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I cringed as she hit play again and I watched in horror as the scene played out in front of me. Vance seemed stuck in the past as if it was thirty years ago and Maria was still his wife. It wasn’t a surprise what happened next. He was thrilled that his beautiful wife not only chose him over Leo, but that she was carrying his child. His perfect world was back. All of his dreams were coming true as he passionately made love to his wife for hours. I had to sit there and watch the entire thing while my heart crumbled into pieces. Finally, when I didn’t think it was possible for me to cry anymore, she turned it off.
“How could you?” I asked her. “How could you be so cruel?”
She scoffed. “Oh, please. Like he wasn’t equally cruel to me? I wanted to come back to him after Leo made me a vampire. I begged him! I told him we could be young together forever, but he rejected me! He told me that he could never forgive me for sacrificing our child.” She rolled her eyes. “Obviously, he just wanted a baby factory, not a lifelong mate.”
I shook my head. “That’s not true. He wanted both, but he fell in love with a human so he had to play with the cards he was dealt. He would have loved you until the day you died of old age. And then your children would have lived very lengthy lives to remind him of the love that he had for you.”
She stood up and grabbed a fistful of my hair. “You bitch!” she screamed. “You think you know him so well? You think he loves you? Well, obviously not as much as you thought if someone as powerful as him couldn’t sense a little potion on my lips!” I couldn’t help it but I winced right then, fueling her fire. “Maybe the truth is that he couldn’t wait to get his hands on me so he chose to ignore it!” she continued. “He moved inside of me with so much hunger, so much raw need that it must have been building up since the day I left! He came inside of me with so much force that I almost had trouble containing him. ME…a goddamn vampire!!! He’ll never fuck you with that much passion! Ever!!”
She released her grip on me and stormed out of the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I tried reasoning with myself, telling myself that she was wrong, but I couldn’t see past those horrible images of them together. My time with Vance had been the best sex of my life, but he didn’t look at me the way he did her. I’d never seen him so elated; he’d touched her with so much tenderness and amazement. He may have been confused about the year, but he definitely knew what he was doing and who he was with. I didn’t know how I could ever be with him again with that knowledge. I almost wished Maria would have drained me so I wouldn’t have to feel this aching hole in my chest. I sobbed hysterically as the pictures of them continued to flash through my mind. It just hurt so goddamn much. I started hyperventilating and instead of trying to fight it, I welcomed the blackout.
*****
I don’t know how long I was out that time but I awoke to the sound of my name.
“Karli!” Vance shouted. “Karli, where are you?”
Before I had a chance to respond, Vance, Leo, and a beautiful, twenty-something brunette were bursting into the room charging towards me. Leo’s nostrils flared as his eyes were instinctively drawn to the matching bite marks on my thighs. Maria had intentionally left evidence. Bitch. His eyes flashed with rage before he composed himself.
Seeing Vance was like being stabbed in the gut. Unfortunately for me, I knew exactly what that felt like. Before he could reach me I shouted, “Vance, Erica is in here somewhere. You have to find her!”
He halted. “What?” he asked. “How do you know?”
“Just trust me!” I insisted. “Go find her.”
He cast a wary glance in Leo’s direction. “Go,” Leo said. “I’ll stay with Karli.”
Vance hesitated, but nodded his head. “Tara, you go left, I’ll go right.”
“Got it,” she replied and they were off to begin their search.
Leo took off his shirt and covered me. He nodded towards the marks. “Are you okay, my love? She drank from you?”
I looked away in shame as Erica and Vance walked into the room. Vance moved towards me in a rather territorial stance and glared at Leo. “What’s going on?” he asked.
Leo looked at me, waiting for a response. “Nothing,” I snarled.
Vance seemed taken aback by my tone. Erica cleared her throat, prompting me to look up at her. Oh Christ, she was a mess. Poor Erica must have been just as heartbroken as I was. “Are you okay, Kar?” she asked.
“Are you?” I countered.
She started bawling. “Omigod, K, I’m so sorry. I had no idea he was connected to her!”
“It’s okay, Eri,” I assured her.
“No, it’s not,” she insisted. “I should have known something was wrong. I didn’t figure it out until…until…”
“Would somebody please tell me what the fuck is going on?” Vance shouted.
I looked up and noticed that Tara had joined us again. “The area is clear,” she said. “Now, ladies, could you please tell us what happened here?”
I shook my head as I pulled on my bindings. The effort was futile. “I’ll tell you what I can, but will somebody please untie me first?”
Leo tugged with his supernatural strength but couldn’t break them. “I can’t get them undone. They feel infused with something.”
“They are,” I said. “Jake said they could only be undone with a counter binding spell.”
“Jake?” Vance asked. “As in, Erica’s husband?”
