Page 70 of Dark Flame
“I already hate you, so it can’t be any worse.” Although, Alec’s never hidden his evil from me, so yeah…I think it might be worse and he’s about to call my bluff.
“That’s your first mistake.”
Hating him is a mistake? I think it’s the rightest thing in the world. “What’ll be my second?” I challenge, crossing my arms over my naked chest.
“Trying to leave again.”
I don’t dignify that with a response. Running through the woods is a no-go; I see that now, but Iwillcome up with a new way to get out of here. Sex released the pent-up emotions we both had from tonight, but it’s nothing more. Sex doesn’t change the fact that he wants my magick returned only to make the cure work as it should, to make him a profit for his messed-up revenge ploy.
When I say nothing, he turns for the door. I’m quick to cut in front of him, placing myself between him and it, half-surprised when he doesn’t just knock me out of the way. We’re both aware he could get by me without effort if he wants to.
“Tell me,” I demand.
Alec scans me, trailing over the marks all over my body. His eyes soften from a depthless black to something else. It’s a moment so brief, I’m convinced I imagine it.
“My marks look good on you.” It’s a barely there whisper, like he’s talking to himself. “Your family knew exactly how to tear me down. I wonder if they planned for you to be the sacrifice, or if it was shit luck.”
What is he—“Alec, my family’s donenothingto you. In recent years, at least.”
“If only you were in on it, but you’re so fucking innocent, you don’t even know the facts of your own life.”
My own…“You’re making no sense!”
“I know.” His jaw slides forward before he sighs. “Fine, but you’ll regret asking. What do you know about Brides?”
“Um. White dress. Weddings. One half of the couple undergoing a marriage ceremony, usually the half identifying as female. Why?”
“No”—he shakes his head—“not in the human sense. What do you know about a vampire’s Bride?”
Nothing. Didn’t know that was a thing. “Um. Black dress? Gothic wedding? One half of the vampiric couple?—”
“No,” he interrupts, his tone sharp and irritated. “A Bride is our term for a mate, the one made for us. They’re uncommon, and not every vampire is destined to have one. For many, it’s something that doesn’t exist, so no one goes searching for them. They might choose to take mates on their own accord, but it’s the equivalent of mortals picking their spouse. Even those aren’t common because, generally, vampires are happier alone. It takes a lasting connection in which two vampires can stand one another for decades or centuries. But a Bride is atruemate. Someone destined for us. Someone who becomes our ultimate obsession. We recognize them by blood alone, and the connection is nearly instant. A vampire’s Bride is usually another vampire; it’s just how it works. As for the specifics, no one knows. Some believe in fate. Personally, since we’re descended from one of the Fallen—angels who fell from Heaven alongside the devil, becoming the original demons—I think it has something to do with that. Something celestial rather than otherworldly.”
“We recognize them by blood alone, and the connection is nearly instant.”His behaviours changed after his first bite.
The only thing that prevents my stomach from bottoming out is the other fact he mentioned:“A vampire’s Bride is usually another vampire.”
“What’s that have to do with us?”
“A vampire can’t harm their Bride. We’re wired to care for them above all else. Acts of possession are all we know, the only way we’ll act. A bond forms between the mated pair, allowing them to feel one another’s emotions. After it’s in place, the Bride becomes the only being they’ll ever feed from again. Their immortal lives become entwined with one another’s in every way.” He pauses, repeating in a firmer tone, “Everyway.”
A chill runs down my spine, but I force my question out. “Again…what’s this have to do with us? Why are you telling me this? A Bride is another vampire.”
“I did say that, didn’t I? That’s the fucking cruellest part. Theonefucking family I’ve vowed to destroy—and one of their own becomes my goddamn Bride!”
Me?Sense and sanity bend until they’re a mingled mess in my mind.
My arms drop by my sides, and I stagger against the door behind me. “What are you talking about?”
He growls, taking a step towards me. I question his claim about not harming me any longer, because he looks slightly crazed. Angry. Well, pissed, actually. “You really need me to say it? You’re smarter than that, I know you are. It’s impossible for a vampire to have a Bride from another species—or so I believed—yet that’s exactly what you are to me, Harlow. There’s only one explanation that makes any sense, and it’s that over the numerous generations of hunting your family, they caught on and cursed me withyou.” He spits out the final word, his body inclining toward me. Despite not having any heat, and this conversation not exactly being warming, there’s a magnetizing fervour to him.
That would hurt if I cared even a bit about being a bloodsucker’s mate. “How do you know it wasn’t the cure making you feel something? How do you even know that’s what this is if you’ve never experienced it before?”
He laughs harshly, rubbing a hand over his hair. “It’s really hard to fucking miss when each one of my instincts shifted from wanting to hunt and slaughter you to caring for you, to fucking you…claiming you.”
“Claiming me?”I jerk, my head thumping on the door. “I’m already trying to get away from you as it is, I don’t need more motivation.”
“That’s the thing. Youcan’tleave. Not now, not ever. Not any longer. I won’t let you.”
