Page 43 of Illusory

Deciding to listen to my gut for once, I stepped down onto the bottom landing and then quickly turned around to go back the same way I’d come just as the music cut to a deafening silence.

My breathing stalled in my chest.

“What are you doing down here?” asked Trace, his voice a deep baritone scraping up the back of my neck like fingernails. My eyes veered to the prison cell from over my shoulder, searching frantically through the darkness for his familiar form, but all I saw was pitch black nothingness.

“I didn’t mean to bother you,” I said, turning around slowly. “I, uh—”

“You need to leave.”

His icy words slashed at my insides, but I tried not to let the pain show on my face when my eyes finally found him. He was standing against the concrete wall at the far end of the cell, his face swathed in shadows that almost seemed to be dancing with his expression.

“I was just looking for Gabriel,” I said and then gesturedtoward Gabriel’s section of the basement. Except there was no Gabriel to be found. A nervous twitch needled my stomach, making me feel queasy. “W-where’s Gabriel?”

“Not here.” His clipped tone sent another prickle of fear down my back.

Yep. Gabriel definitely wasn’t there, and I was definitely alone with a brand-new vampire who hated me. This was all around a terrible scenario and the perfect time for my fight or flight instincts to kick in.

Except they didn’t.

Instead, I just stood there, paralyzed in fear, staring at the spot Gabriel wassupposedto be in but clearly wasn’t.

“Why don’t you do us both a favor and go find him.Right now,” he all but snarled at me, his voice so deep and sharp that it felt like shrapnel stabbing into my skin.

Yes. Find Gabriel. That was exactly what I needed to do. Right that instant.

…Except my stupid feetstillweren’t doing anything useful.

“Did you hear me?” he snapped, drawing my eyes back to him. “Get the fuck out of here, Jemma.Now!”he barked out the last part so forcefully that it nearly knocked me off my stupid, unmoving feet.

Tears prickled the corners of my eyes as I stared at him, mouth agape, heart pounding, but my feet finally moving. Albeit backwards, but at least they were working.

How could he talk to me like that? How could he look at me with such utter disdain and vile hatred? I was just trying to save his life. I was just—

And then, as if in response to my heart desperately needing protection from his painful words, I remembered what Dominic had said to me last night. That Trace didn’t hate me. That he was simply afraid of hurting me.

Lord knew in that moment I wanted to believe that more than anything. Because the alternative was that he despised me. That he couldn’t stand the sight of me. That he’d never forgive me for what I had to do to save his life. And that was a far more agonizing fate than anything Trace could spew at me in that moment.

If Trace’s feelings for me really hadn’t changed and he was just keeping his distance from me because he was afraid to hurt me, then that meant thatIwas the one who had abandoned him when he needed me the most. And running from him? That only served to solidify what he already thought about himself. That he was dangerous.Bad. A monster capable of hurting me. The thought alone sent a serrated dagger through the core of my heart, and suddenly, walking away from him felt like a crime.

What I needed to do was to look him in the eyes and tell him that I still loved him too, and that he didn’t ever have to be afraid of hurting me. Because this was stillTrace—my soulmate—not some homicidal maniac that I needed to be afraid of.

Halting my retreat, I lingered at the base of the stairs and stared at him, trying to work out the puzzle pieces into a shape that I was familiar with. Into a man that I recognized. Ignoring the tight ache in my chest and the slit-like glare of his eyes, I started to move my feet again—toward him.

That was my first mistake.

“You’re not going to chase me away this time,” I said and took another wobbly step toward him. “I’m not afraid of you, Trace. I love you and I know you love me too. You don’t have to push me away anymore,” I said as I continued trudging forward until I was standing directly in front of his cell. Heart on my sleeve. Eyes blurry from tears. “Please talk to me,” I pleaded as I reached up and gripped the bars with both myhands.

Andthatwas my second mistake.

Fierce, azure-blue eyes snapped to my hand and suddenly he was standing right before me with only the prison bars separating us. Blackness bled out from his pupils, swallowing the color as though it were a living breathing entity that wanted to consume him from the inside out. Momentarily stupefied, my eyes followed his gaze to my left hand and then to my wrist—to the steady, nearly undiscernible pulse throbbing under my skin.

His next movement was a blur and suddenly, he had my wrist in a vicelike hold that threatened to snap my bone in two as he yanked me forward, driving me hard into the steel bars. The air left my lungs in a painful swoosh as my eyes widened at him in horror.

“Trace! Wait!” I shrieked, but a Revenant’s bloodlust waited for no one.

His fangs descended as quick as the strike of a matchstick and then they were plunging into my wrist, tearing into my flesh as though my skin were made of nothing more than a sheet of tissue paper.

I screamed out once, slamming my closed fist against his right shoulder, striking him through the bars to try to stop him, to jolt him back to reality, but it only made him clamp down on me harder. I raised my arm again, but it was already too late then.

---