Page 122 of High Stakes and Soulmates
“I don’t know. I haven’t heard of any who are even alive… Casimir?”
Casimir shakes his head. “Never met one.”
Atticus shrugs. “I’ve met one. Dreadful fellow. Almost as dreadful as Borick.”
“Excuse me? Says the man who was all, ‘How dare you stab my sexy Yorick, I must avenge you!’” Yorick says. I do notice he’s in his boxer briefs, having ditched his unbelievably tight pants at some point. “It was slightly sweet but it still doesn’t mean I like you.”
“That’s just because if anyone is going to end your life, it’s going to be me,” Atticus decides.
“Can we go? Please? Just in case Louis has another hundred vampires waiting for us?” Julian asks. “And then you’re going to tell us about this dhampir shit. So… he obviously lives a long life, then?”
“They do age, but it slows the older they get. Like the first twenty years or so is pretty normal aging and then it slowsafter they reach adulthood. I guess I honestly don’t know how long he’d live, but certainly hundreds of years. Hell, could be thousands.”
“Let’s go, we can talk about it later,” Casimir says as he ushers us out, but I want to destroy the body. I want to burn it. I want to… but when I look down at what I’ve done, I realize there’s no way Louis would live through that.
Cyrus pulls me away. “Come on. It’s okay.”
I nod, feeling uncertain about every part of this, but Cyrus guides me into the vehicle and tells them to take us to his house.
“Is your eye okay?” Cyrus asks as he gently touches my cheek.
“Fine,” I assure him, even though I still can’t see out of it.
“Are you lying to me?”
“It’s fine. It’ll heal.” I honestly don’t know if it will heal because if it was going to, wouldn’t it have already? But I don’t even care what I lost to make sure that monster could never touch Cyrus again.
Cyrus takes my hand, squeezing it tight while I feel like I’m drowning, and I don’t know why. I should be happy. I should be so fucking happy, and instead, I sit here feeling like my world is crashing down around me. And when the door opens, I question how an hour has already passed. Cyrus tries pulling me out, but I hesitate.
“Why doesn’t Julian stay with you?” I suggest.
“Ezio, come on,” he says as he drags me out of the car. He pulls me away from the others and into his house. “He’s dead. You should be so happy that he’s dead.”
I don’t make it two feet into the house before I sink down to my knees, unable to even hold my body up any longer, and a sob escapes me.
Cyrus slides in and gathers me up in his arms. “Why are you so hard on yourself?”
“The only reason you can forgive me is because you don’t remember all of it. But what happens if you remember someday? What happens when you realize how horrible a person I was for leaving you? How could I have left you?”
“I remember some things. I remember pieces. And I know what happened. I know, Ezio, and I still love you. How could you do this to yourself?”
“I left you. I don’t deserve you.”
Cyrus’s hands squeeze mine like he’s trying to do everything he can to hold on to me. “You were a human, you had no idea how vampires or werewolves worked or… hell, I still don’t even know how I work. How could you have possibly known?”
“I should have taken you with me.”
“I don’t remember much, but I remember how hurt you were. I remember so much blood. How the hell were you going to drag a dead body with you?”
“I had Valley. I could have put you on the horse.” But I know I lost consciousness the moment Valley leapt into the water. Would I have even been able to hold on to his body? What if he’d drowned because I’d dragged him after me?
“You think Louis would have stood there and waited for you to hoist a body onto a horse? Do you really think he would have? Ezio, please. How could you have known? And can you not blame me as well? Apparently, I was under the impression that you were dead as well. I don’t remember, but maybe someone else knows.” He cups my face. “I’m yours. From the stories you’ve told me, it sounds like we went through hell and back for each other. It took hundreds of years, but we found our way back to each other. If that isn’t true love, I don’t know what is.”
He swipes a tear off my cheek before kissing the next one. “I’m so sorry loving me cost you so much, but I’m selfish, Ezio. And if it means that I finally get to be with you, then I would go through all of it again. Every day of suffering, I would repeatbecause it means that in the end, I get to have you. Will you tell me everything? I want to know everything. I want to know more about the first time we met, the first time you told me you loved me. I want to hear it all.”
“What if I just lie to make myself sound even better?” I whisper.
Cyrus laughs, and I love the sound of it so much. “I know when you’re lying.”
