Page 149 of Bitten By Desire
I smiled. He’d tried to scare me off. He pretended I meant nothing. He’d been cruel. But he’d done all of it to keep me safe. “And yet…here I am.”
“I don’t want to lose you too, Emma.”
Lose me too.“Were you married? Before you changed?”
Callum shook his head. He turned toward a painting behind him. He pulled it away from the wall to reveal a safe behind it.
He put in a code and the door hissed open. There was a large painting leaning against the metal wall. And as far as I could tell, it was the only thing in the safe.
He pulled it out and set it down on top of his desk.
It was a portrait, but it looked older than the one of him from his gothic mansion. And it wasn’t a portrait of just one person. It was a whole family.
“That’s me,” he said and pointed to the younger boy in the picture.
He looked like him. An adorable mini version. I stared at what must be his older brother. And twoyounger sisters. And his parents. He looked just like his father.
“I had to watch them all die,” he said. “And I kept living. Even though I was the one that should have died.”
I walked around the desk and hugged him. “I’m so sorry, Callum.”
He rested his chin on the top of my head.
“But I don’t believe for a second that you should have died. I think you’re meant to be here. Right here, right now with me.”
He leaned back to cradle my face in my hands. “I’m so sick of death, Emma.”
He was sick of killing. And watching loved ones die. So why wouldn’t he change me?
“You have this whole room to remember me,” I said. “Why do you keep this painting locked up?”
“Because I still had a chance of seeing you again.”
He didn’t want a daily reminder of what he lost. I got that. But he was holding on to the hope of being with me one day. And I was determined to make one day turn into forever.
I looked up at him. “Thank you. For telling me what happened. And for showing me all this.”
“And now you know why I won’t change you.”
“Actually, I feel more convinced of the opposite.”
He lowered his eyebrows. “It’s horrible watching everyone you love die. It’s horrible killing. It’s painful. I would never subject anyone to this willingly.”
“But the flip side of that is that I loveyou. And I don’t want to loseyou. And I won’t be on a battlefield when I change. I’ll be in your arms. I never even have tokill someone. I’ll only ever know animal blood. And if you recall correctly, I like a little pain.”
“Emma…”
“You’ve bitten my neck before, remember?”
He shook his head.
“If you don’t change me, you’ll have to feel that pain of losing someone again when I grow old and die. And I won’t let you experience that. Not when I don’t have to.”
“You don’t understand…”
“I do understand. My veins will feel like fire. I’ll thirst for blood. I’ll have to watch my friends age while I don’t. I’ll lose them.” I thought about Zoey. And my heart hurt. But…wasn’t love worth the pain? “And I like when you bite me.”
Callum lowered his eyebrows.
