Page 53 of Taken By the Vampires
Xander inclined his head, heaviness resting on his shoulders. “I made a promise to you. It would be my honor to help your mother.”
They were the words I wanted to hear, but they didn’t feel victorious at all.
They felt bad and tainted and rotten and dark, and I hated I’d forced him to say them. I shivered, but it wasn’t from the cold room. A lump of ice had formed in the center of my chest, freezing me from the inside out.
They’d saved me, yes, but that had been an offering of their choice. But here, now, I’d blackmailed them just as Ginevra had done. Only with me, it was worse, because they’d treated me with kindness. Thoughtfulness. Caring.
Opened their hearts and told me their deepest wish. Their sincere hopes. Their private beliefs.
And that pulsing, connecting, magical thread that bound our hearts told me something I didn’t want to feel. Or know. Or understand.
Because that thread was filled with hope. And longing. Tenderness and…oh, God,it was love.
The more I concentrated on it, something shifted within me and the more I knew.
I knew.
It was mind-numbing. Life-altering.
Impossible.
The reality of it stole my breath. Arrested my heart and left me swimming in an ocean of uncertainty. It was more than the words they’d just spoken.
I knew.
I knew, I knew, I knew.
I didn’t know what to do with the knowledge. My heart and my head were two different things. They loved me. God, did they love me.
I cursed Fate to put me in this appalling situation but it didn’t change a thing. I was still here. They were still Vampires and I was still going to use them terribly.
“Come. You are cold and injured. Will you let us take you back upstairs where it is warm?” Cassius asked.
I stared at his offered hand for a long moment. Nodded. What else could I do? There was no other path to follow.
So, I let Cassius bundle me up and hold me to his chest. Let them take me up the stairs and back to my room and wrap my ankle. Let them place me in bed, where they sat next to me and soothed me while I used the blankets and their bodies to warm me. Let my mind go blank and let the pain of my reality engulf me.
They loved me. The knowledge of it was undeniable. It was illogical. Unfounded.
Unfortunate.
It was the one thing I thought I would never acquire in my life. A one-in-a-million chance at finding the unachievable.
And I was going to use them for it.
The agony of it. A terrible chasm that ripped through my chest. The knowledge I was deceiving them was more than any pain my body had suffered, more than the sum total of abuse at the hands of the townspeople, more than Gary’s exploitation and mistreatment…
I didn’t know if I could return it.
Chapter Thirty Seven
Inexplicably, I must have slept. Maybe it was the shock of it all.
It probably was the shock of it all.
Taking three lovers was one thing, but learning they were Vampires was another. That I was their mate. And as for being a witch – if that was the case, I would have done something about Conway, the Holy Trinity and my entirelifelong, long ago.
And the deception I was going to orchestrate.
