Page 43 of Night of the Vampire
I walked away, over to the other side of the room by the kitchen. I just needed some space. I needed to think.
But he kept coming.
I threw my hands up again. "Stop!" I screamed.
Killian froze. "Lizzy..." There was a warning in his tone. "Release me."
Jamal stood up. "What are you doing?"
"God dammit, Lizzy. Let me go!"
I had no idea what he was talking about, but he was starting to scare me again. Suddenly, it all just became so overwhelming. Killian's angry face blurred as my eyes filled with tears.
"Ah, shite. Lizzy. Don't cry. Don't cry."
My arms fell useless to my sides as I felt myself start to crumble. And then Killian was there, wrapping me up in his strength, holding me against him. One hand in my hair and the other stroking my back.
I buried my face against his chest. It was crazy. Seeking comfort from the man who'd just told me my life as I knew it was over. But I couldn't hold it together by myself anymore.
"She really is a witch," Jamal muttered.
Oh, my God. I was so tired of all of this nonsense. Witch or no, I had no idea what to do with any magic I might possess. The only thing I could do was destroy everything I loved with fire. "I just want to go home," I whispered into his shirt.
"I'll take you," he said into my hair. "Shh. It's all right, Acushla. You're safe with me."
“No, I don’t think I am—”
The floor disappeared from beneath my feet as he scooped me up into his arms like I weighed less than a feather and strode toward the front door. My head swam at the sudden motion.
"Call me if anything changes with Kenya," he told Jamal.
Tired of fighting and drawn by something I didn’t understand, I curled up in the arms of my vampire and let him take me away from this house.
Chapter 16
Killian
Lizzy was silent all the way home. I let her be with her thoughts. It was a lot to take in, I knew, because my own head was a mass of tangled shite as well, filled with both her thoughts and my own.
My mate.
This explained so fucking much. From the moment I first saw her walk out of the back room of her voodoo store, something had drawn me to her. Something much more powerful than mere physical attraction between a male and a female. And when her scent hit me...I hadn't felt thirst like that in over a hundred years.
Since that night, wherever I went, I would feel her presence before I would see her. Entered her mind with my own smooth and easy without the normal barriers humans normally presented. And, most importantly, I could never bring myself to force her to do something she didn't want to do. Something I'd thought was just me trying not to be a complete and total monster for Kenya's sake, but it wasn't only that. It was something more.
It wasn't until she'd asked me to bring her to see Kenya that I was able to do so, even though I showed up every night with the intention of dragging her there whether she wanted to go or not. I'd saved her dog. Not because I cared so much about the animal, although I did like dogs, but because I knew it would break her heart to lose him.
And I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I was the cause of her pain.
Even now, as I glanced over at her sitting so still beside me in the car, I wanted to touch her. Comfort her. Taste her. If I thought she'd accept it I would offer her my blood to help her renew her own. I wanted to make her feel good, hear her moan with pleasure in my ear. I would kill the next twenty people who crossed my path without so much as a thought just to feel her hands on me. I wanted to fuck her until she remembered no male but me. Sink my fangs into her throat and drown in her sweet blood.
Lust, pure and raw, flared within me.
But she wasn't ready for that. Wasn't ready for me. And so I would wait as long as I could.
We arrived in the Quarter. Instead of leaving my car at the park as I normally did, I found a spot half a block from the house. It was dangerous leaving it so close to my home. If the witches saw me here they'd be on me like the bloody banshees they were, but I couldn't make Lizzy walk all that way, and carrying her would draw too much attention. So, it was a chance I'd just have to take. If need be, I'd come out and move it after I got her inside.
Her head was propped against the window and her eyes were closed. "Lizzy, we're home."
