Page 94 of Into The Light

“It has?” I asked.

“Yes. But you don’t have much time. Your powers are faltering. And if you don’t... you’ll die anyway!”

Emilia’s eyes widened, and we exchanged a glance.

“You’re lying,” I said, though I lacked certainty in my voice.

“I’m not lying, Aiden.” She huffed. “You’ll die.”

“You don’t know that, Leeya,” I argued.

“I do!” she shouted, her hand tightening around Emilia’s neck. “I’ve seen it happen! Someone from my clan tried.”

I took a step back when I saw rage flash through her eyes. Leeya was unpredictable at best and I knew her threats weren’t empty. Real danger wrapped around Emilia’s neck and if I didn’t play my cards right, I wouldn’t care if Leeya’s prediction about my mortality was real... I would want to die beside her.

“Leeya,” I said, soothing my angry voice. “Let’s just talk about this.”

“We don’t have time to talk, Aiden. You’re running out of time! I won’t let you die!”

“Just take a breath, Leeya. We will figure this out. Just you and me. You don’t need to kill her for us to do that.”

She shook her head and I saw the frazzled tethers of her sanity shredding. “You need to drink her. Now.”

“Leeya.”

“NOW!”

Her sharp nail slid into Emilia’s skin. The pain caused Emilia to cry out and seeing her in pain created a lump in my throat. I swallowed hard to push it back down.

“Okay, Leeya. Okay.” I stepped toward her. “I’ll drink from her. But you need to promise me you won’t hurt her.”

“You will?” she asked, surprise shaking her already trembling voice.

“Yes. I will. And it will just be me and you. Okay? Just let her go and you and I will go find someone else for me to drink. I don’t want to taste her again.”

Leeya raked me over with suspicious eyes. “You don’t?”

“No, Leeya. You’re right. She’s not nearly good enough for me. I made a mistake. Can you forgive me?”

I couldn’t look at Emilia. If I did, there would be no hiding my love for her and Leeya would see straight through me. I only hoped that Leeya was crazy enough to believe me.

“Do you mean it, Aiden?” Leeya asked, her grip on Emilia’s neck loosening.

“I do. I’m so sorry, Leeya. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Neither do I.” She sighed.

Glad my plan had started working, I tried to move toward her, careful not to spook her. She may be crazy enough to fall for my lies, but she also had a set of fangs that could end my love’s life in a second if I screwed up.

“When Mark said you’d turned human, and you were in Bora Bora, I had to come see for myself. I just couldn’t believe it. I had to save you. I couldn’t believe you would really leave me. I thought you were coming back to me. And then you met her.”

The anger returned to her face and her grip tightened again. I stepped forward once more. “I know, and I was so stupid. All I was trying to do was forget you and it didn’t work. I still love you, Leeya. Let’s just leave her and go. There’s a really nice bartender I would prefer to drink. He smelled delicious. Much better than her.” I crinkled my nose.

Leeya cast a hesitant look to me and then to Emilia. “You promise? You promise you’ll turn back?”

“I promise,” I said, holding out my hand. “Let’s go.”

Leeya took a happy sigh and let go of her grip on Emilia’s neck.