Page 86 of Love Lives
Remy's face fell, and the way he looked at Aldrich, Aldrich could tell Remy understood perfectly. Everything that had happened. "You did love him," Remy said in a soft tone of voice. "That's why, isn't it? You acted out of grief."
“I took my revenge when I got the chance. You didn’t.” Wasn’t that why he’d really dragged the pizza dude here? To see if Remy would make the same choice he had?
Remy shook his head. “It’s different.”
“How?”
“Losing my grandma sucked, but it happened years and years ago. I’ve had time to process it. If you’d asked me back then, maybe I would have responded differently.”
“I doubt that.” Aldrich had his answer now. Remy could never kill anyone. Aldrich turned away from the mortal and approached the window instead. It was still dark out, so he pulled the curtains aside to look at the yard. It was better than looking at Remy. If he kept doingthat... he would probably do or say something stupid.
“The order to kill came from your sire, though, didn’t it?” Remy asked.
“He didn’t make me do it against my will.”
“No, but you didn’t know who you were killing at the time. You weren’t mortal anymore.” Remy paused, as if weighing his words before pressing on. “If you’d really wanted to, you could have found ways to get rid of your family without losing your mortality, but you couldn’t do it, could you? You had to kill yourself first.”
“That’s a lot of assumptions.”
“I’m right, though. I know I’m right.”
Aldrich turned to look at Remy, which was a mistake. There was too much sympathy in the mortal's eyes. It made Aldrich's brain go soft. Whatever he’d wanted to say got lost on the way from his mind to his mouth.
How could Remy still believe in him?
“Don’t look at me like that,” Aldrich said. “I asked to become a vampire." And why? Because he’d been in love. It was downright embarrassing, really. The kind of plot twist he would have expected from a cheesy soap opera, not his own life.
"We all make mistakes."
"So you'll admit that you think it was a mistake?"
Remy took a deep breath, visibly struggling to keep his composure. He managed, though. "How often will I have to tell you that I'm okay with you being who you are? Vampirism included."
"Just checking." Aldrich took Remy's other hand and pulled him close. Close enough for him to hear the beat of the mortal’s heart. There was something reassuring about the rhythm of a living heart. Something… comforting. "So, to sum this up, you're aware that I'm a killer, but you don't want me to kill in the future."
"Not if it can be avoided."
"We might get into arguments about what can or can't be avoided. I still think that pizza dude would have been a reasonable sacrifice."
"There's no such thing as a reasonable sacrifice."
"Yeah, we're gonna have to disagree there," Aldrich said, focusing on the warmth of Remy’s skin, the smell of his blood flowing through his veins and keeping him alive. It all made sense now, why Aldrich had run into a burning house, why he hadn't wanted to leave Remy at the hospital. Because, even if he hadn't remembered it, he had long since decided that he was never going to let someone he loved be taken from him ever again.
He didn't carewhatsacrifices he had to make along the way.
He wanted to kiss Remy, but before he could, there was a commotion outside the door. Footsteps running down the hall. Silas's voice shouting for Puck.
Well, that couldn't be good.
Chapter Thirty-Three
I brokefrom Aldrich to see what was going on. When I stepped out of the room, Silas had already stormed down the stairs. I followed him into the living room, where he was talking at the blue-haired witch. "Something's wrong with Jared!" He gestured wildly. "The baby, or... I don't know... probably the baby."
"And what exactly do you want me to do about that?" Puck asked. "I'm not a medic."
"But you're the only one who can get him to a medic," I chimed in, jaw clenched. If something was wrong with my brother, someone needed to check him out. "I wouldn't even know where to take him." Regular hospitals weren't exactly equipped to deal with male pregnancy, after all. "We need to get someone from WAFFER."
Puck stared at the rings on his fingers as if they held the answers. "It would take a while. What do you suppose you're going to do if anything happens while I'm gone?"
