Addict (Hunter #2)(79)

“Not enough.” I wouldn’t be the one Marcus died with.

“For it to work, the woman has to be a companion.”

Of course. It was funny how hollow I felt in that moment. Months before a woman I’d met had told me not to get too involved with any vampire because he would always want a companion. It was written into their DNA. “I’m never going to be a companion. I guess you’re smart to cut your losses.”

“Kelsey, this is going to be hard for you to understand, but there will come a time when the bond between us will break, and you’ll be the one to break it. You will wake up at some point and be strong enough on your own. You won’t want me the way you do now. What you feel now is a biological impulse. I’ve done this several times and each time my Hunter has left me. Every single time. Do you know who they left me for? A wolf. In the end, you’ll want a wolf. Trent knows it. It’s why he’s sniffing around you now.”

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

“It’s true. Hugo married one of his Hunters, but ask him about the two who left him. At the end of the relationship they felt some affection for their trainer, but their passion always turns to wolves. I’m caught between a woman who will leave me and a child I can never want.”

I stood up. I’d heard enough. I couldn’t compete with some grand destiny. The rest was bullshit. I wasn’t about to give everything up for some random wolf. “Give it time, Vorenus. You’re right. You should go to Italy. Don’t come back until she’s twenty-five or so. I’m sure it will be different then.”

I walked to the bedroom to do what I should have done in the first place. I should have gone to bed. Falling onto the big bed I should have shared with my lover, I let myself cry. I tried to hold tight to my mental shields, but part of the training I’d so recently gone through was to let my emotion have its way. I wasn’t wolf enough to find a mate there. I wasn’t a companion, so no vampire would want me long term. As for the humans, I doubted I could keep one alive in my world. I was destined to be like my father—alone. The tears poured out and though I wanted to howl like my wolf brethren, I was silent. It didn’t matter. Marcus didn’t need to hear. He could feel my pain.

“Bella, don’t cry. Please.” He sat on the bed, his hand on my back. He tried to pull me up.

“Go away.” I pushed at him, not wanting him to see me like this. “Leave me alone, Marcus.”

He was insistent. He pulled me into his arms, his hand cradling my head to his chest. “I can’t. I can’t leave you. Nothing will ever happen with Evangeline. I won’t allow it to. I want you. I want to be with you. I’m sorry for before. I simply can’t stand the thought of losing someone so precious to me. Please forgive me.”

His hands pushed at my sweater, trying to get to my skin. He pulled it off me and tore at his clothes. He pressed his naked flesh to mine and we both sighed at the comfort it brought us. He said nothing further, simply let me cry until I couldn’t anymore. When I settled down, he stroked my hair.

“Can you forgive me, bella? I should not have threatened to leave. It was wrong of me.”

“You didn’t threaten, Marcus.” I thought about the plane ticket he’d had Lucia purchase. “You were going to leave.”

“I doubt it. I was already coming up with a thousand excuses to stay. If I wanted to leave, I could have left this evening. I was waiting for you, Kelsey. It was my own stubborn pride that kept me from returning to your uncle’s. I thought that I could force you to see things my way. I do not want you to go on this mission.”

“I have to.” The events of this evening had proven it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

“I know how you feel, but I wish you would listen to me. Abbas Hiberna is incredibly dangerous. He’s an elemental. There are only four elementals in all the world. Do you understand what that means? The stories say no one but another demon can kill an elemental. He won’t fear you, even when he realizes what you are. I’m scared for you, cara mia.”

“I’m scared for me, too. But I have to do this.” I was resolute. Even if it meant losing him, I was meeting Gray tomorrow.

Marcus settled down beside me. His hands traced the lines of my body, but there was more comfort in the caress than intent. “I will stand beside you. I will help in any way I can, but you must promise me one thing.”

I smiled in the darkness. “What’s that?”

“You’ll break your date with that werewolf.”

He sounded so serious I laughed. “I promise, though it wasn’t exactly a date. He offered to let me run with the pack.”

Marcus’s voice was tight and filled with cynicism. “Yes, I’m sure that was all he had planned. He can find his own mate. He should leave mine alone. Now, do you want to tell me why I smell blood on you?”

I did, actually. I snuggled close and told him about my night.





Chapter Seventeen



“You’re alone?”

Gray’s brother opened the door at six p.m. the following evening, but he stayed inside, well within the confines of the house.

I was a bit startled. I’d expected Gray, or perhaps his butler, Syl. I’d decided to be magnanimous on the way over and not punch the little shit demon butler in the nose. He’d fed me fertility drugs in an attempt to remake Rosemary’s Baby Texas style. I decided to let it go because I didn’t have time for retribution. Instead of Gray or Syl, I got Matthew.