Page 64 of Killer of the Bells
It wasn’t a threat. It was the truth. If I trusted my fragile heart with Vale and he shattered it, that would be it for me.
“I will never betray you; I swear it.” Vale got down on one knee before me. “Since meeting you, I’ve seen only your face when I look at other people. I wonder how you’re doing, what you’re doing, and if you’re safe.”
“You sound obsessed,” I gave him a shy smile.
“I am. I’m a grumpy mess, and I’m utterly obsessed with you, Echo. I know what love is now. It’s not sappy songs and grand, empty gestures meant to impress the world. It’s you. It’s only you. I love you, and if you’ll have me, I will promise my life to you, I swear it.”
“Wow.” I blinked rapidly to fight back the tears tinging my eyes. “That’s… wow.”
“You don’t have to decide anything now,” Vale said. “I can wait.”
“You’re an idiot if you think I’m going to refuse you after that speech,” I said, rubbing my stinging eyes in case a tear had managed to break free.
“You’ll give me a chance?”
“I’m not giving you a chance, Vale. I’m giving you myself. Don’t make me regret it, okay? I’ve had enough loss in my life, and I can’t take any more.”
“I will spend the rest of my life making sure you only have good things in yours.”
I gave a sad smile because Vale’s life was likely to be far longer than mine. “You’re definitely obsessed.”
“You have no idea.”
“You sent me food, didn’t you?” That piece of the puzzle was obvious when I looked at it through a Vale-colored filter.
“I might have.”
“How did you know what I like?”
Vale rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “I can see things about people when I drink from them. I get impressions, snippets of their lives, and random bits of information about them.”
I paled. “What did you see?”
“I saw your life, Echo. I saw what happened to your parents and to your foster parents.”
I gripped Vale’s hand tightly. I didn’t know how to feel about that, but it was a relief to know I wouldn’t have to tell him everything. Plus, if he already knew me so intimately and still claimed to love me, then I wouldn’t feel like I needed to dumb down how bad things got for me to keep from seeming like too much work.
Actually, I did know how to feel about it.
Horny. I felt horny. Dicks are funny that way. The weirdest things will set them off.
Speaking of horny.
“Hold on a second. Baz and Vix fucked? I thought they were twins?”
Vale gave a dry chuckle. “A lot of people think that, but they’re not related at all as far as I know. Even if they were, I doubt it would have stopped them. Does that change how you think of them?”
“Hardly. Morality is overrated. You wouldn’t happen to have any photos or videos of you three hooking up, would you? Purely for research purposes, I assure you.”
Vale sputtered, and I nearly broke, but I kept going. “Actually, do you think there’s a chance Paris will let me, Vix, and Baz have a three-way? If you got to do it, I should get to do it at least once, right? It’s only fair.”
Vale’s eyes burned with orange fire, like, actually, for real lit up, and I realized I might have taken the joke a little too far.
Vale’s hand nearly crushed mine as he whispered, “Don’t. Just… don’t. I know you weren’t serious, and I know it’s not fair, but I can’t think about you being with someone else. It makes the monster difficult to contain.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll try to remember that.”
“Please do,” Vale said curtly.
