“Ludovica has surrounded herself with people who will do anything for her because she gives them something they crave. Addiction is a terrible thing, and she uses it to her advantage. She didn’t change when she broke her curse, and neither will you. Desiderio, you will still be a cold-blooded killer.”
I sat up straight again and tightened my jaw. “You don’t think I know that already?” I snickered. “Maybe I’m just tired of these fucking eyes.”
I looked at her, and we stared each other down for a solid minute before she cracked.
She began to laugh, sat back down, and shook her head. “Oh, dear Desiderio. I just don’t want you to get false hope. You can break the curse. Change your eyes.” She chuckled low. “But there’s a reason you were hand-picked to be a Seven Sin, and choosing this life comes with a price. Ludovica can have as many friends and lovers as she wants. You all can, but sharing forever with them, as equals? It’s not realistic. That’s how we get hurt.”
I nodded and said nothing out loud. She was firm with her rules about people knowing about us. That would never change. I understood but didn’t agree. I bit my tongue as she continued on about the pain we would suffer. It took everything in me not to shout.
That’s not how we get hurt. It’s how you did.
22
Corrine dropped me off with a dozen too-tight hugs and cold kisses. “Next time, you’ll have to stay longer. I’ll prepare a suite, and we’ll paint the town red.Blood red.” She laughed before slamming her car door and zooming off into the night.
I walked into the hotel, still covered in the butcher’s blood. I didn’t bother trying to hurry or not be noticed. It was a blood-friendly hotel in the heart of Chicago. I was probably not the first vampire tonight to walk through the halls covered in red.
I went to my room and made another tally mark on the notepad I had stolen from Arsenio’s before I left on my journey.
Corrine’s words had stung. Despite me not wanting to care about what she had to say, I worried about how much truth there was to it. Would she really kill someone I claimed to love? Would she kill my soulmate?
The existence of a soulmate was ludicrous in and of itself, but still. It was the point.
I shut my phone completely off to sleep. The urge to contact Scout was too strong. I was worried about doing it in my sleep somehow. I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was until my head hit the pillow, and I was out.
My dreams were wild.
I woke up with a start sometime during the day, drenched in sweat, and feeling something I hadn’t felt in a very long time—fear.
I went to the little table and pulled the little hotel pad of paper out of a drawer. I began scribbling everything I could remember about it before it was lost.
I looked at the erratic sentences after I finished. I tried starting to piece it together. Had I been given a memory? It felt so real. It looked so real, yet, I didn’t remember it.
I was having sex with someone. I was having a good time. I couldn’t see who it was. The figure was a shadow—like Aleida had described.
Then after the sex, my dreams turned into walking along a bridge with someone. I was smiling and laughing with them. We were making jokes like we were good friends. Did I have a girlfriend when I turned? This had to be the person I gave up my life for.Who I took the curse to save.
The dream shifted again, and I was in an old-timey diner. Like from Happy Days. It had a jukebox, and there were lots of pastels. I was sitting down at a booth. I stood up, then I stumbled back, fell to the floor, and looked at the shadow person lying beside me. There were a bunch of shadow people here. Some standing, some on the ground. Were they dead? It was then that I looked down and saw bullet holes in my chest.
That’s when I woke up.
The more and more I looked at it, the more sure I was that I had been given a memory. A Swiss fucking cheese memory, but it was mine. I just watched myself die.
I needed to tell someone, but the person I wanted to talk to most I couldn’t call. I went through my phone contacts, looking for someone, anyone. But then, a name popped up. I jumped at the noise of it ringing. I stared down at it in horror.
Aleida.
I didn’t answer, but then she called again. And again. Finally, I clicked the green button to take the call.
“Hello,” I gulped.
“Did you just have the same dream as me?” Her words sent chills down my spine.
“What?” I asked, absolutely dumbfounded.
“A dream. There was a diner. I couldn’t see everything, but I think I died.”
“Well, if you died, then how are you still here?” I spat. I didn’t mean to get angry, but if I was honest, her call had shaken me to the core.
