Page 143 of Cruelly Bitten
I swallowed, the emotions so intense that I could feel them as my own.
And it all melted into the violent scene Cam had shown me minutes ago—his rage as he ripped all those vampires apart.
But the recollection continued as he ran through the underground and up into Rome. Where he found a Vigil and a car.
All while learning history from my mind.
My head spun with all this unveiling of information, my reality turning upside down.
He took down the walls between us,I realized, my stomach turning.I… I can hear Cam.
Only, it still wasn’tmyCam.
It was… it wasnewCam.
And he really didn’t like that distinction. I heard his growling response to it because our link was wide open.
No secrets. No lies. Merely truths.
Like the one rolling through me now. The one that promised he hadn’t abandoned me. That it’d been a trick. Ahologram.
I would never let anyone touch you,I heard him thinking.You’re mine.
True. I was his.But are you mine?Because I didn’t know this monster. Didn’t understand him. Couldn’t please him. Couldn’tlovehim.
Not like my Cam.
Not like before.
This male was a stranger to me, his mind reminiscent of when we’d first met. I hadn’t realized how little humanity he’d possessed back then. But I recognized it now.
Did I really change him that much?I marveled.Did he change me?
“Are you the same woman you were a thousand years ago?” Cam asked, his voice low and almost soothing. “Are you the same woman you were a century ago?”
I swallowed, his questions inspiring an immediatenoinside my mind. Because I wasn’t anything like the woman I’d been when Cam left, let alone who I’d been when we met.
But we’d grown together. Changed to suit each other.
And now… now I had no idea who or what we could be with one another.
“Powerful,” he murmured. “Intense. Revered.”
I blinked, his adjectives not making any sense.
He traced his thumb along my jaw, his other hand cradling the opposite side of my face. “I’m telling you who we could be together.” His touch slowly dropped away. “But only when you’re ready.”
I stared at him, confused by his gentleness. By hispatience. This wasn’t the Cam I’d witnessed mere hours ago, the one obviously infuriated by me wandering the catacombs. This?—
“I wasn’t angry with you,” he interjected, his brow furrowing. “I was angry with Michael.”
My eyelashes fluttered as I blinked at him, the truth of his statement flickering through my mind.
This…I… I wasn’t sure how to handle all of this. The deceptions. The pain. Waking up to a reality I couldn’t trust…
Visions of those hungry vampires surrounding me assaulted my thoughts, causing me to wince and curl into a ball once more. It was too close to my past. To the night Cam and I had first met.
Fitting,he’d said.
