Page 138 of Even Vampires Bleed
What I’m ashamed of is the fact that I had to kill people in order to make that happen.
I know the world is better off without those two, but that doesn’t make it less significant.
I’ll have to live my life with that weight on my shoulders and soul.
This is maybe why I tried to avert my eyes.
This is maybe why I didn’t want to tell him.
I’m scared of the way he’ll look at me, knowing that I’m a murderer.
I’m scared to see fear or disgust in his beautiful hazel eyes, and I’m not sure I’ll ever recover if it’s the case.
Or maybe it’s what I need.
I’ve been telling him—and myself—thatwewould not happen, so maybe that’s exactly what I need to start anew, to forget him.
“Open your eyes, Firefly,” Léandre tells me, and his voice is so soft and so close to me that I can’t help but comply.
“I love you,” he tells me, and my heart stutters at the words.
Three insignificant words separately, but combined, they’re all I’ve ever wanted to hear from him.
“I don’t know what went through your mind before I made you open your eyes, but I hate it. Whatever made you doubt that I wouldn’t understand, that I would look at you differently after you told me your truth—whatever this is, I hate it. I don’t want you to doubt me ever again. And I’m not saying that as an order or a command. No. I’m telling you that as a vow. It’s my vow to you. I promise you that whatever you ever do, whatever you ever say, I’ll always love you.”
“You can’t promise me that,” I tell him. I mean to add some more, but he cuts me mid sentence.
“I can, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. I don’t know what made you believe I would think less of you for killing or at least attempting to kill the monsters who robbed me of a first life with you, who had plans to rob us both again. I don’t know what made you believe it would change my mind, but it’s not true. It’s not real. All I can see is a beautiful person on the outside and on the inside. All I can see isthat you fought for me. That you did everything in your power to give me my life back, and all I hope now, is that it means you’ll fight for us too, because, Firefly, I love you and never want you to doubt that.”
By the time he’s finished talking, I’m speechless.
He carefully grabs the sides of my throat and swipes his thumbs on my cheeks. Tears that I haven’t even felt falling wet his fingers as he looks at me with stars in his eyes and a soft smile.
“I love you too,” I say, breathless, and he laughs.
Why the hell is he laughing? I just told him I loved him. It’s not the right moment to laugh—not at all.
“I never thought I’d see the day when I would be the one making a grand and long speech, or I would leave you speechless,” he says with a bright smile and just like that I realize I can’t even be mad at him.
“Stop teasing me and kiss me, you idiot,” I say instead.
73
Léandre
It takes a second for my brain to compute what Cassiopé just said, and when it does, my hands bring her face to me, and I devour her lips.
I’m not soft, and she responds in kind.
I angle her head with my right hand to give me better access as my tongue slips between her lips.
It feels like a battle of wills and like we’re learning each other all at the same time.
I let my left hand wander to her collarbone and slowly, so very slowly, to the side of her breast, testing waters.
When her hand wanders to the small of my back and slips right under the waistband of my boxer briefs to grip my ass and bring me closer to her, I don’t hesitate anymore.
I cup her right breast with my hand and squeeze.
