“What is it?”
“I just wish this was real.”
“Feels real to me.”
With a sad smile, Bronywyn shakes her head. When she looks back up at me, her eyes are swirling with black. “None of this is real.”
* * *
Breathing ragged,I sit up. It takes me a moment to realize that I’m alone, and as soon as I do, the truth pummels me once again.
What the fuck did I do to deserve this? To finally get everything I want, only to have it ripped from me a moment later? I tighten both hands into fists as I fight the urge to hit something. To rip something to fucking shreds as though the violence alone will ease some of my suffering.
This is such bullshit. Such epic fucking bullshit that I don’t even know how to begin to understand how I’m supposed to handle it. At what point will my suffering end? When we have to kill the woman I love and the bond takes me down, too?
When she wakes up and her shadow magic kills me?
Because at this point, I genuinely don’t see luck on my side. Not when every move we make forces us ten steps back. The room is cast in heavy shadows, but from where I sit on the bed, I can see her robe, the bright pink visible in the soft moonlight spilling in from the window.
It’s so her, so painfully her that it kills me. I need to get the fuck out of this room. Out of this house. Even if it’s only for a night.
No more fucking sleep for me.Swinging my legs over the edge of the bed, I stand and head for the door. Maybe if I can get myself enough liquor—for some reason, my mind drifts back to the other night, to the drugged vampire.
She’d had an hour of peace from whatever the fuck was so wrong with her life. One hour. What I wouldn’t give for one hour of forgetting every single one of my problems.
One hour.
The thought is damn near too good to pass up. Quickly, I tug on a t-shirt and some socks and shoes, then leave the house in a blur, heading straight for Eira’s club. Chances are if I’m going to find someone to help me, they’ll be there.
I don’t stop until I’m standing in front of the gargoyle. He recognizes me and moves to the side, so I head in, not wanting to spend too much time thinking on what I’m about to do.
I’ve always considered those who feed on drugged humans to be the worst of the worst. Then again, I’ve never had a reality I needed escape from. Not until now.
Music hammers me from all sides as I hit the dance floor in search of the vampire from the other night. She has to be here somewhere.
Finally, my eyes land on her figure as she dances seductively with a shifter out in the crowd. Her eyes open, and she looks at me. A grin spreads as our gazes meet, and she pulls away. The shifter not caring in the slightest as his dance partner leaves.
“Well, well, well, hello again, handsome.” She winks and reaches up to trail a finger over my jaw. I don’t pull away, even as her touch makes my stomach churn.
“I want some.”
“Some of what?” Eyebrow arched, she grips my arm, and leans forward to press her massive, barely covered tits against my arm.
I want to hurl.
To fucking jump off the highest building.
“Come on, sexy, all you have to do is say the word, and I’ll give you anything you want.”
I narrow my gaze, already fucking pissed at myself for coming here in the first place. I should have stayed in bed. Should have stayed where Bronywyn was. “Never-fucking-mind.” I pull away, but her grip tightens, and she tugs me closer.
“Wait. I know what you need.” Reaching in between her tits, she withdraws a vial of blood. “Keeps it nice and warm.” She winks.
I stare down at the crimson vial in her palm. Pulse hammering in my ears, I can practically taste the freedom on my tongue.
She leans in. “Go on and take it, handsome. It’ll erase all of your problems.”
I’ve spent centuries keeping my head held high despite the shit that keeps rolling toward me. As a human, I’d been miserable, and shit on, daily. When Elijah made me what I am today, there’d been a type of freedom in it.