Page 131
My thumb touches the tender spot on her neck and she hisses with the contact.
“You really are a vampire.” She chuckles and goes back to rest her head on my chest.
I’m gaping at her neck when I notice a small mole next to the huge bite mark I adorned her with. I stroke it and sigh, feeling her steady pulse beneath my touch, sedating the rampant waves within me.
“What?” She asks.
“You’ve got a mole right here.” I murmur, brushing my thumb against it with a soft laugh. “It’s…distracting. In a good way.”
“They say,” she replies quietly, tilting her face towards me. “Every mole marks a place your soulmate kissed you in a past life.”
“Do you believe in that shit?” I huff under my breath and she knits her brows adorably, nodding once.
“Then it was me in the past life too.” I shrug, the idea of a random fucker—some faceless man from another century touching her—leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
She studies me. “So, you believe in past lives now?”
“I believe in whatever you do.” My voice doesn’t waver, stating it as a fact.
My gaze drifts back to her face. “We’re gonna find a lot of moles on your forehead then.” I lean forward, pressing a slow kiss to her temple gently, chuckling at my possessive streak.
“We?” She scoffs. “Who exactly is we?”
“Of course, you and me. Always you and me. This life, the next—doesn’t matter.” Another fact.
She arches a brow. “What makes you think I’m gonna choose you again?”
A faint smile tugs at my lips. “I didn’t give you much of a choice this time either, zolottse.” I grab her hips and haul her with a sudden jerk.
I tower over her body as I flip us and she frivolously squeals. “What does that mean?”
“Do you know?” I murmur. “When you walk under the sunlight, your hair catches the light…like thick strands of gold. It glints softly and its blinding. For a moment, it makes my dark world feel a little less dark.”
She falls silent under me, her eyes blinking rapidly before she turns her head away from me. I rest my hand on her jaw forcing her to look at me.
“You’re my little gold, one that outshines every diamond.” I lean down to kiss her hair, her eyelids. “Do you hear me, malyshka?” I ask, kissing her nose. “You’re my apricity, you’re the warmth after a night that tried to freeze me alive.”
A lone tear slips past her golden lashes, trailing down her cheek as she blinks rapidly, trying to clear the wet fog clouding her vision.
“Y-you said you don’t love me; this sounds a lot like love confession.” She tries to smirk, hiding behind borrowed indifference that wavers at the edges.
“I’m not capable of it, malyshka.” I remove myself from her vicinity, shivering as if someone doused me with a bucket of ice-cold water.
I sit at the edge of the bed, my back turned to her. “Love is the euphemism for torture; it represents nothing but pain and death and violence.” I struggle to speak, feeling a thick rope loop around my neck, tightening and robbing me of my voice. “My love for you is not violent, Elara.”
“S-Sergei…” She gasps loudly but I’m too busy peeling back the scabs on memories that never healed.
“I want to keep you s—”
“Sergei.” She tries again and when I turn to face her, her eyes are wide—too wide—like they might shatter under the weight of whatever she’s just seen.
Horror flickers across her face as her hand flies to her mouth. “W-what…what is this?”
What’s what? I don’t understand.
Not until she pushes herself off the bed and walks towards me, bare feet brushing against the cold marble before she stops behind me.
And then it hits.
