Broken (The Captive #5.5)(95)

Though she'd meant to stay awake, she drifted off as the night progressed toward morning. Large arms wrapping securely around her caused her to stir again. She sensed Braith's desperation as he crushed her against his broad chest. His mouth brushed heatedly over her forehead and cheeks before finally claiming her mouth. She clung to him as he kissed her with a feral urgency that she responded to instantly. His hands slid into her hair and turned her head so that he had better access to her mouth.

Grasping his shoulders, she held onto him as he walked with her into the bedroom. He placed her tenderly upon the bed and came down on top of her swiftly. Aria tried to ease the fervent need in him as she held him close to her and gave herself over to him. The press of his fangs scraping against her flesh caused her body to thrum with excitement seconds before they pierced her skin. A gasp of pleasure escaped her; she cradled his head against her neck while he fed from her. Her own fangs sank into his shoulder; the heated flow of his blood filled her mouth. A feeling of belonging stole through her as they were linked together.

He was calmer when he rolled away from her but she sensed something savage inside of him when he wrapped his large body around hers. Cradling her back to his chest, he brushed the hair away from her face and kissed her cheek. "It could have been me," he whispered in her ear.

"No Braith, it could never have been you. Your father didn't understand what was happening to him. He didn't even know what it was between them until centuries later. By the time he knew, it was too late for him. You're not your father."

"No, I'm not," he agreed. "But you are my greatest love, my only love."

She smiled as she rolled over to look at him. "And you are mine. I keep recalling that look on your father's face, when he died. I never quite knew what to make of it, but now I think it was actually relief."

Braith's striking gray and blue eyes focused on the wall on the other side of the room. He seemed to be looking back to that long ago, horrid day as he spoke. "So do I."

"But he seemed so happy when he came back again."

"I think he had finally snapped," Braith murmured. "I think whatever sanity he still possessed completely came undone when he realized that he wasn't dead. That he may be forced to forever walk this earth with no end to his misery."

"That would be enough to drive me mad," she whispered.

"Me also."

"Even if he doubted it was possible, I think he and Genny are together now. At least I hope they are. He did awful things throughout the years, but I want to believe that whatever there is after this life, would allow him to find the peace in death that was denied to him so cruelly in life."

Braith kissed her again as he cradled her against him. "I hope you're right."

Aria held his hand firmly against her chest, over the place of the heart that he owned. She drifted to sleep wrapped in the cocoon of the love he had for her.





Author's Note


This is not the type of story I like to write. I may not write fairy tales but I love a happy ending. I enjoy a love conquers all novel best but when I started this novel I knew there was no possibility of that ever happening. There never could have been a happy ending for Atticus. Though I can say that while writing this story, I very much wished I could change the rest of The Captive Series in order to give Atticus the love I think he deserves.

So why did I write this story even though it ripped out my heart, and more times than not I wanted to get up, walk away, and never look at it again? Because once it got inside my head, it wouldn't let me go.

I can remember exactly where I was when the idea for this story hit me. I was driving to my dad's in New York and had just gotten off the Mass Pike. I was heading toward I-84 through Connecticut. Anyone who has ever driven this road knows how long this stretch of highway can be, not to mention just how awful and miserable traffic can be between these two highways.

I was in the middle of this stretch of in-between when it hit me what had made Atticus the way he was. What had made him so twisted and broken. This story was so vivid in my mind that I immediately knew Genny's name, something that a lot of times I will batter back and forth with for a few chapters and sometimes even a whole book. She was so vivid in my mind that she wrote herself. By the time I drove the next two and a half hours, I had the whole story plotted out in my head.

When I started this book, I knew how it was going to end, what would happen between them, and I told myself not to get too attached. That wasn't to be though; I don't think I could ever not get attached. I fell in love with Genny. I've never cried as hard for a character as I did when she died. I even grew to love Atticus, a character I'd never had an ounce of sympathy for before. I put this story aside multiple times because of how hard it was for me to write it but Atticus wouldn't let go.

This isn't the kind of story I enjoy telling but as hard as it was on me, I am so glad that I did tell it. Atticus needed and deserved his turn. That doesn't mean I ever want to write another book like this, but who knows one day another doomed character might grab hold of me and not let go too. That's the best part about writing, the not knowing, and the strange characters who demand to be heard.

Even though this book could never have been a happy one, I hope you enjoyed it and came to love or at least understand Atticus more. In my mind, he and Genny have been reunited and they have found the happiness they deserve.