Page 5 of Resurrecting His Soul
Guilt filled Ricardo’s eyes, and he looked down. “Yes.”
She clenched her jaw. “Who bit me, Ricardo?” She felt like an idiot. Everything had happened so fast, and she’d been so out of it from blood loss that she hadn’t even noticed how she’d ended up hurt, or by whom. “Did you do this to me? Bite me?”
Ricardo got up from the table and walked over to the glass sliding door and stared outside, his arms crossed over his chest. He didn’t look at her when he spoke. “I am responsible for what happened to you, yes.”
She walked over to stand beside him, facing him even if he was focused on looking away from her. She wasn’t going to let him put distance between them because he was feeling guilty. “That’s not exactly an answer, Ricardo. Who bit me?”
Finally, Ricardo turned to face her again. “Her name is Melina. She is a young vampire, and my progeny. If I had not driven us to that carnival, she never would have had a chance to go after you. If I had not taught her to take what she wants, that we are better than humans, then you and I wouldn’t be here now. So, as you see, I am to blame for your near death, and I am the one who decided you’d be better off as a vampire than dead.”
Melina. She remembered that name. He had mentioned it when he insisted she needed to get away for her safety. Now she knew why. She moved away from him, pacing the kitchen while her mind took in everything he’d just said until she was practically shaking with rage. She grabbed the closest thing to her, the chair next to her, and threw it in Ricardo’s direction. He moved so fast, the chair barely left her hands and he was already out of the way. The chair hit the door he’d been standing in front of with so much force that glass went flying. The chair busted through the door like it was nothing more than air and didn’t stop until it hit a tree across the yard.
“I deserve your anger,” Ricardo said, his tone sullen.
“Then why’d you move?” she seethed. She turned to find him standing behind her, on the other side of the kitchen island. He looked guilty, but she didn’t care. He should feel guilty.
“The chair would not have hurt me. I didn’t want to risk it breaking and sending shards flying back at you.”
Another vampire myth crossed her mind when he mentioned flying shards of wood. “Does that mean it’s true, that we can only be killed with a steak to the heart?”
“No,” he shook his head. “Actually, we are much stronger than most myths would lead humans to believe, but it still hurts like hell.”
“So, we can’t be killed, then?”
“I didn’t say that, just that it takes more than a wood stake to our heart.”
“Then how?”
Ricardo cocked his brow. “Are you planning to kill me, Lisandra?”
She glared at him. “I am not a killer.” Ricardo looked away from her again. “Don’t do that,” she said.
“Do what?” he asked without looking back at her.
“Don’t turn away from me every time you get worried I’m not going to like something.” She waited for him to look at her again. “What is it you’re afraid to tell me now?”
“You will be.”
She waited for him to elaborate, but he just stared back at her, his jaw locked. “Will be what?”
He ground his teeth together and briefly looked away from her again, but she wasn’t having it, so she closed the distance between them and grabbed his arm. His eyes darted to the spot where her hand touched him, and she let her hand fall. When he looked back up at her, the regret in his eyes made her take a step back. “You will be a killer. It’s only a matter of time.”
Shaking her head furiously, she stepped back from him. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“It does not have anything to do with who you are, Lisandra. It’s what you are. What we are.” He motioned between the two of them. “That is why I’m sorry I didn’t give you the choice. I just couldn’t. When I felt you dying, I had to do something to save you, even if that something meant turning you into a monster.”
“I’m no monster.”
“We survive by drinking human blood, Lisandra. Our blood lust is at the very core of what we are. Trying to abstain will only lead to a vicious break, one where you’ll find yourself on the bloody end of a pile of bodies.”
“I will find another way. Just because we need blood, doesn’t mean we have to kill to get it.”
“It is not that easy.”
Lisandra crossed the room and shoved her finger into his chest. “I’m stronger than you think. I know what pain is, and I’ll be damned if I allow myself to inflict pain on innocent people.”
Gently, he wrapped his hand around hers and cupped it to his chest, and she immediately hated the way that gesture sent butterflies dancing through her chest. “When your thirst takes over, you will not remember who you are, or that the humans around you are innocent people. All you will know is blood, especially as a new vampire. Over time we learn some control, but it only goes so far before our base instincts take over.”
Snatching her hand out of his grasp, she got in his face and gritted her teeth. “Everyone has a choice. I choose to find a better way. If that isn’t the path you are on, then it’s time for me to go. I’ll figure this out on my own.”
