Page 99 of Rose and Shadows
“He is not.”
“I know that. He’s not cold and biting. He wouldn’t abandon.”
“To this day, you still paint it that way.”
Victor slammed his hands forward, the chains clanging violently, as he flipped on a dime as warped minds were want to do. “How else should I see it? You left me! Disowned me! A sire forsaking his sireling! Hisfirstsireling at that!”
Remnant didn’t flinch even with the violence of Victor’s explosion of temper right up close to him.
“The megalomaniacal mindset that you delved so very deep into is what fractured our relationship. Your refusal to entertain restraint and any consideration of the broader picture. Many a time I attempted to reach you, but you proved yourself beyond redemption and severely undeserving of my forgiveness, let alone my trust. Your fixation on being the ultimate apex predator fueled your every action. And it is that which turned even the love once between us to ash.”
“No! The love between us was destroyed by that wolf whore of yours!”
Remnant fisted his hand in Victor’s hair and ripped his head back, making him hiss. “Watch your tongue.”
“I call her that because the moment you laid eyes on her she had you under her spell. An Alpha wolf for an Ancient Vampire… I understand the infatuation. But you let it become more than that. And it ruined everything!”
Remnant jerked him closer. “If you recall for one truly lucid moment, our relationship had ended for centuries before my beloved was even birthed unto this world.”
Victor frowned. “That isn’t… centuries?”
“Yes.”
I saw a brief moment of clarity and recognition flit across his face. “Fine, maybe that’s… maybe it’s right… but if she hadn’t remained, you and I could have—”
“Nothing. We could havenothing.”
“You loved me, Rhodric. I know it. My memory of that is clear unlike… unlike… some other things.”
Rhodric.
Remnant caught my eye. Victor had just revealed the true name of the Commander of The Shadowed in front of me.
Well, for many reasons, it would stay only with me. I saw Remnant recognize that unspoken promise in my expression, and he gave a nod, then focused back on Victor.
“I turned you as my first because I loved you. Deeply so. We were together for two centuries.”
I started at that revelation and leaned against the cell wall, watching on as Victor’s eyes shone at Remnant’s confession.
He reached out with his cuffed hands and clutched at Remnant’s shirt, holding him to him desperately. “Yes.Yes.You remember. I remember it every single day.”
“Do you, Vic?”
“Vic… you haven’t called me that in so long.”
Remnant grasped his hands on him, then leaned in close, hissing then and making Victor tense up. “Do you also remember betraying me for Vincenzo Daza?”
Vincenzo Daza?The Ancient vampire who had been a longtime enemy to Lucian Black? He’d been reviled by Ryker, almost destroyed his connection with Lucian twenty years ago,almost destroyed Lucian, and then he’d been killed by Mia Snow, Ariana Martel’s mother.
Victor shuddered.
Remnant pulled away. “He promised you power and you knelt before him. Until he left you in the dust for his true obsession with Luc.”
“No… no… that was… you forgave me.”
“I’m sure that’s how you’ve had to remember it in order to absolve yourself. Just as I’m sure you’ve also neglected to remember how you continued to come at me after that, threatened those under my charge, those vulnerable who I took to protecting with my creation of The Shadowed also. How you came for everything I built and attempted to destroy all.”
He suddenly shot out his hand and wrapped it around Victor’s throat, ripping him from the heavy duty chains that could hold back most Ancients, then hauled Victor up against the wall, cracking it in several places. “And now you’ve come for myson!”
