine. Time was slipping through her fingers, and he was dancing around her questions.

“There are very few ways for us to be released, and they have nothing to do with your stories.” Theo’s voice was clipped.

At the sound of his steps moving closer, Amalie snatched the sack off the floor and covered herself. “Then what do they have to do with, Theo?”

His eyes snapped to hers. “You know my name.”

Amalie scoffed, pulling her knees closer. “You shouldn’t be flattered.”

“Too late.” He pushed off the wooden table and strode toward the hearth, stopping in front of her. She had to crane her neck to see his face. The flames reflected in his eyes. “An answer for an answer. Why were you hunting me?”

Amalie ground her teeth. She didn’t have time for games. “Because you kill my kind.” The sack scratched her skin as she shifted her arm away from the fire. Maybe she should’ve let Theo lay out her clothes to dry, but the idea of him touching her underwear made her insides hollow out.

He waved her off. “All vampires kill your kind. Why me? Specifically?”

Amalie opened her mouth, then closed it. His voice sounded almost eager. She thought of at least ten answers that could work, including the fact that he was the one who’d passed her on the street that night, but settled on the truth. “Because you killed my mother.”

It was difficult to rouse the anger she’d felt earlier now that she was thawing out. Grief was strange in that way. Sometimes it filled her to the brim, and sometimes she felt nothing.

A muscle in Theo’s jaw twitched. “I didn’t kill your mother.”

Amalie glared at him. “I saw you. In the woods. You were covered in her blood.”

“I didn’t kill your mother.” Theo spoke slowly, his eyes sharp and focused.

“Then who did?” Amalie couldn’t look at him. The outright lie made her blood boil.

“I don’t know.” Theo’s voice was tight.

Was he pretending he knew nothing of her death? Amalie had seen his face, she’d never forgotten it. He’d been covered in her mother’s blood. Did Theo even know who her mother was, or did she blend into the thousand other humans he’d fed on over the years?

Panic rose in her chest. She couldn’t think about this. She needed to find her answers, then she could focus on revenge. Amalie drew a breath and tried to center herself. Her turn for a question. “If the truth about death for vampires has nothing to do with the legends, what does it have to do with?”

“I liked the way you asked it better last time.”

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