Page 42 of An Anomaly of Sunlight

“You’re certainly a crafty bitch, Ame, I’ll give you that.” Enzo’s treacherous voice unfortunately filters through. “Or should I say, Amethyst?” He lets out a disgusted huff. “Imagine my disappointment when there was not a single address in Quartzville registered to the name Ame Langley.”

Through blurry eyes, I realize he has my phone in his hand. A growl tries to escape, dying on my tongue as he presses my thumb to the screen. “No matter. I’ve found you now and you’ll pay for making me look like a fool. This has been a PR nightmare. You were supposed to be mine.”

His fingers tap on the screen of my phone. “As if some small-town nobody could be better than me.” Clicking his tongue, he taunts, “Let’s see how well he handles your rejection.”

A scream tears up my throat, “NO!” I desperately try to get up, but to no avail. “Leave him out of it, Enzo!” I sob, “It’s me you want, please.” I beg shamelessly.

A laugh answers my plead. “These messages are pathetic,” Enzo mocks, “You called him Angel, really?” My cheek falls back against the floor as I hear the swoosh of the message sending. Enzo tosses the phone, kneeling in front of me.

“You honestly thought no one would recognize you? That dying your hair would be good enough to disguise you?” He laughs in my face. “You might not have been famous by any means, but Hourglass has millions of viewers. Surely you didn’t think not one single person from this pitiful fucking town would be one of them.” He takes my chin between his fingers, and I fight the urge to vomit.

Leaning closer his words brush against my ear, “So naive, darling.” A growl does lick its way out this time as my eyes narrow. He chuckles, still holding my face. “A picture is worth a million dollars. Or however the saying goes,” he shrugs. “You can thank your pink-haired friend for the lovely photo. To think she almost backed out of our deal after getting chummy with you. But she came around after a little reminder of what happens to people who cross me.”

Disbelief sparks in my chest. Nitasha took the picture, sold it to Enzo, and left me for dead. The fast friendship, the odd disappearances. Goddess above! Delilah… I should have trusted my intuition. I never fucking do and always pay for it.

It’s my fault too, for leaving the fucking curtains open at the hotel. Goddess, how could I be this stupid? Fear took over after hearing the voice outside, and I couldn’t bring myself to go near enough to close them. Then while I was wrapped up in Skyler, the curtains were the farthest thing from my mind.

The worst part is that I can understand Nitasha’s side. She didn’t know what revealing my location would mean for me. She just saw the opportunity and took it. Who wouldn’t want a million dollars for one quick photo? This was all Enzo. Goddess only knows what he did to her. But why?

“What makes me worth all this trouble, all this money? Why couldn’t you just leave me the fuck alone?” Dropping my face, he stands, crossing his arms. “Lover boy didn’t tell you? I’ve looked into him. I know he’s a shifter and he knows what you are.” What the hell is that supposed to mean?

“A shifter? A witch? What part is it that makes me special?” I press. The bastard plasters a smug grin on his face, huffing another laugh. “Mirixia’s fangs. You don’t know. How wonderful.” “Feel like fucking sharing?” I snap. Enzo tuts, “Patience, darling. We’re waiting on our audience.”

A knock sounds at the door and my heart stops. No, Skyler. Don’t come here. “Don’t worry. He’s not here yet. Just your pizza.” I bare my teeth at the mention of Skyler.

He doesn’t need to see this. He needs to stay far away. “Bare those fangs all you want, darling, it does no good when you don’t know how to use them.”

Enzo disappears to retrieve my fucking pizza. I close my eyes, shutting everything out.

Turns out pizza does not make everything better.

Rage simmers beneath my skin. This can’t be the end; it just can’t be. A new sensation ripples across my chest. It feels akin to my fury, but underneath, it is pure anguish. If that emotion is coming from Skyler, then he must have read the message from Enzo.

The devil himself enters the room once more.

“I will kill you, Enzo. Even if it isn’t in this life; I will fucking kill you.”

He just raises his hands, wiggling his fingers, “Oh no, a wolf stuck in her human form. I’m shaking in my boots.” He turns back to me, taunting, “Look at her eyes glow, but no wolf to be found. It’s a shame, really. What a waste.”

He paces the floor with his hands folded behind his back. “You have more power than you know, and no clue how to use it. So rarely do traits from more than two species manifest in one child.” He chuckles darkly. “You and I could have ruled this fucking world.

“How about a taste of real power while we wait? You were supposed to stay asleep far longer the night you left. But you just had to wake up while I was out taking care of another errand.” I quirk a brow. “What does that have to do with powers?”

“So clueless, it was what I loved most about you.” He kneels in front of me again, “Vampires can manipulate minds, darling. Alter memories. Make you see a rainbow where there was a tornado.”

My mouth hangs open in shock at this new development. His voice is sinister. “Perhaps make you remember falling asleep on the couch watching a movie. When actually you were being drained of all that delicious blood.”

I’m frozen, thinking back on every memory I have of Enzo. Are they all fake? “Care to see? It won’t hurt.” He shrugs, flicking his fingers, “Much.” If what he says is true and he’s altered my memories, if there were more than one time when he...

“Goddess, no. Keep them how they are.”

A sharp pain splits my brain in half. My eyes squeeze shut and I curl in on myself.

“Too late.”

Enzo’s voice barely registers. The pain is unimaginable but the scene playing out behind my eyelids is even worse. Just as he said, we were on the couch in his suite watching a movie. But I remembered falling asleep alone in my apartment.

The true memory shows his arms looped under mine, holding my head to the side and locking me in place while he drinks from my neck. And when my consciousness becomes hazy, it isn’t from sleep. It’s from blood loss. But if he’s done this more than once, then how...