"You can't," David said flatly.
"Of course I can," Liam insisted.
"No you can't!" Sera denied.
"No, he can't," David reasserted vehemently. "Don't give me that look, you can't Liam. Even now, while you're saying the words, you're changing."
Sera twisted to look up him. He diverted his head, but not before she caught a glimpse of red eyes and elongated teeth. "Liam," she whispered as she touched his cheek.
He took hold of her hand and pulled it away from his face. "Don't!"
Tears welled in her eyes, but she withdrew her hand from him. She could feel him trying to put a wall between them, but she didn't know how to stop it. He was determined to try and keep her away from him.
"Look," David said. "I'm going to tell you what they told me about this. First of all, you can't let her go. We don't often find our mates, in fact, the two vampires I met are over two hundred years old, and they've never found theirs. From what they had been told, once we find our mates, if they are human, then all control for the vampire is lost. What you're going through now Liam is nothing. It will only get worse until you make her yours in every way. If you send her away, you will go insane; you will become a threat to everyone around you. She is the only thing keeping you from losing your sanity now.
"Simply put, you can't let her go, and she can't stay human."
"What about Beth?" Liam demanded. "We exchanged blood."
"You didn't give two shits about Beth, and no matter how much she fancies herself in love with you, she's not. She's obsessed with you because you didn't want her. You never had a problem with walking away from Beth, but I bet going for that walk today almost drove you crazy, didn't it?"
Liam refused to answer the question. "I thought so," David continued. "Our mates are ours. We know them when we find them, if we find them. It's instantaneous. You might not have recognized it at first, but if you look back over everything, I'm sure that you realize it now, right?"
Liam's resentment at David's words was growing by the second. However, he was right. Every minute he had spent away from her today had been horrendous. He had needed to get back to her. The beast within him had been clawing to emerge every second that they had been apart. It was only the knowledge that Mike and Doug would keep her safe, and that he needed to find Beth in order to ensure Sera stayed that way, that had kept him going.
David was also right about Liam not being able to leave her. His need to get her away from him, before he injured her, was nowhere near as strong as his urge to drag her from the room, and take possession of her in every way possible. One thing was for sure, his need for her was growing, while his control was weakening.
He took a deep breath and met David's intense gaze. David was also right about another thing. From the beginning he had needed to speak to Sera, he had gone out of his way to meet her. He had told himself to stay away from her, yet he hadn't been able to do so. So far, David was right about everything, and Liam was certain that this conversation was not going to end well.
"He was going to let me leave his room," Sera said. "After he told me what he was and I was terrified. He was going to let me leave."
David contemplated that for a minute. "He may have said that, he may have even let you walk out, but I can guarantee you wouldn't have gotten far, and he wouldn't have let you go for long. You went back to him?"
"I didn't even make it out the door."
"The women will not lose their men either. Listen to me Liam, she's not even one of us, and she's already possessive of you. Your blood has started to make changes in her also."
"He hadn't bitten me then!" Sera cried.
"That doesn't matter. A part of you recognized him. You have instincts Sera; they knew that you were meant to be together. That you are soul mates. If you had left that room, he would have come for you, and I don't think you would have put up much of a fight."
Sera lowered her head. "No," she admitted in a whisper. "I wouldn't have."
"His biting you did not precipitate this, it only sped things up a little. He's tasted you, he wants you, and he will change you. His blood in your veins marks you as his. If he had changed you, then we would be able to smell him on you, always." David's eyes shot back to Liam. "You want us, and our kind, to know that she is yours. It is our kind that you think are the most dangerous to her."
"I can control this," Liam grated. "I can fight this."
"No Liam, you can't fight this forever. You will not allow her to die a mortal death; you won't even be able to tolerate the risk of losing her for much longer. It will not happen. Look, if we never find a mate, then it doesn't matter. They said that there was a vampire over two thousand years old that has never found his, and he's just the same as us. If you find them, and they are human, that is when all hell will break lose. You have already killed for her Liam. You have never lost control like that before, and you will lose it again. If she dies Liam, then you die. You will either go insane or have to be destroyed, or you will destroy yourself."
Sera didn't speak as she absorbed everything that David was saying. If she died, then Liam died. If she stayed with him, then he wouldn't allow her to be human. It was all too much to grasp right now. Suddenly she didn't feel so good. Liam's arms tensed around her as he supported most of her weight. "So what are you saying?" Liam demanded.
"She can't stay mortal. Instinctively, you will not allow it, and as long as you keep fighting it the people around you are in danger. Including her."
"I am completely capable of controlling myself. I only killed Jacob because of what he was doing to her!" he hissed.
Sera shivered as she huddled deeper into Liam's embrace. "And when you lose control again, what then?"
"It won't happen."
