Page 118 of Eternal Obsession

“Why, yes.”

I leaped toward her and kissed her forehead and then vanished.

Chapter Fifty

ORPHEUS

I positioned Alex’s coffin in the corner of the lavishly decorated room within Belshazzar’s.

He climbed out disoriented and stumbled around, looking for clues that would reveal his whereabouts. Alex heard the faint beat of music. He detected other vampires looming and caught the subtle aroma of blood. Unsurprised to find the door locked, he searched for another exit but found none. He heard a key turn in the lock.

I entered.

Alex glared at me. “Your ruse almost got me killed.”

“Now why would I trap you then free you? What sense is there in that?” I gestured sincerely.

“Where is Jadeon?”

“With Ingrid.” I reached for the blood-filled decanter and poured us both a drink. I handed one of them to Alex.

He was hungry.

Alex sniffed the glass. Tentatively, he sipped. His eyes fixed on me. “How long do you intend to keep me here?”

“Is that the thanks I get?”

“Yes.”

“And to think there used to be a time when you couldn’t wait to see me.”

“Two hundred years ago,” Alex snapped.

“I brought you here so that you will not be alone.”

“I’m not.”

“I will not allow you to lock yourself up in that dark place, alone again while he wanders the world.”

“I do not believe you⁠—”

“Alex, I admit I have at times been a little harsh, but you have always known my feelings for you. I would never hurt you. I adore you. You are everything in this world that is good and right. Perfection itself. There is a change in your circumstances, and I wish to extend to you my friendship, a home here with me.”

“Why should I want to be with you? You have killed my father, tormented us relentlessly⁠—”

“It’s time you knew the truth. Your brother does not always tell you everything. He keeps you in the dark on many things. Remember how as young men he failed to tell you how he had become your father’s apprentice and how he was chosen over you? He came to you a vampire and left you alone and vulnerable in order to find Catherine. He still considered himself to be a Stone Master. He visits Stonehenge and drinks from the innocent, reveling in the pleasure of slaughtering mortals. He drinks from the pure and perfect—from angels—and you drink from the damned. Do you see a pattern emerging here? Do you want proof?”

“Jadeon has never drunk from the innocent,” Alex said, attempting to interpret my mind’s messages.

“While your brother travels the world, explores the pleasures and revels within them, I offer you the life you’ve always wanted. Let me take away your loneliness and fill you up with passion. We are powerful allies.”

Alex gazed at me. His world was falling apart. The fear of being alone terrified him.

“He never once returned to the castle in two hundred years. Does that not strike you as strange?”

“He was searching for Catherine⁠—”

“Please, don’t let that old lie ruin another two hundred years of your life.”