Dark Fates (A Paranormal Anthology)(95)

The weight of her past came crushing down on her. “You’re wrong. I did sin, and my sin was vanity. If I hadn’t so enjoyed the attention of posing, it never would have happened.”

He moved within touching distance, only the faintest tightening of the lines around his eyes betraying his fear. “That’s bullshit.”

She jerked back as if he’d slapped her. “What?”

“That’s bullshit. If that were true, then I’d be responsible for the death of my wife and daughter.”

A memory tickled across her mind of holding Tyler while he sobbed in her arms, mourning the loss of…of… “Meredith, her name was Meredith.”

He gave her a surprised look. “Yeah, you remember.”

She strained harder, knowing this was a precious memory, something to be honored and cherished. Vampires only showed their emotions to a chosen, trusted few. For Tyler to show his grief to her through his tears humbled her through his act of trust. Then again, she hadn’t been her usual stone-faced self at all. The fact that she’d let Tyler see her emotions so early on should have tipped her off.

Tyler said in a rough voice, “Do you remember how they died?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“I was tired, driving back from my in-laws’ house after Thanksgiving, and didn’t notice the guy in front of me swerving. He was drunk and on Valium. We wrecked. I don’t really remember that part, but my wife and daughter died that night. All because I didn’t notice a guy driving drunk in front of me.”

The self-loathing in his voice had her enveloping him in an embrace before she knew it. Though he was so much bigger than she was, she had the impression of him letting go for a moment, really leaning on her and allowing her to accept some of the burden of his grief. Memories of her own sorrow at the news that her family had died tore at her soul.

Whispering against his shirt, she told him the sad, short tale of the seventeen and a half years of her mortal life. “I’d been married for two years and had a one-year-old daughter when Arcadia came for me. My life at that point was bliss. I had a handsome husband, who not only adored me but also challenged me intellectually, a beautiful home, and lovely friends who filled my world with laughter. And my daughter…”

A sob escaped her as she remembered the smell of her baby’s dark, soft hair and how proud and in love her husband had been with their child. Tyler made a hushing noise and kissed her forehead while rocking her gently. It shocked her on some distant level how the loss that happened hundreds of years ago was still as fresh as if it had just happened. After she’d finally regained some semblance of control, she lifted her head enough to look at Tyler, needing him to really listen to what she had to say next, to understand what he was asking for if he became a vampire.

“Arcadia stole me in the middle of the night from my bed without my husband even stirring. At first I thought he was some ancient god come to life. Despite his rotten soul, he was physically beautiful in a classic Roman way, but that notion was soon disabused by the flash of his fangs. I fought him with everything I had, but I was no match for his strength, his cunning. He glamoured me into believing that he was my husband sometimes, just another way to break my spirit.”

“The days I spent trapped in his dungeon, being slowly turned, were some of the worse I’ve ever endured. I kept praying that someone would find me, end my misery, but the only person I ever saw was Arcadia. Sometimes I’d sit in the dark for days at a time, all alone and slowly losing my mind. But even the reassurance of insanity was denied to me. Arcadia fed me his blood, and I’d lie convulsing on the dirt floor of my cell, my feet digging into the earth and my hair becoming matted with the filth. He was ancient, so old the weight of the years had broken his mind, and the only joy left in his dark world was my pain.”

Tyler growled softly. “If he wasn’t already dead, I would kill him.”

That thought of Arcadia’s death made her smile at him, flashing her fangs. “As his blood changed me, I began to plot my escape. He was obsessed with the need for my submission and did everything he could to break me.” She took in a shuddering breath then let it out slowly. “When I made the full transition, he didn’t let the Vampire Elite know that he’d made a fledgling. He kept me hidden away. One night, around three years after he’d turned me, he grew complacent, and I managed to escape. Unfortunately I had no idea where I was, only that I needed to get back to my family.”

Now it was Tyler’s turn to support her weight as the sorrow of the past pressed down on her like a physical weight. “They died of a plague, right?”

She nodded, her voice raw with grief as she said, “Yes. My husband contracted it while looking for me, fell ill, and brought the plague back to my household. It was his love for me, his refusal to give up the search for me, that got him killed. I wish I had died with them.”

To her shock he gave her a hard shake. “Well, you didn’t die. You’re still alive…sort of…and you’ve not only survived Arcadias’ torture, you killed him and got your revenge. Do you really think your family would have wanted you to spend hundreds of years alone?”

Her lower lip trembled. Actually, she knew her husband would not have wanted her to remain a widow for so long. Dying young was a cold, hard fact of living in the sixteen hundreds, and Lisabetta and her husband had spoken early on about their desire that the other would remarry in case of their death.