Page 44 of Across the Sapphire Sea
“And when you chose?”
“I took him from everything he loved and kept him for myself. That was how it started and why it ended. He isn’t one to be kept.”
No, Elias could see that in the way Laurence carried himself. He wasn’t like Elias, he didn’t need rescuing. He had something to love—something to lose.
Cautiously, Elias asked, “What did you take him from?”
“Elias, that’s enough, I don’t want to—”
“Oh, no you don’t! You don’t finally agree to tell me this story, the one I’ve been asking about for four years now, and stop in the middle. Laurence would not have stopped at this point when he told Remy, and you will not stop telling me.”
“What do you care what Laurence told Remy?”
“They know more about you than I do! I am your lover, and I want to know what happened between you and Laurence so that it does not happen to us too. You hate him. He hates you. I don’t want that for us.”
“I killed his wife,” Valeri blurted out, “and I made it look like he did it so he’d be run out of town.”
Elias was stunned stiff. “You murdered…”
“His pretty wife, yes. So that he would have nothing and be glad when he found me.”
“But, Valeri—”
“I’m a monster. Believe me, I know. You want to know if I regret it? I do. But it’s done now, and Laurence can hate me all he wants. I’d bring her back if I could, but I can’t.”
“Have you told him that?”
Valeri choked out a sad trickle of laughter. “Of course not. He doesn’t want to hear it. Or anything from me for that matter.”
“But if you’ve never said you were sorry—”
“It doesn’t matter that I’m sorry, don’t you see? It changes nothing. We were never right for each other to begin with. I don’t want him back, and he doesn’t want me. Better to leave the past alone.”
Elias thought of Maks, his overlord. Valeri had essentially done the same thing to acquire Elias as he had to acquire Laurence. Killed the person that stood in his way. Only in the first case, he’d killed a person Laurence loved, and in the second, he’d killed a person Elias hated. So his strategy had only slightly improved over all those years. Then again, it’s what his own sire had done to acquire him. Killing was what Valeri knew.
“Say something,” Valeri whispered.
Elias glanced up and caught the vulnerable expression on his face.
“Do you hate me now?”
“I could never hate you,” said Elias truthfully. “But I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“I’ve told you I didn’t want to talk about it. Now you know why.”
“Yes, I understand.” Elias hadn’t imagined the story would be so awful. “How did he find out?”
“I told him in the heat of an argument. I thought he needed me more than he would hate me. I was wrong.”
Elias gave a slow nod, processing his thoughts. “Did you love him?”
“Yes.”
“Did he love you?”
“I think so.”
“Which would make the betrayal all the worse when he learned the truth.”
