Page 38 of A Vampire Bewitched
“Then what, exactly, is it?” she asked sarcastically.
He paced faster, not even bothering to put forth the ‘human’ façade, and clenched his teeth together so hard his jaw hurt. “Shouldn’t you be afraid of me, Emma? I’m a vampire, for Christ’s sake! You’ve been attacked before! Why thefuckare you not afraid of me?”
“Just answer the damn question, Nik!” she snapped.
He came to an abrupt halt directly in front of her, and just shook his head. The misery in her eyes ripped him apart. But, how could he explain something to her he barely understood himself?
Apparently, she’d gotten her answer. “Okay, then. So, we’ll work together to try to find our family. Other than that, please leave me alone.” Taking off her seatbelt, she lifted her chin and rose out of her seat. She wouldn’t look at him as she headed to the restroom at the front of the plane.
His anguished voice tore from his chest against his will, stopping her dead in her tracks. “I can’t.”
She froze outside the bathroom door. “What did you say?”
His eyes burned as he admitted, “I can’t leave you alone. Iwantto, I do. I’m trying, but I fear Ican’t.”
“Why not?” she asked softly.
“Because you’re MINE,” he grated through his teeth.
Her forehead scrunched up in confusion. “What?”
Planting his hands low on his lean hips, his head fell forward in defeat. Fuck it. He may as well tell her. She’d find out eventually anyway, one way or the other. “You’remine. I can’t leave you alone, but I can’t have you either. And it’s tearing me up inside.”
Agony flowed from him like a living, breathing thing, filling the cabin. It was so palpable, he heard Emma lose her breath when it first hit her.
Cautiously, she walked toward him until she was close enough to touch. “Nikulas, what are you talking about?”
He inhaled a ragged breath and lifted his head. His tortured eyes locked onto her face. “You’remine,Emma. My mate. Given to me by fate, fucking bitch that she is. I knew the moment I tasted your blood.” He gave a derisive laugh. “I always passed it off as just a fable, you know? A story passed down through the years from the elders. But it’s not. It’s real. It’s taken me over 600 years, but I’ve finally found you. And I can’tfuckinghave you.”
Emma was obviously struggling to understand. “Why can’t you have me?”
He didn’t answer at first, just ran his eyes desperately, hungrily, over her face, stopping at the pulse beating in her throat.
“Because I’ll kill you.”
Chapter 21
Christian walked through downtown Seattle. Man, he loved this city. He loved the gloomy weather. Loved the hustle and bustle of downtown and Pike Market. Loved the different neighborhoods, each so distinctive in their own way. Loved the ferries, the islands, the mountains. He even loved the homeless population. No one really noticed when they came up missing.
Disposable humans. Always a good feature of the place Dante called home. And being that he was an important part of their group, it kept them all out of trouble, and allowed them to stay here.
Christian didn’t understand the way the old ones behaved sometimes. The way they didn’t care. Maybe it was because they’d beeninhumanfor so long, they’d forgotten what it was like to be human. Maybe, in a few hundred years, he’d become just like them. Not caring if his meal lived or died. Not caring if somebody’s mom or dad or brother or sister didn’t come home. Not caring if families got ripped apart and destroyed.
But today was not that day. Today, he would carry on as usual. Fucking, feeding, and sending them home. Safe and sound.
Hitting 6th Ave, he headed toward Belltown, threading his way through the crowd of people outside Nordstrom’s. There was a cute little dancer he’d been eyeing up at a strip club there. He glanced down at his watch. He should arrive just in time to talk her into taking the night off, and spending it with him. Or at least an hour or two of it.
Then he’d be off to find another female. And another. And another. Until the rising sun chased him back to the sanctuary of his apartment, right next door to Shea’s.
He never brought a female home with him, preferring to keep things as anonymous as possible, erasing their memories when necessary. And it was always necessary. If he brought them home, he’d see the faces of the women he used everywhere he looked. He could barely live with himself as it was. He needed a place that held no memories of what a complete and total asshole he was.
Shaking it off, he cut through an alley behind the theatre. He could be disgusted with himself later. Right now he wanted—no, needed—to get to the strip club, and the bleached blonde who would be arriving there on the bus in about five minutes.
Christian came to the end of the alley. Pulling his cell phone out of his front pocket, he looked down to check the time, but a noise behind him had him glancing over his shoulder. Suddenly, his cell phone fell from his hand and smashed apart on the pavement.
He never made it to the strip club.
UsheringEmma off of the plane, Aiden steadfastly refused to answer any of her questions, insisting she needed to discuss this stuff with Nik. There was just one problem with that. Nik wasn’t speaking to her.
