Page 34 of Discovery of the Vampire
"Fuck," I muttered under my breath, coming to a stop in the middle of the empty street. I tilted my head back and stared up at the dark, early morning sky, trying to clear my jumbled thoughts.
It didn't work.
All I could see was the hurt and anger in Esme's dark eyes when I'd accused her of using magic on me. The way her bottom lip had trembled before she'd turned and walked away. The sound of her calling my name tonight with something that sounded suspiciously like hurt in her tone.
I scrubbed my face with my hands and sighed heavily. I'd really fucked things up. But what was I supposed to do? Just blindly trust some woman—somebruja—who showed up out of nowhere with a sob story about a murderous djinn?
Even if that woman made me feel things I hadn't felt in...well, ever? And made me want things I had no business wanting.
I growled in frustration and resumed walking with no particular destination in mind. I needed to move, to try and outpace my own thoughts. But it was useless. The woman haunted me. Her scent, her voice, the feel of her soft curves pressed against me...
I wanted her. There. I said it.God, how I wanted her. But it would be stupid of me to give into those cravings. Not when giving in to my desires could put my entire coven at risk.
So why did every instinct I had scream at me to go to her? To beg for her forgiveness and tell her I believed her?
I didn't know what to do. I was torn between my duty to my coven and the inexplicable pull I felt towards Esme.
And I had a sinking feeling that no matter what I chose, it would end in nothing but heartbreak.
Most likely my own.
15
ESME
Ifroze just inside my apartment, my hand still gripping the doorknob as if it were a lifeline. Afraid to speak. Afraid to breathe as pure, unadulterated terror crawled up my spine with its icy fingers. My lungs began to ache, burning for oxygen as I stared at the figure lounging on my couch without a care in the world, but the air had been knocked out of me, leaving me gasping like a fish on the shore.
Marcus watched me with a casual smile, as if he were an old friend who had just stopped by for a chat, and not the monster who'd burned my family alive with a flick of his fingers.
To the untrained eye, he didn't appear threatening. No. To anyone who didn't know who he was, he seemed like nothing more than a mildly handsome man around thirty with short brown hair and a lean build, his face strangely unlined. I couldn't stop staring at him. He was dressed much the same as the last time I'd seen him, in a crisp white button-down shirt and brown slacks, the picture of a successful businessman or perhaps a college professor, blending in perfectly with the rest of humanity.
But I knew the truth behind that benign facade. Dark power emanated from him, the same sickening energy I'd felt the night he slaughtered my loved ones. His brown eyes, which might have been warm and inviting to anyone else, glinted with malevolent amusement as he watched me.
"Esme, darling," he said, his voice smooth and cultured. "It's been far too long. I was beginning to think you were avoiding me."
My throat constricted as invisible hands wrapped around it, cutting off the screams welling up inside of me. I wanted to run, to lunge at him and claw the smile from his face, to do anything but stand there frozen like a helpless animal. Like his prey. But there was nowhere I could go that he wouldn't find me.
Marcus suddenly rose from the couch with a fluid grace that belied his true nature. I flinched involuntarily as I struggled to breathe. His polite smile spread across his face, revealing perfect white teeth.
"Now, now, don't start panicking." He gave me a dramatic sigh that belied the twinkle in his eyes as he witnessed my fear. "Honestly, I find it boring. And besides, I'm not here to hurt you," he said, his tone soothing.
The invisible hands loosened slightly, but it still took me a minute to find my voice, and when I did, it was shaking. "I find that a little hard to believe."
He smiled a little and made a small sound of acquiescence. He moved closer, and I forced myself to stand my ground. I was completely terrified, but I refused to run from him. Not this time.
"It's true," he insisted. "In fact, I have a proposition for you, one that I think you'll find quite interesting."
"I don't have your goddamned book. And I don't know where it is."
"Oh, I know that now." He paced back and forth in front of me, his movements sinuous and predatory. "I'm not too proud to admit I made a mistake with your family. It seems I was...misled about the book's location." His voice was almost apologetic, but there was an undercurrent of anger beneath the words.
I swallowed hard, my heart pounding in my chest as paralyzing fear slowly morphed into anger. Not just because of what he was telling me, but that he was here in my home, temporary as it may be.
"Misled? By whom?" I would fucking strangle the person with my bare hands for what they’d taken from me.
Marcus shrugged, a casual gesture that only infuriated me more. "That's neither here nor there. It was all just a…what does this generation call it? A wild goose chase to distract me. Because now I know it's right here, in New Orleans." He stared off into the distance and laughed softly. Disbelievingly. “Do you believe it? It was right here under my nose the entire time. And I never knew it. Never felt its power calling to me."
He paused, his eyes boring into mine with an intensity that made me want to look away, but I forced myself to meet his gaze. To show him that I wouldn’t cower before him. "You killed them for nothing," I whispered, my voice trembling with a mixture of grief and rage. "My family died fornothing."
