Page 19 of Mutual Obsessions

“Until you kill him like you killed Farrah.” Etienne stared into space, and then…

“I didn’t kill Farrah, and we both know it.” It was Stephen.

I wasn’t sure what the fuck was going on, but Stephen’s white eyes were staring in my direction. I was sure he couldn’t see me, but a chill went down my spine, nonetheless.

Were Stephen and Etienne the same person with two personalities?

Chapter Ten

Etienne/Stephen

Stephen

“Give me my fucking sight, Etienne. Who the hell is here?”

I was beyond sick of this shit with Etienne. He didn’t seem to understand that Ryker was meant for me. Etienne wanted to go to museums and walk through flower gardens with Ryker, which would be fine with me, as long as I could have his passion and love.

They could be friends. They could go to fucking tea parties all they wanted and leave me out of it. I just wanted Ryker’s heart—and his body, but that went without saying, didn’t it?

Suddenly, I had my sight outside of Etienne’s body for the first time in a long time. When my eyes settled toward the door, I saw Ryker standing there. “Shit.”

“What the hell is going on?” Much to my surprise, Ryker walked into the room and sat on one of the French Provincial chairs in the sitting room.

“Etienne? What do you want me to say?”

Etienne

I sighed. Things had certainly gone from bad to worse, just as I was sure they would. One thing Stephen was right about, we wanted different things from Ryker. Was it possible he’d accept us both?

It seems we must tell him the truth if either of us wants to be happy.

For only the second time in four hundred years, I came forward without forcing Stephen into submission. When I saw the angry, confused look on Ryker’s face, I felt terrible.

“We are both here, Ryker. It seems we owe you an explanation.” It was my voice that spoke.

“Are you suffering from dissociative identity disorder?” Ryker’s face softened a bit.

Stephen spoke up. “Is that the same as having multiple personalities? Kind of, but it’s not a mental health condition. We really are two, uh, separate entities sharing one body.”

“I think that’s still called dissociative idendity disorder.” Ryker crossed his ankle over his knee.

We walked over to another chair and put it in front of him, though not close enough to scare him. I spoke up. “We aren’t what you think, Ryker. We’re not a man who has two personalities. Well, wait. That’s accurate, but there’s more.”

“We are a vampire. Etienne was changed into a vampire four hundred years ago, which is when I came along.” Stephen opened our mouth, and our fangs slid into place.

“What the fuck?” Ryker stood quick enough that the chair flipped, but we got to the door before he could leave. We couldn’t let him go with the wrong impression.

“Let me explain it, Etienne.” Stephen knelt on the floor so as not to be intimidating. “Ryker, I’m sure this is shocking to you, but it’s the truth. Our sire was named Killian Tremblay. He turned Etienne in 1624 at the age of thirty-four. That’s when I was born, so to speak. Some of our kind—”

“Are you trying to tell me there are more of you? More vampires? You’re not vampires. I’m being punked.” Ryker frantically looked around the room before he ripped open drawers and urgently pulled books from the shelves.

What’s he looking for?

“Stephen, speak aloud.” We had one chance to get this right and secrets between us wouldn’t benefit our cause.

“What are you looking for, Ryker?”

Ryker halted his destructive rampage and turned to us, laughing hysterically. “What am I looking for? A fucking camera. Are you videoing this to put on TikTok? Am I losing my fucking mind?”

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