Page 75 of Sacrifice of the Vampir
My vision went red at the edges, the vampire in me rising to the surface. Okay, so maybe I was a little angry at her. All I knew was that I was tired of fighting this same battle with her. And hell, maybe she was right! Maybe it was only fear for my own miserable life making me act this way. All I knew was that I couldn't fucking think when she was anywhere near me.
When I spoke, my voice was deadly calm, each word precise and cutting. "Get out."
She blinked, confusion replacing the defiance in her eyes. "What?"
"Get. Out." I couldn't look at her anymore. Couldn't stand here and pretend her words hadn't just carved out a ragged hole inside of me. "If that's what you really think, then leave. Because I'm done trying to prove something you refuse to see."
"Elias—"
"I SAID LEAVE!" My control had finally snapped.
She flinched, throwing up her arms to protect herself, and for one horrible moment, I saw fear in her eyes. Fear of me. The monster she was mated to. The creature who'd claimed her without her true consent, who'd drank her blood and bound her to him forever.
Without another word, she grabbed her jacket and fled, the bedroom door slamming behind her with brutal finality. I stood there in my room, listening to her footsteps on the stairs and Dae asking her what was wrong, then the slam of the backdoor.
Grabbing my cell, I texted Dae and asked him to follow her home. A second later, I heard the backdoor open and close again.
The thread stretched between us, a line of agony centered in the middle of my chest as she put physical distance between us.
Picking up the glass on my nightstand, I hurled it against the wall, watching it explode into a thousand pieces.
You never had me. Not really.
I sank onto the bed, burying my face in my hands. The irony wasn't lost on me. I'd spent a century maintaining perfect control, keeping everything and everyone outside of my coven at arm's length. Then one small witch with green eyes and more courage than sense had destroyed all of it in a matter of days, because she was the one thing I could not control. But she was also the one thing I desperately wanted.
And now she was gone.
My blood pulsed with her distress, telling me she was crying, that she was hurting too. Good. Let her hurt. Let her feel even a fraction of what her words had done to me.
But even as I thought it, I knew I didn't mean it. I'd rather die than cause her pain, which was exactly the problem.
I sat there as the hours crawled by, replaying every moment since that night she'd walked into The Purple Fang. The way she'd challenged me from the start. How her blood had sung to mine even before the bond. The fierce determination in her eyes when she talked about saving Alex.
Her tears when she'd shown me her scar. The trust it had taken for her to let me see. To let me touch.
You never had me. Not really.
But I had, hadn't I? For those few perfect hours in her bed, when she'd grabbed our thread and bound us tighter than any mate bond could. When she'd whispered "yours" against my throat, and meant it.
It was still there, a constant ache reminding me of what I'd lost. What I'd thrown away in a fit of pride and rage.
No. What she'd thrown away by refusing to see the truth.
You never had me.
Maybe she was right. Maybe I'd never had her at all.
But gods help me, I'd wanted to.
Chapter 19
Talin
I'd been sitting on Aunt Judy's front steps for an hour, watching the sun sink lower in the sky. I shivered a bit. The jeans, short-sleeved shirt, and vest I was wearing not enough to keep me warm as the temperature dropped again. The tears had stopped somewhere between last night and today, leaving me hollow and aching.
Get out.
His voice echoed in my head, cold and final. As did the look in his eyes when he'd said it, like I'd taken something precious and shattered it beyond repair.
