Page 58 of Vanessa’s Bravery

“Without me,” Cole protested, “you wouldn’t have found this guy. I’m involved in this. I only want to watch the interrogation. I won’t get in the way.”

Gabriel hesitated, then looked at Samson, who shook his head. “You know the rules.” Samson trained his gaze at Vanessa.

She knew what he was trying to tell her. He would let Cole watch the interrogation from a room with viewing windows only if Cole was made aware that she and her family and friends were vampires too. And only once he’d accepted that fact, was it safe for all of them to let him see what was really going on here.

Silence stretched over them for several seconds, and Vanessa was painfully aware that it was up to her to make a decision.

“What’s going on?” Cole asked, his eyes ping-ponging from one person to the next, only to land on her and become more insistent. “Vanessa? What are you not telling me?”

Vanessa inhaled a deep breath. Cole deserved the truth, and it wasn’t fair to keep this last secret from him any longer. She was scared of how he’d react, but maybe she was worrying over nothing. He’d accepted that he was a satyr, and she his mate. Maybe he would accept the fact that she was a vampire hybrid just as easily. After all, all she and her family and colleagues had shown him was love and respect, and he had to see that they were nothing like the rogue he’d encountered. Every species had good people and bad people, and it wasn’t any different in the vampire population.

“Cole, there’s something I need to explain,” Vanessa started. “Let’s go somewhere private.”

Cole’s eyes narrowed, and she could practically see the worry and suspicion that rose to the surface. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”

She took his hand into hers and ushered him down the corridor. Nervous energy prickled off him, and she could hear his heartbeat accelerate. By the time they’d reached her little office a floor higher, and closed the door behind them, her own heart was beating against the lump in her throat.

Alone with Cole now, Vanessa let go of his hand. “Maybe you should sit down.”

“I’d rather stand.” He broadened his stance as if bracing himself for bad news. “Out with it. What is it you want to explain to me?”

Vanessa swallowed twice, but the lump in her throat didn’t budge. This was harder than she’d imagined. Her brother Ryder hadn’t had any trouble making Scarlet accept him as a vampire, even though she’d found out the hard way: seeing Ryder’s vampire side without warning.

“I want you do know that what I’m telling you now might come as a shock to you.” Fuck, she was stalling. “But please remember that I love you, and I would never hurt you.”

Vanessa’s declaration of love was both welcome and strange. Welcome, because she was actually telling him what he’d hoped to hear from her since the moment he’d laid eyes on her, and strange, because of where and how she was declaring her love to him. At any other time, he would have swept her into his arms and told her that he loved her more than anything in the world, and that he couldn’t imagine life without her. But he knew instinctively that something wasn’t right.

“Why do I get the feeling that there’s a but coming?”

He scrutinized Vanessa’s face, and saw that she was battling with herself, and he was tempted to put his arms around her and tell her she could tell him anything. But something held him back: an odd sense of foreboding. As if he’d suddenly developed a sixth sense.

“Cole, my family and I, we’re not just satyrs like you. We’re different. You’ve met them, and I want you to remember how kind and helpful my father was to you, and that my parents are over the moon that you’re my mate, and—”

“Damn it, Vanessa, out with it! What are you trying to say? Just say it, because the suspense is worse than whatever you are trying to tell me.” He let out a shuddering breath. At least he hoped the suspense was worse than the news she was trying to impart.

Her green eyes bored into him, and their gazes locked.

“My family and I, we’re vampires.”

For a second, his brain couldn’t process the words coming out of Vanessa’s mouth. It felt as if fog was clouding his brain, making him unable to understand anything. He felt as if he was standing outside his own body, watching a bizarre scene he wasn’t part of. It was too surreal, like a waking dream, a nightmare of sorts, a nightmare during which he was awake.

His body did what it had to. He shook his head as if he could shake off the words his brain was now processing and giving meaning to. “No.” He kept shaking his head. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not.”

Vanessa remained still while she spoke, and he ran his eyes over her. Shreds of memories came and went. Memories of the vampire attack, and of Vanessa killing the rogue. Memories of Vanessa dragging him to his condo, even though a woman of her size shouldn’t have the strength to move his heavy body.

He could still feel the fangs of the rogue in his neck, still felt the pain and horror. It all came back to him in vivid color. A cold shudder crept up his spine and settled in his nape. Disgust rose from his gut and wrapped around his heart.

“Cole…” she murmured, and stretched out her hand.

When she touched his arm, he recoiled from her, stepping back in horror.

“You’re a bloodsucker like that rogue who attacked me.” He couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice, nor expel the disappointment from his heart. “How could you keep that from me? How could you lie to me about what you are?”

Inside him, disappointment, pain, and disgust collided, and he wasn’t sure which emotion was stronger. It didn’t matter. The woman he’d fallen in love with was a violent creature living off the blood of humans, hurting them, killing them.

“Cole, I’m still the same person. I’m not like that rogue. I love you.”