Page 44 of To Love a Vampire
I chance a glance toward Luca who nods for me to finish the ritual.
To jump.
My eyes dart nervously to the crowd who waits for me to plummet to my death with happy smiles on their faces.
“You know I’d never let you jump, Fallon,” he says pulling me against his strong chest.
“You wouldn’t?” I ask, hope fluttering through the thick cloud of panic in my lungs.
“Of course not,” he says pressing his lips softly to mine, washing away all the fear in my mind. I meld into him, the pain in my arm barely surfacing with his mouth against mine. “I’d never put that much pressure on you,” he says, his breath fanning over my parted lips.
His words are said strangely and confusion joins my overcrowded emotions.
But only for a moment.
He pulls me even closer to his body, wrapping his free arm tightly around my hip, my hand grips his shoulder out of reflex. My nails sink into his shirt as he leaps over the edge of the world.
The wind tears at our bodies and clothes, wrapping the layers of my dress around my legs as we fall toward the reaching waves below. I feel it the moment we leave the shielding magic that surrounds the Wanderer’s world, like a bubble reluctantly popping all around us.
I clench my eyes closed and hide my head in his chest.
What if we’re not a true match? Or worse, what if we are but I flounder in the water until I pull us both down to the dark ocean floor.
Our bodies hit the water hard, knocking the thoughts from my mind and the breath from my lungs, leaving me no further time to dwell on my fears.
The water’s cool and is a relief to my throbbing arm, which now moves freely at my side, unbound as if the salt water dissolved the rope. Instinctively I cling to Asher. But it occurs to me I really will just drag him down. I unclench my fists from his shirt, my arms and legs fling rapidly through the heavy water. I push panic into each movement of my thrashing limbs. I am alone, drifting through the open ocean. An offering to the water fae in hopes that they won’t kill me before I kill myself with my inability to find the surface.
I keep my eyes closed tightly, the pressure of my lungs press against the walls of my chest as I fight to find oxygen again.
Something brushes my leg, clasping around my ankle. I scream, a muted and diluted sound of my fear. My legs kick strongly, trying to get away as I suck in small amounts of water in my irrational attempt to flee. The salt burns my nose and lungs and I almost want to cry, just add my pain and salt to the water that has taken me in as one of its own.
My body goes still, my mind wonders how I even got here.
I proposed to Asher. I proposed a life of love and freedom and commitment but I found death instead.
Would I reach the deep ocean floor before death settles in? I hope not. I hope whatever has its hold on me takes me away and devours me quickly.
My mind feels heavy and tired.
Just as my limbs relax around me, a strong, hard body pulls me against them. My head settles against their chest.
Asher.
The sound of his heart pounds wildly beneath me.
Luca was right.
He’d never let me fall.
Twenty
Something Almost Normal
The firethat was in my arm just moments ago has shifted to my lungs as I cough up salty water and choke for air. Asher lies me against the smooth, warm rocks of the shore, the waves drift in like a blanket over my toes and ankles. My hands clutch my throat as I lie coughing and shuddering for air that is slowly making its way into my pained lungs.
A seagull sits a few feet away tilting its head to the side, trying to understand why the human girl can’t succeed with the basic task of breathing.
As I sit up, Asher kneels at my side, his hand resting flat against my spine, rubbing short circles between my shoulder blades. The tattered pieces of my dress cling around my ankles…probably what I thought was attacking me in the ocean…
