Page 31 of Cursed Lifeline

Esme backs away, walks around the bench, and starts walking in his direction. It doesn’t take me reading his thoughts to tell he’s not happy with my presence, with how I sought Esme out, or with how I’ve interrupted their training.

My hands grip the bench in anger as she strides slowly through the pink flower petals towards him.

My mind rages. My emotions roar.

But it’s my heart that breaks when Esme’s tiny thoughts whisper to my mind from across the clearing and begin to seal an ill-fate we’re quickly moving closer towards.

I’d choose you, too, Felix.

In life. In death.

I’d. Always. Choose. You.

Twelve

Esme

song: yesterday | J2, coleen mcmahon

Alfred doesn't takehis eyes off Felix as I close the final steps between us. Clearing my throat when he still doesn't tear his gaze away from the vampire behind me, we stand for a couple moments in tense silence before his stare angrily drifts to mine.

My brother's heated gaze falls to my throat. He studies it. Cocks his head to the side and analyzes every inch of the mark Felix left behind. His hand raises and he brushes my hair back over my shoulder, then slowly grazes the back of his knuckle across the right side of my neck where the hickey from Felix's hungry lips now rests.

"Don't lie to me and tell me this is a bruise from last night's training," he seethes.

I swallow over the deceit lodged in my throat as his eyes hold on to the red, black, and blue blemish. When I don't say a word, he releases a heavy sigh, and his fingers drop to the long chain necklace around my neck. He lifts it, removing and uncovering the catholic rosary that was hidden between my breasts.

"Contrary to myth, vampires aren't affected by crosses," he says. "This won't protect you if he decides to take what he so evidentlywants. Besides,his will is not his own. For he himself is subject to his birth. Much like you, petit."

My heart longs for the man I left sitting on the bench across the garden before reality sets in, and I force myself to accept the fact that Felix could never want me the way I want him.

He's a vampire. I'm the slayer.

Our worlds couldn't be more opposite, more doomed to fail if we'd tried.

Grabbing the gold chain from Alfred's grasp, I huff, "Maybe you're wrong."

Leaning in, my brother's disapproving glare deepens as he says, "Satan himself fell from heaven, Esme. He's forced to make a home for himself in hell, never to be allowed through the pearly gates again. But that doesn't stop him from playing with those who believe in Christ when it suits him. In fact, it's his favorite pastime. I'll warn you again since you have a habit of forgetting what I've said. Felix will play with you until you can't deny him what he wants any longer. It's the game his kind loves to play. When your guard is down, that's when he'll attack."

"He'd never do that."

"No?" he leans back and crosses his arms over his chest. "How can you be so sure?"

I begin to speak, to argue my case, when he cuts me off.

"Before you continue to spout lies your heart can't help but hope in, let me remind you that every slayer who has come before you thought they were strong enough and they all ended up dead. Even Drusilla herself, a slayer once believed to be the most powerful, is now Queen of the Damned."

"I have no desire to take her place if that's what you're insinuating."

His eyes lift and drift back over my shoulder. I chance a glance behind me and see Felix still sitting on the bench. Diligently watching.Waiting. Protectively, he studies us closely.

"No," my brother sighs. "Something tells me that's not his plan for you, either. In fact, I worrythis is the very ecstasy of love, Whose violent property fordoes itself and leads the will to desperate undertakings."

Felix's eyes drift to mine. Heartbreak swells in his gaze. My heart bleeds for him.

For us.

For what we both wish could exist but know never can.

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