“I convinced myself I was going crazy, Stephan! How could you do something like that to me?” I'm shaking with outrage.
He doesn't answer as he continues to stare at me, perhaps sensing that my tirade isn't over.
“I thought I was suffering from short-term memory loss or some sort of disease. I really thought I was mental! You know that? Do you know the hell and paranoia that you put me through? I kept feeling like I was being watched everywhere I went.”
Stephan just continues to gaze at me with those unblinking, golden eyes.
“Oh my god,” I breathe out as a sudden revelation hits me.
“Yes, that was me.” A tiny smile pulls at the side of his lips.” You always did sense me. No one else has ever sensed me watching them.” He looks at me with something akin to pride in his eyes.
I let out a hollow laugh. “So you've been what? Stalking me?” I ask him.
He’s silent for a moment before he answers seriously, his voice low and dark, “Call it whatever you want, but I've been protecting you, Elena.”
“Protecting me?” I parrot up at him incredulously. “By getting me fired from my job and making me think I was going insane?”
“I gave you a better job,” he states simply.
“My apartment…the burglars…” I begin.
He scowls at me then before he says vehemently, “I would never put you in harm's way.”
I feel a moment of shame for even suggesting it, but then I shake my head with indignation. Why should I feel shame? I'm not the one who's done anything wrong. I'm not the one who's been stalking someone and manipulating their lives.
“What happened to those men?” I demand. “I saw you. You were like this black blur, and I heard,” I trip over my words before I swallow and continue, “I heardthings.”
Stephan levels me with a look before he answers softly, “Don't ask questions you don't really want the answers to, Elena.”
My heart begins to beat rapidly in my chest. That is an answer in and of itself. He killed them. The sounds that I heard…
I close my eyes and swallow hard.
When I open them, Stephan is looking at me with a look of intense scrutiny and deep sadness. “You never have anything to fear from me, Elena,” he assures me softly. “I would never hurt you.”
I just shake my head. “If you wanted me to come work for you, why all the deception? Why all this elaborate scheming and plotting?”
“Would you have voluntarily come to work for the man who pulled you into a darkened alley had you known he was real?”
I open my mouth but then close it as I see his point.
“Why did you pull me into the alley that night?”
Stephan doesn’t answer, and I feel a shiver run up my spine.
“Your scent,” he finally croaks out. His chest expands as he inhales deeply, closing his eyes like he’s breathing in a fine fragrance. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever smelled before.”
“My scent?” I ask him dubiously, and a bit self-consciously.
“You smell like flowers, but better,” his voice is a rough growl, and his eyes are hooded as he looks at me.
I feel a flush overtaking my cheeks and clear my throat before changing the subject with my next question.
“The apartment you got me?”
“I own the building. I knew you'd be safer there than anywhere else.”
“Why?” I ask him. He already knows I'm not asking him why he thinks I'd be safer in the apartment. He knows what I'm asking him. Why everything? Why has he been stalking me? Why did he do all of this to keep me near him yet not show himself to me?