He was behind me, my jacket was off and tossed to the floor, and my shirt was lifted up. He sucked in a breath and swore.
“Is it bad?”
“Not too bad. They are thin, you won’t need stitches.” He took something out of his pocket and pressed it on my back, and then began to wrap my wounds with a bandage, his fingers soft and fast.
I glanced over my shoulder; his face was taut with tension. “Do you carry a bandage in your pockets?”
“Yes, now that I have you, I do.”
The king of vampires carried plasters and bandages in his pockets. I huffed a laugh. “You realize that’s definitely bordering on cotton-wool protection, right?”
“You’re fragile.”
“I’m not that fragile.” I snorted. “Next you’ll be wrapping my entire body up and I’ll be a walking Egyptian mummy.”
A low growl slipped up his throat. “If I need to wrap you up and have you walk around like a mummy to keep you safe, that is what I will do. She’s lucky I didn’t tear her head clean off.”
Did that mean he was going to give Leah a chance? Hope flared.
I pulled my top back down and moved over to look at her. Her blonde hair spilled out, her lips were parted, she looked like she was asleep, but I couldn’t see her breathing. “Is she still alive?” I asked hesitantly.
“Yes, but a broken neck will disable her for a while.”
“Can we lock her up and try to teach her to not kill people? And don’t just say no—can we at least try?”
I half turned back; his look was cold. “If you are to remain in this world, Amelia, you will need to be stronger emotionally. I cannot and will not change what I know has kept me and others safe for centuries.”
His words struck down the broken pieces inside, the shards left where everyone left me, including him once. Fear of being left rushed through me, but it was anger that surfaced.
“If I’m to remain in this world?” I threw out a hand and my head protested with the spike in my blood. “What are you saying that you’re going to walk away? Because you can’t take it when I’m disappointed, when I show empathy to another human, when I make you question your own integrity?”
He glared, his eyes dark and broody and filled with torment. He looked away to a point in the wall.
“What did you think of earlier?” he asked, an odd bitterness in his tone.
“What?” I asked, confused.
“When you were on the couch and I was with Lottie, what were you thinking?”
So, this was the problem. He had caught a look on my face, or read my mind, and it had unsettled him. I avoided his gaze for a moment, and when I looked back, I didn’t like the cold, hard look he shielded his emotions with. “I was thinking one day I would like children with you.”
A flicker of torment. “I cannot offer you that,” he said quietly. “And you know it.”
Was he saying he didn’t want a life with me? “Can’t or won’t?” I whispered.
“Does it matter?” He twisted away, his fists curled at his sides, his gaze on the open door as if he wanted to leave.
“It does to me.” I raised my voice. “And have the decency to look at me and not block your fucking emotions when you speak to me about something so important.”
He whirled back and stepped into my space. He was angry now, those emotions well and truly let loose. “Both! I cannot and will not bring children into my world. So if you want that, Amelia, you best run back to your doctor.”
A look of shock and guilt crossed his features as if he regretted the comment. But the blade had already struck my chest, cruel and twisting.
He knew how hurt I was by Tom’s betrayal. He knew I spent my life in foster care and how I never felt I fitted in anywhere until my parents adopted me and how it was cruelly ripped away from me. He knew the last remaining stability of my world had crumbled when I caught Tom, my fiancé, the man I planned to marry, to have a life with, in bed with my best friend.
“I will not be with anyone who can’t be faithful, and I refuse to stay with anyone who won’t even discuss a future together!” I shouted. “I deserve better!”
“You do deserve better!” he yelled right back. “You don’t think I know that? I told you what I am, I warned you, and you, you …”
