Page 32 of Bloody Valentine

Fourteen.

I stared at Maddox in fear. He just smiled in return.

“You are as brilliant as you are beautiful,” he said, running his hand over my jaw and letting his thumb catch on my bottom lip.

“You had it mostly right, Vivian.” he continued while staring at his thumb on my open lips. “There were fourteen women killed that night…but you didn’t know that there have been fourteen more every year since.”

I stayed silent, hoping he would explain. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath for his words. He waited for me to answer my own question. My eyes widened again, looking at each dead, cruel face of the fourteen men.

“It was them that killed their wives,” I whispered in disbelief. “The Elders. The founders…Their husbands.”

“Yes. Good girl, Little Virgin. I knew you would not fall prey to the many stories told. You continued to search until you got your truth. Are you satisfied with your answer?”

I shook my head.

“But…why?”

Maddox came up from behind me, pulling off his coat and unbuttoning his shirt. I blinked, backing up against the cool glass of the tomb in front of me.

“I told you. No matter how many times you ask, the answer will always remain the same. Fate.”

I narrowed my eyes. “No. It was a choice. Murdering the one you loved is a choice.”

His shirt was off his body, and his abs were half-shadowed by the flickering lantern light.

“You say choice, but do you really believe that?”

I frowned, confusion lacing my addled brain as he pulled off my hat and gloves. I couldn’t concentrate with his body so close to mine. He was shirtless and beautiful.

“Of course I…do,” I said again, but it sounded like a question.

“You can see how destiny has worked, Little Virgin. Just open your eyes.”

I blinked over and over, trying to understand, but he was pulling off my jacket from my body, and I couldn’t think of anything.

“A female virgin, descendant of the very women who lost their lives all those years ago, returns to the resting place of where she was killed? You look exactly like Vivianna, and I look exactly like Saint.”

I shook my head. I couldn’t believe this. “There’s no such thing as fate!”

Maddox chuckled as he slipped my dress off my shoulders and leaned down to place kisses on my neck and collarbone. I couldn’t comprehend anything but his mouth. This was wrong.

“Says the woman who followed me to her own history.”

I shook my head, letting my hands trail down his abs on their own accord.

“I can’t believe in fate,” I said, shaking my head and biting my lip.

“This is fate, Vivian Valentine. This moment.”

I watched his lips as he spoke, the flickering light flashing on his body. I gasped when my hands ran over rough, raised scars on his skin.

“What’s wrong with your back? Why is it scarred?”

He laughed in a menacing growl. “They are names,Parva Virgo. Our history brands my skin the same as our blood. I was always their slave.”

I couldn’t comprehend that at all.

He would mark his back with the names of our family. Why?

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