One of his sisters,one of his sisters was who Julius had abducted for me to drain. Repeating it didn’t help, but it didn’t make it go away either.
I shouldn’t be shocked. The face of his mother had stirred an inkling of awareness because his sister was almost the spitting image of her mother. The entire time I looked at her, I had the impression of déjà vu, and it clicked the moment her daughter walked out.
Why?Why?
And, it was what Julius wanted even now. Their powers. And their sins. But I didn’t know why. Were they safe with me around? Was I safe leaving? Why was I so powerless when I held so much power within my body? Why wouldn’t it obey me instead ofhim?
My chest hurt so bad, and there was a knot in my throat the size of a golf ball. The thought of staying made me queasy, but the idea of leaving Sebastian was somehow worse and I didn’t understand that either.
His footsteps were loud behind me and I felt him closing in. I had hurried out of the castle—his parents’ amazing home—right in front of them when my brain pieced together what was always there.
He caught me by the arm and turned me around. “What’s wrong?”
My heart swelled, and my vision blurred with unshed tears that I wished weren’t there, because within these strange occurrences, I knew it wasn’t my past that haunted me; it was the fear of how Sebastian would react to every new thing he learned about me, including the one where I was sent to absorb all of his sister’s power—or at least try to, until there was nothing left of me or her, and considering she was an entity, I’d say I wouldn’t have stood a chance, anyway.
But, Julius seemed to think I could.
“Hey,” he said again, cupping my cheek.
“I recognized your sister,” I whispered, reaching for his hands in fear that he’d pull away from me once he knew. I shouldn’t tell him; I didn’t have to. But I couldn’t stop myself from telling him the truth. In a matter of days, I’d told him so much and even now, I couldn’t explain my need for him to know me. I’d never had a soul to talk to about the darkest parts of my life and all these memories that haunted me.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, the night I escaped from Julius’s clutches was the night he meant for me to take your sister’s power,” my voice wavered as I told him. “Don’t you get it? All along, this is what hewanted. I’m right here where he wants me and he’s going to take advantage of that.”
Sebastian’s eyes darkened. “It was Julius that kidnapped Kitty?” he asked me. I knew that had to be his sister’s name. I retreated a step back, but he grabbed my arm. “You’re going to have to stop that.”
“Stop what?”
“Running from me every time you feel fear.” I couldn’t avert my gaze even though I wanted to, somehow, his eyes held mine captive. “Everyone’s afraid of something, but you start running long before there’s a reason to.”
“Who knows what I could have done to your sister that night,” I yelled, then softened my voice. “I don’t mean to… It’s an automatic response… I don’t want to run from you.”
“Then don’t,” he urged me. “That was the night you were able to escape?”
I nodded, then sighed. “Have I really escaped from his clutches, Sebastian? Have I really? The moment I stepped back into the Underworld, it’s like he has a hold on me! One touch, one little whisper to the darkness inside and I’m gone. He takes me under and I don’t come back, and even without him it’s hell being here around all of you!” I almost jerked my arm away from his hand but stopped myself at the last second, willing my body to adapt to not running. “All I want to do is touch each one of you until there’s nothing left to take, or my body disintegrates in the same way we saw Delena’s yesterday.”
“I’ll take you away from them. When it’s just me, it’s not so bad, right?” He searched my eyes, and I dipped my head down. “I’d never let you hurt any of them, and I’d never let you hurt yourself. Do you hear me, Isabella? I’ll find a way to kill an entity before I ever let him do you any more harm.”
“You’re going to have to stop that,” I repeated his words.
“Stop what?”
“Making me feel things that I don’t know what to do with,” I told him honestly, then laughed nervously. “I can’t stop telling you whatever’s on my mind.”
That made him smile. “Since you brought it up, I think it’s safe for me to agree. You sure talk a lot for someone that didn’t even want to be friends with me.”
“Are we friends?” I asked him.
Holding my arm, he slid his fingers down until he was touching mine and our fingers entwined. Sebastian brought our hands up to his chest, resting the top of my hand against the rhythm of his heartbeat. “Feel that?” he asked me. “That organ beating in my chest? That’s what you’re becoming to me. That’s all of me, witch, and you think it won’t fall into those little hands of yours if you don’t try taking it? Tell me, do I feel like a friend?”
You feel like nothing I’ve ever had before. You feel everlasting.
I swallowed the lump in my throat while he continued. “You’re safest with me. We’re all safer that way. I won’t let him control you, and I’ll stop you from hurting anyone.” He squeezed my fingers gently. “I’m glad you got away that night, but just know, I would have taken one look at you that night and saved you along with Kitty had you been there. Believe that. And believe that it’s not your fault she was kidnapped or held captive.”
“My brother’s right, ya know.” I whipped around to see the cause of my distress—Kitty, Sebastian called her. She was beautiful in a way I’d never be, sensual and curvy. Blonde hair and striking blue eyes like her brother. Only, some of the beauty she held ebbed with the way she walked and ate. She carried ice cream around with her, and I also couldn’t help but notice all the candy bars hanging out of the back pockets of her jeans. Was that a Slim Jim placed behind her ear? “We kind of save people, and we’re kind of really good at it. They try to shield me from a lot ofit since I was kidnapped.” She gave her brother a tight look. “They forget that I’m no different from them.”
So, it was a big deal when she was taken by Julius. Sebastian wasn’t letting on to how much it had affected them all. I slipped my hand out of his and took an appropriate step back. He dropped his hand from his chest and eyed me softly before fixing his gaze on his sister.
