Page 96 of Into The Light

“I thought you were dying,” she cried. “On the floor, I thought you’d died.”

“I’m right here, baby. And I’m not going anywhere. And neither are you. I won’t let anyone hurt you. Ever.”

The fear I had been fighting finally settled in when I felt her lips press into mine. I’d been so close to losing her. So close to watching her die. So close to watching our love wiped away, sweeping my existence from her memory and leaving me alone in the world with her... but without her. Squeezing my eyes tight, I tried to savor every second of her touch and her taste. Twice today I had almost lost her, and I knew if I ever did, I’d plunge into a darkness deeper than I’d ever known. And one I’d never recover from.

“Are you okay, Aiden?” she asked, between kisses.

“I think so,” I said, though it wasn’t an honest answer. I felt different. Weak. Like something had happened to me when that last surge of power left me, and this time I knew it had gone for good. But I couldn’t worry about that now. All that mattered was keeping her safe. “We need to get out of here before someone finds us.”

I dug into my resolve and forced my legs to move. Each step out the door got a little easier, but it felt like sand filled every inch of my body. I couldn’t let her see me falter, so I forced my muscles to keep moving. We ducked out into the darkness, looking around the empty beach before making our way toward our bungalow.

Reaching the safety of our sanctuary we collapsed on the bed. I lacked the energy to pull her close, but she crawled into my arms. It took all my power to wrap them around her, but I closed her in my embrace and pressed my lips to her head. I held her against me, and for the first time since finding her missing from our bed, I breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe in my arms again... and I’d make certain she remained that way. Leeya may still be lurking around the island, but I knew she wouldn’t dare come after us again and put her entire clan in danger... even though she had shown tonight she lacked even a modicum of sanity and common sense.

No. She’d seen the promise in my eyes... the promise of the death I’d wanted to give her. The one Emilia had begged me to spare her. Because of her human nature, I understood Emilia’s aversion to murder, but that didn’t inhibit my vampire nature to want to finish Leeya off and assure she’d never again threaten what belonged to me.

But I’d let Emilia’s pleas stay my hand, and Leeya had been spared a well-deserved death tonight, a death I had no doubt she understood would come swiftly if she disobeyed me again. With Emilia safe back in my arms, I let my concern turn to myself.

Leeya’s words about my death echoed through my mind and I wanted to know what she’d meant when she’d said she’d seen it happen before. Though I didn’t have those answers, I did know one thing.

Something is wrong... very wrong.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Emilia

“Try this,” I said, offering Aiden a bite of my ice cream. He smiled and let me slide the spoon into his mouth. I waited for his signature ‘mmm’ sound, but it didn’t come. Ever since the tragedy two nights ago, it seemed his newfound zest for life had been left behind in that hut.

“Thank you,” he said flatly, and his eyes moved to stare back out at the sea.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” I asked for the hundredth time in the past couple of days.

“I’m fine, baby.”

His answer remained the same, but I sensed the truth. A darkness sat over him now. A sadness weighing him down that seemed to suck the joy right out of his body. It left me in knots trying to figure out the cause. I sighed and pushed my ice cream dish away. “Want to go for a swim with me?”

He scoffed. “And have you get eaten by a shark? I don’t think so.”

“Aw, come on, Aiden.” I reached across the table and rubbed his arm. “I’ve got you to beat them up if they come circling around. You can wrestle a Great White for my afternoon entertainment.”

“We’ve had enough life and death fun for one vacation, don’t you think?” he answered with no hint of sarcasm.

“I was joking,” I said, making no attempt to hide the hurt in my voice. “You may be able to knock a shark out of the ocean with one blow, but you bleed now. I don’t want you to get in a scuff with a shark, either. But Aiden, the chances of us getting attacked by a shark twice in one lifetime, much less in one week, is literally slim to none. One could argue that we’re actually safer in the ocean now than anyone else.” I smiled at my own creative logic.

“It’s not worth the risk.”

The sharpness in his voice stung, and I stopped before I said something else to irritate him. I barely recognized the man in front of me, and even though he sat just a few feet away, loneliness settled over me while I ached for the old Aiden.

We sat together on the deck all afternoon. I read a book on my Kindle and he just continued his silent stare. The silence between us hung like a heavy fog I couldn’t see my way through. It’d settled around us when he found me in Leeya’s grasp and showed no signs of dissipating soon.

Leeya..

Not only had she tried to kill me, she’d tried to steal Aiden and erase my memory. If that was what female vampires were like, then I was thrilled I wasn’t one of them. She was like Annie Wilkes from Misery and Alex Forrest from Fatal Attraction all blended into a new kind of super crazy. A powerful lunatic vampire crazy. But even still, I hadn’t wanted to see her die.

“Are you mad I didn’t let you kill Leeya?” I finally spit it out. “Is that why you’re angry with me?”

“What?” He whipped his head around and stared at me. “Angry with you?”

His response was the most animated I had seen him in days.