Page 38 of 'Til All the Seas Run Dry

She was quiet for a long moment. She didn’t believe him. He didn’t really believe himself either.

“My mother warned us to never tell a soul. To keep our skins safe. To keep our identities secret. She said that if a man found out, he would trap us forever. Much good the secret did me. I got trapped anyway.”

“With me,” he said, hearing the bitterness in his voice. The anger was palpable. “And ye thought I was one of those men? That I would trap ye without a care for your safety or happiness? Ye thought so little of me?”

She sucked in a quick, watery-sounding breath. “I was going to tell you.”

“When?” he snapped.

“When you got back.”

“Sure,” he said and tried to sit up, but she dug her nails into his arm.

“It’s the truth! I was going to tell you the moment you returned. But before I could, I?—”

He flinched, allowed himself to be pulled back down to the mattress. Because this was the juncture where here untruth met his unforgivable.

She rolled over to face him. Her eyes were wet with tears. “I never felt trapped with you. Iwasn’ttrapped with you. I loved our life. I loved—” She blew out a shaky exhale. “But then you left mefor deadand took my skin with you and… and… where did you go, Callum?” His name was a sob.

Callum swallowed thickly. He wished she’d turn back over. It would be hard enough to tell the truth to the back of her head. It would be devastating to say it to her face, to have to see the hurt and betrayal in her eyes.

“I’d been hired away to fight for an earl, aye?”

“I remember,” she said. “I didn’t want you to go. I was so afraid for you.”

He dared to lean in and place a soft kiss to her forehead. She let him.

“Aye. I ken ye were. On my way back, I was set upon by a witch and his band. He said that he’d been watching the battle and been impressed with me. Told me he had big plans and that he needed a swordsman like me to bring them about. I politely declined his offer.”

“What kind of plans?” Jory asked.

“I dinnae ken. I didnae ask. I wasnae interested in delaying my return to you any longer. He told me that if I refused, that he would curse me. I carried on my way. But from behind me, I heard him issue a command. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground with teeth in my throat and a beast above me. I lay in agony in his camp for days, while he told me that it would all be over soon, that I would feel better soon.”

Jory looked horrified.

“On the third day, I woke to a nearly full moon. He told me that I’d been bitten by his creature, a vampire, and been cursed to the night, to the blood.”

“What did you do then?”

“I ran.” Callum swallowed again, an unnecessary gesture unless feeding, but a familiar one nonetheless. “I left them. I buried myself underground during the day. I walked all night to get back to you. I didnae understand the thirst. I didnae understand the full extent of his curse. I?—”

Callum closed his eyes tightly but nodded. “I was so tired. So cold. I dinnae ken how to describe it. All I knew is that I only wanted to bury my face in your lap and weep, to feel you stroke your fingers through my hair and tell me all would be well. I stumbled back to our home. You were nae inside. You were at the beach, waiting. I just knew, deep in my bones.”

How could he tell the next part? How could he tell her the horrible, devastating truth that had haunted him for centuries?

“Say it,” she said, her eyes bright with tears. “I want to hear you say it.”

He sighed, ducking his chin to his chest and hanging his head. “I saw you down on the beach. Your hair was blowing in the wind, and you looked like an angel in the moonlight, sitting by the sea. My bodyachedfor you. I stumbled down the rise, without a thought in my head but reaching you. But as I got closer, I smelled you. I smelled… yourlife. And the part of me that wanted to fall into your arms lost the battle to this new part of me, this cursed part of me. I’d never been so thirsty in all my life. And you smelled so good. And I— I?—”

Jory leapt from the bed. “You attacked me!”

He followed her, coming to stand before her, faster than a blink.

“If I’d been a mortal human, you’d have killed me!”

She was right. His curse had been too new, too strong, and he’d had no control. He’d watched, like a person trapped behind bars, as his body had feasted upon hers, powerless to stop it.

“Marjory,” he croaked. “The curse?—”