Besides, she already knew that before hunters learned not all vampires were evil, hunters had indiscriminately killed them. It wasn’t something the hunters were proud of, but they hadn’t known the truth.
“I know my kind killed innocents in the past when they didn’t know any better!” she retorted.
“And some hunters are going against Nathan and probably continue to do so while knowing the truth.”
She couldn’t argue with that.
“I’ve watched countless vampires die at the hands of your kind over the years. My entirefamily was slaughtered byyourkind. My mother, my father, my two little sisters, and my older brother were all killed in one night, and I was left with this!” He pointed to the scar on his face. “The only reason I still have an eye is because they wanted me to see everything they did to my loved ones; the man who cut me laughed as he told me this.”
He tore his shirt open to reveal the circle near his heart. “When they decided I’d seen enough, they plunged a stake into me. They missed my heart by centimeters but assumed I was dead. That is theonlyreason I’m standing before you now. I was able to leave the Defenders, the only family I’ve known these past four hundred years, to find you because your ancestorsfucked upand failed to kill me when I was seven years old!”
Killean pulled away from her as the knowledge of what he’d revealed rocked him back a step. For centuries, he’d kept the details of that night to himself. When his uncle asked him what happened, Killean revealed most of it, but his uncle was dead.
“Compared to that, yes, you are a little doll,” he continued with less vehemence as the devastated look on her face robbed him of some of his antagonism. “One who has been sheltered for her entire life. There are things about me, and things I’ve done, that you couldnevercomprehend. So much blood has stained my hands that it’s seeped into my soul and become a part of me, especially the innocent blood I’ve shed. If you think you’re strong enough to handle that, then welcome to the dark side, dolly; it only gets more twisted from here.”
They tortured him, she realized with sick dread. Hunters weren’t perfect, but they’d tortured a child and taken joy in it. She wanted to deny his words, but looking into his anguished face, she knew she could never deny the truth.
“But hunters didn’t know vampires could have children until recently,” she said. “Why would they attack you?”
Killean shrugged. “Maybe they believed my parents changed us to create some sort of demented family. Whatever they believed, they didn’t care that we were only children when they attacked.”
Simone’s gaze returned to the scar on his chest. Now that she knew who caused it, she could tell a stake made it, and it had beensoclose! If it was a little further over, he wouldn’t be standing before her. That knowledge caused a chasm to open in her heart as the idea of a world without Killean left her cold.
She also understood his intense dislike of hunters. Understood the disgust she saw on his face after he kissed her and the hostility he emanated every time he said the word hunter. But she didn’t understand one thing…
“Why did you come for me?” she inquired.
Killean hadn’t known what to expect from her, but it wasn’t that. “I told you—”
“You’ve told me nothing!” she interrupted. “And I want an answer. Hunters killed your family, and it’s obvious you despise my kind, so why did you come forme?”
“I wasn’t going to leave you there.”
“Why not? You left all the others there. Why not me? What is so special aboutme?”
What isn’t special about you?He wondered as she kept her shoulders back and refused to step away from him.
“Are you going to refuse to tell me and continue to be the coward who uses his past as a shield against others?” Simone demanded when he didn’t reply. “Your family died over four hundred years ago; it’s time to move on! You can’t continue using them as an excuse to keep from opening up to others.”
Killean didn’t know if he wanted to kiss her or throttle her more. “I am not a coward.”
“Maybe not physically, but emotionally you are!” she insisted. “My father was killed by a vampire when I was seven too, and Savages tortured my friends and me for two weeks, but I don’t hold that against you or other vampires. Yet you continue to hate hunters for something that happenedcenturiesago!”
“You don’t hold that against vampires? You fled a safe stronghold to escape the Alliance,” he retorted, “and ended up being a prisoner because of your dislike of vampires.”
“I fled to escape my embarrassment over being tossed aside by Nathan for another woman!” she snapped.
“Oh, did he break your heart?” Killean taunted, but his hands fisting as he braced himself for her reply. He didn’t know how he would react if she said yes.
“No!” she cried. “I was never in love with Nathan. But the life I’d been expecting to live was ripped away from me in an instant, and it was humiliating.Everyoneexpected us to marry, but I was publicly thrown aside for another, so excuse me for needing to escape!”
“So, the dolly ran like a coward.”
Simone didn’t think before her hand flew up and connected with his face in a resonating blow that echoed through the room. With lightning speed, Killean snatched her wrist and held it between them. Simone gawked at her hand before her eyes slid to him. She expected to see rage in his gaze; there was only disbelief.
She braced herself for him to explode, but he only continued to stare at her as if she were an alien life-form. A trickle of shame ran through her at her actions; shenevershould have hit him, but she wouldn’t apologize for it either. She was done with hiding her emotions and apologizing for things.
“I. Am. Not. A. Doll,” she enunciated clearly.
