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For another moment, he said nothing, his eyes locked on me. “Don’t do that.”
“Why?”
He was silent.
Shaking my head at myself, I started for the forest again.
“No one knows what I am. No one can.”
I didn’t bother asking why or turning around. But I did stop walking.
“They’ll try to kill me.”
That got me to turn. “Dex and the others wouldn’t do that.”
His jaw muscles moved beneath his beard. “They’d send me away. They’d have to. They wouldn’t think I was safe for them.” Again, a clenching of his jaw. “For you.”
I eyed him cautiously.
“They might not be like other Erenlians,” he admitted like the words were being pulled from him. “The ones who…” He gestured to himself like that answered something, and it took me a moment to place what it could be.
His scars.
Gods, all those scars. His people had done that?
“But what you saw,” he continued, still not looking at me. “What I am…”
“You didn’t try to hurt me,” I said quietly when he trailed off.
“I could.” His body shook with the tension of how still he was holding himself. “The things I want when I see you… when I’m near you…”
“What?”
A short huff left him like my confusion confirmed something for him, and he shook his head sharply as if dispelling what he’d said. “I’ll stay away.”
He turned and started into the forest.
Oh, for the gods’ sakes. “Ozias.” I crossed the distance between us with every bit of my vampiric speed, circling in front of him and bringing him to a halt before he could make it more than a few feet.
His brown marble eyes glared down at me.
“Do you think I’m an idiot?” I demanded.
Confused incredulity filled his expression.
I arched my brow. “No? Then do you think I get to decide what I believe for myself, and that I deserve to have you respect that?”
Silence. And then a short, small nod, though the incredulity never left his face.
I’d take it. “Okay. So then… do you want to kill me?”
His eyes widened.
“Do you?” I repeated.
Tension made his body shake. “No.”
“Good. I don’t want to kill you either.” I started to step back. “So stop saying you’re?—”
