AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Doesn’t anyone want my opinion on the matter?” Arman asked. “I don’t think…”
“No!” the others said in unison, as Levka guided Caitlin out of the lounge.
Levka was torn as to what to do next. He couldn’t take Caitlin for his mate as much as he wanted without alerting the Dallas league. But he couldn’t leave her alone in her stateroom to face Vlad who would continue to try and get her alone. Vlad would take her forcibly now that she’d chosen Levka over him if Vlad got the chance. Levka just couldn’t let him have the chance.
“I’m sorry about messing up your card game and upsetting Arman,” she finally said as she handed her key to Levka.
He unlocked her door, remaining quiet, hoping she’d confide in him.
“He’s a good teacher, and I don’t want him to think he upset me.”
“But?” Levka opened her door.
She looked up at him with teary eyes and attempted a smile, but she couldn’t hide her grief from him.
He urged her into the room and sat her down on the pink sofa. “What upsets you about playing cards?”
She shook her head. “You’ll think I’m a psychological mess. I’d rather you didn’t.”
“No. I won’t. You’ve had a terribly traumatizing experience, and it wasn’t all that long ago.” He sat beside her and pulled her against his chest. “What upsets you about playing cards?” he repeated. He couldn’t help trying to coax it out of her using his vampiric charm. It was as natural for him as taking a breath of air, despite the fact he knew she could resist his abilities no matter how hard he tried.
Was it that she was such a challenge that intrigued him so?
“Sometimes you sound like my psychiatrist,” she confided, “coaxing, insistent, caring.”
Inwardly, he groaned. A psychiatrist indeed.
She took a deep breath. “A year ago, my foster dad loaned my father his yacht. They had sailed for years together. My father was a good seaman, but the storm came up suddenly. We…” She looked away. “…we didn’t stand a chance.”
“How long were you in the water?”
“Two days. The nights were hardest. The first night…that was the worst. Lightning struck all around me, lighting up the sky, showing me the wreckage, but no signs of my parents or sister. I was all alone. After the accident, I wasn’t right in the head,” she said.
“You suffered a terrible tragedy.”
“I could hardly sleep, and when I managed to fall asleep, I’d have the same night terrors, the black ocean, sharks swimming nearby, bumping me, getting ready to take a bite out of me on the next pass. No water to drink, the sun beating down on me during the day, blistering my face and arms, the return of the wind and cold at night, but worse, my family was gone.”
He’d seen enough horror in all his years of living and could imagine the terror she must have felt, adrift at sea after losing her family, all alone.
“I didn’t speak for a long time. I was a mess. My friends quit writing to me. They couldn’t understand what I had gone through. They didn’t know what I needed to get me through the pain. I didn’t either.” She gave a small laugh. “I felt I would have been better off if I had drowned.”
Rubbing her arm, he tried to console her, wishing he could share how much he understood. “They think that after a year you should be perfectly fine.”
“Yeah. Like all the horror should be behind you.”
“It takes time.” A lifetime or several, he should know. He wanted to tell her he’d be her friend for all eternity. He wanted her like he’d wanted Cassandra, but he couldn’t take her into his dark life. “It’ll get better,” was all he could say.
Caitlin looked at the door.
“What’s wrong?” But Levka knew what was wrong. Vlad was communicating privately with Caitlin. She stiffened in his arms.
“I wish I could block his talking to me,” she said softly.
She could, if she became one of them. But even then, it would take some time for her to learn all their ways.
“What does he want?” As if Levka didn’t know.
“For me to invite him in.”
