Immortals After Dark 12 - Lothaire

you.”
    “Because any other female would! Yet you feigned affection for me?” His eyes blazed with wrath.
    It . . . frightened her. Which only made her madder. “Always in the back of my mind I thought of all you’d done.”
    “Will you do whatever it takes to survive once more? You have no idea how to trace or get blood. You are completely dependent on me. If I have to use your thirst to keep you as my captive, then I will.”
    Any trust she’d managed to feel for him had just been violated—beyond repair.
    She felt her lips drawing back from her own fangs, felt them sharpening as memories assailed her. “I’ve decided to let you go to prison this eve.” “I’ll kill your family with delight. . . .”
    The fear and frustration that had built and built now boiled over. “I never want to see your face again.”
    “Too bad, Elizabeth. You’re stuck with me. Not for a few decades, not for centuries. You’re tied to me forever. That girl and boy offspring you talked of? They’ll come from me—or no one.”
    “I’m leaving !” She turned toward the door, striding down the hall, flinching when she recalled those things chasing her the night before.
    “Leaving me?” He traced in front of her with a mocking laugh. “Even if you could get through the boundary, where would you go?”
    She strode around him.
    “Where could you go that I wouldn’t find you?” He followed, taunting her, even though her feelings were raw, her nerves frayed.
    They were now in the living room where he’d brought her that first morning—straight from the injection bench.
    He’d thrown her around, shoving her to the floor. “Where would I go?” she asked. “How about the same place my family went—where you couldn’t find them! Eventually, I will get free.”
    She thought she saw a flare of alarm in his eyes, but his own aggressionquickly overran it. “Resign yourself to the fact that you will never see them again! They are dead to you, just as you are to them.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “They believe you died in that prison escape, shot to death by a guard. They will never know the truth, pet .”
    And with that, her mental rubber band . . . broke.
    Instead of checking out, I’m gonna lash out.
    She snatched up a vase, hurling it at him. “I hate you! Only a fool could ever love you!” Then a lamp. “Ugly on the inside!” She swooped up the decorative sword she’d threatened him with that first day. “Why don’t you try throwin’ me across the room now!”
    In a snide tone, he said, “Hag called you feral before. Hag had seen nothing. ”
    “I’ll kill you!”
    “You’d never hurt me. Deny it all you like, but you do love me. Use your little sword to convince me otherwise, or accept that you’re mine forever.” Again he laughed.
    His laughter flayed her, cut like a knife. Wild with confusion, she raised the sword, wishing she could cut him back.
    When he advanced on her, she cried, “Get away from me! I can’t . . . I can’t be here now! Just leave me be!”
    “You can’t be here? And yet, I’m not letting you go.”
    “I told you to stay away! I’ll swing!” Red covered her vision. Literally.
    Bloody tears. Dear God, I have blood for tears now. Can’t see.
    “You could never wield that blade against me. Now, stop acting like a child, and put it away before someone gets hurt.”
    She screamed with fury, but she could still hear his laughter.
    Can’t stop screaming . . . sword hilt crushed in my grip . . . blindly swinging the blade—
    The laughter stopped. Was that a thud on the floor? She swallowed, dizziness engulfing her.
    That had not just been his body? The bastard’s messing with me, tricking me.
    She rubbed her eyes, again and again, and saw . . .
    Horror.
    Lothaire lay on his back, head lolling at an angle to his body. His neck was cleaved through, his spine severed. . . .
    Her fingers went limp. The sword clattered to the floor.
    Knees buckling, she collapsed beside his body. I . . . killed him?
    More tears came as she threw herself over his motionless chest. No, no, no! He was invincible— nothing could take him down. Least of all her. What have I done?
    She hadn’t even been close enough to reach him. How, how, how?
    Anguish replaced her rage. Even after everything, she’d never meant to hurt him like this—to . . . kill him. Just because she didn’t think they could live together didn’t mean she hadn’t felt love for him. I wasn’t anywhere near