My shoulders slump as the truth settles over me. He's not saying it in a menacing or judging way, but the truth still stings.
He's absolutely right. I have no one to even care if I come up missing. The three women I went to the club with that night are hardly close enough to be called friends. We were just starting to strike up a friendship, and knowing me, we wouldn't have become particularly close anyway. I still would have been that friend who was never close to anyone. Why am I like that? Is there something wrong with me that I don't make lasting relationships? That may go back to me being an orphan or something.
I push those thoughts away. Now's not the time for me to psychoanalyze myself.
His voice cuts into my thoughts. “It hurts me to see you so despondent.”
I look into his golden eyes, and I can see by the pain clearly reflected in there, that what he says is true.
But that's another thing I don't get. Why does he care so much? He says he loves me and is obsessed with me. But why? I still can't wrap my head around it. I'm nothing special. And something tells me that Stephan is like the king of the vampires. He could probably have anyone he wants, so why me?
I cling stubbornly to my story that my freedom is the only thing that will make me happy, though deep down inside, I have to admit that even when I did have my supposed freedom, was I happy? Have I ever truly been happy?
No, I was just scraping by from day to day, doing the best I could to survive. Isn't this a better life than what I had before?
I just can't get over the fact that I didn't voluntarily choose this.
“The only thing that will make me happy is my freedom,” I finally state.
His nostrils flare, and his jaw clenches before he slams his fist down on the table violently in a rare show of temper. “Dammit, Elena!” he roars. “This is non-negotiable. I willnotrisk your safety. Anything! Ask anything else of me, and it's yours!”
I jump at his sudden outburst. As I do so, my finger slices over the knife laying on my plate.
I feel the sharp sting before I look down and see the drop of blood welling up through the broken flesh.
Uh-oh.
I suddenly feel a shiver run down my spine as I lift my eyes up to look at Stephan nervously.
There was one thing that Hollywood and Stoker did get right, and it's that vampires crave blood.
Stephan’s eyes are wild, and I watch in fascination as they're drained of their golden hue to be replaced by a deep blood red as his gaze homes in on my bleeding finger.
Oh shit.
The feral look on Stephan’s face has me rising slowly from my chair. I feel like I'm facing off with a tiger or a bear. I'm moving very slowly, trying not to startle him and trigger some predatorial instinct.
I take one step back. Stephan’s nostrils flare again before he croaks out, “Run, Elena.”
I don't hesitate to obey Him. As fruitless as I know it is, I turn on my heels and take off running as fast as I can.
I don't even make it to the door of the dining room before he's on me. His arms wrap around me from behind like a band of iron as he pulls me back flush against his rock-hard chest.
He inhales near my ear before he grabs my bleeding finger and pulls it up to his mouth.
I turn my head just in time to see him open his mouth.
He makes a fearsome figure with his glowing eyes. His fangs are long and sharp, but surprisingly, it's not fear that I feel crashing through me.
No. Instead, I feel excitement, a rushing, pulsing anticipation. My skin feels warm and glowing, and I tilt my head to the side as if an invitation.
There must seriously be something wrong with me. I should be scared shitless, yet I'm not.
I’m strangelyaroused.
I feel wetness pooling between my thighs. I'm suddenly aching all over, and I want nothing more than for Stephan to bite me. As if he can read my thoughts, his gaze flicks to the pulse in my neck and lingers there, and then he lowers his head to my bleeding thumb.
I swallow as he snakes out his tongue and gathers the drop of blood onto it. He closes his eyes and moans deep in the back of his throat as he licks it clean. Thankfully, the cut isn’t particularly sharp, so it's not like it’s a gushing wound.