Page 7 of Protecting His Vampire Mate

Her words hit me like bullets, and it was all I could do to keep from literally gasping. “The guy you saved wanted all of that. But he’s gone. He died the second he started murdering innocent people.”

“That wasn’t your fault.”

“Nine people. Almost ten,” I replied harshly, unable to hear anyone else say it hadn’t really been me. Of course it had. I remembered it perfectly well. It had been my hands. My inhuman strength. My fucking razor-sharp fangs.

Tears prickled in my eyes and, unbidden, I saw the sea of faces again. All of them had been in the prime of their lives. All of them had been innocent, strangers to me. And afterward, every single one of them had stared at me with the empty, accusing gaze of the slain.

Something went tight and cold in my chest. “I took their lives from them, but I couldn’t stop myself.”

I shuddered in horror, shaking my head, even though Veronika couldn’t see me. “The guy who did that to other people… he’s not the same person who can study for an exam like it actually matters, or who can go to meaningless frat parties and get wasted with his friends. And he’s not someone who can sit there and play house with his soulmate and pretend like none of this ever happened. It did happen!”

“Bryan—”

“I’ll call you when it’s done,” I told her, more harshly than I meant to. My hands shook and my insides were a solid block of ice. “Don’t come here. I don’t need help. I’m doing this by myself.”

With that, I hung up the phone and dropped it on the bed next to me.

I sat like that for several long minutes, trying to calm myself. My maker, though she spent her eternity hunting monsters full-time, didn’t understand what any of this was to me. It wasn’t some righteous cause or a way to protect innocent people. It was my way of atoning for everything I had done. It was my way through the darkness.

And I needed it, desperately.

What Liz had no doubt been referring to earlier, when she’d mentioned the murder, was the fact that there had been yet another unexplained death in this town less than a week ago, in the quaint house at the end of Pickery Road, which had been most recently owned—briefly—by a middle-aged couple and their teenaged daughter. It was still unclear exactly what had happened, but whatever it was, the mother and her daughter had both escaped unscathed. The father hadn’t. His murder had been the work of an angry spirit. From what Veronika had gleaned from the news articles she’d found online, the entity had killed other people over the years, with strange deaths going back at least four decades. In one instance, an entire family had been killed.

Well, not anymore. I was going to put a stop to all of it.

I had tried for so long to pretend that I was still me, that I could still be good and innocent and normal, even after I had been turned into a vampire.

But there was something dark inside of me. Something that craved violence. And I wasn’t going to let it hurt anyone ever again. Not regular people, at least. Instead, I would fight evil with it. I was determined to be the monster that protected innocent people from the other, much worse supernatural threats out there.

Starting with this town. It was my chance to prove to myself that I didn’t need some fated mate to tell me what my destiny was. I didn’t need anything or anyone. I just needed to do this.

Yeah, maybe I was running.

But maybe I didn’t care.

Still, I felt raw enough right then that even the barest thought of Tobias hurt like salt in a fresh wound. His bright blue eyes, his wavy red-brown hair, his self-assured manner, his deliciously broad shoulders, his scent, with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg… it was suddenly like he was there, in the room with me.

From the very moment we’d met, Tobias swore up and down that he was my mate. That I was his one true love. And for a minute there, I had almost believed him. But what he didn’t seem to understand was that I didn’t deserve to be loved. More importantly, it was immediately clear to me that Tobias was good in a way that I could never be again. He was pure and kind. And the way he had looked at me, like I was precious and beautiful and worth fighting for, had ripped me apart inside. Being around him wasn’t just hard, it was impossible.

Because what he saw when he looked at me wasn’t true at all.

But, even so, I was pretty sure I was already at least a little bit in love with him.

I was equally certain that part didn’t really matter. I knew what I had to do now. And it sure as hell didn’t involve Tobias, or fated mates, or true love.

I had to go and destroy some monsters. Or die trying. And if I couldn’t do that, I wouldn’t be able to pretend I had any right to exist in this world after everything I had done. And I had no idea what I’d do if that happened, but I knew it wouldn’t be good.

CHAPTER TWO || TOBIAS

The demon manifested just long enough to shoot a jet of blue fire straight at my face.

Years of training took over and I ducked the blast without even deciding to, dropping flat to the ground. The acrid smell of singed hair, where the flames had just missed my head, told me that it had been a much closer call than it should’ve been. The flames struck the concrete wall behind me, leaving behind a smoking crater of ashes roughly the size of a dinner plate.

The demon growled, apparently disappointed that I wasn’t burned to a crisp. Then it turned and vanished back into the shadows.

I swore under my breath, then pushed myself back up into a standing position. The demon could manifest and dematerialize at will, which meant it was an upper-level entity. One of the coven’s more foolish students had convinced her friends to help her summon it, reading in one of our many crumbling grimoires that it was a demon of prophecy. They’d apparently skimped on the protective wards and binding circles necessary to effectively conjure and control an infernal spirit, and it had broken free to terrorize the streets of Seattle. The girl and her friends were lucky to be alive.

Then the coven had called in their big guns to fix the situation. AKA, me.

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