“That’s not what I meant,” Iro said.
“I gave you the gift of eternal life, Iro.”
“I didn’t ask you to!” Iro argued a little louder than she had intended. “I didn’t ask you to, Cassia. I had just lost the woman I loved, and I was drunk because you kept feeding me drinks in your fancy house that I didn’t know you had stolen from someone you’d killed.”
“I asked you, Iro,” Cassia argued back. “I gave you the choice.”
“Yes, but I was heartbroken, and drunk, and had nothing else. I–”
“Your father only let you be unmarried because he had you taking care of that house. He hadn’t wanted a wife to deal with, even though he thought of having a son all day, every day. Did you know that he frequented prostitutes? After I met you in that pub, I followed him. He went somewhere with one, and he fucked her for as long as his money would allow, Iro. After you turned, I kept an eye on him until we left. He was a horrible man. He was not nice to you, but he was worse to the women he bedded. One of those women got pregnant, and he–” Cassia paused. “Well, then she wasn’t.”
“What are you talking about?” Iro asked on a swallow.
“You were already too old to be unmarried and not in a religious order, so it was either you turn, you flee on your own and try to support yourself, or you let him marry you off to get a dowry. Those were your options. I gave them to you that day. You chosethis.”
“You’re rewriting history. I was so drunk, I passed out, and when I woke up, I was a vampire.”
“You woke up beautiful and healthy. That horrible man hardly let you eat, but then, you were healthy, despite the fact that, as a human, you were sick and didn’t even know about it. I saved you from a horrible future, Iro.”
“I would’ve just killed myself,” Iro spat back. “I’d lost Mary. My father was a miserable man. I didn’t want to live. The only thing keeping me from doing that was my sisters, but then, I lost all of them, too. I would’ve just died.”
“No one is stopping you now,” Cassia suggested. “One silver stake to your heart, and you can find Mary in that eternal life you spent that whole night talking to me about before I turned you. You have lived this long knowing you could end it at any time, and you haven’t, because you don’t want Mary anymore. You wanted me from that day forward, and you still do.”
Iro took a deep breath and replied, “No, I don’t.”
“Be careful, Iro… You’ve never angered me before; not really. Don’t start now.”
“If you want to kill me, do it, Cassia. I am not coming back to you.”
“What happens when this new plaything dies, Iro? She’s human. And once she finds out what you are, she won’t want anything to do with you. You have never gotten serious with another woman before. Eventually, you’d have to tell her, and she would be a risk. You know what we do when there are risks, Irabella.”
“Do not threaten her, Cassia,” Iro stated.
“I’mnot. I’m simply telling you the facts.”
“Cassia, go back to Florence. Enjoy your women. Do whatever you want. Just leave me alone.”
“And what happens in a year or a few years, when you come knocking on my door, begging me to take you back? Am I supposed to just take you in?”
“I’m not some stray puppy, Cassia. I have my own life, my own money. I don’t need you to take me in.”
“And you’re going to continue to pursue this woman?”
“Yes. And I mean it, Cassia. You’ve never mademeangry, either, but if you do anything to Arwen, if she is hurt in any way, I–”
“I don’t care enough about this miserable human to do anything to her, but I’m not leaving this city and returning to Florence yet, Iro. I have my own business here.”
“As long as it has nothing to do with mine, be wherever you want. Now, I have to go.”
“Go, but you’ll be back. You always come back, Iro. I’ll be dreaming about it until then.”
“In that case, you’ll be dreaming for a long time,” Iro said, turned around, and walked away, wishing she hadn’t told her driver that she wouldn’t need him for the rest of the night.
CHAPTER 15
Cassia
Cassia hadn’t gone very far. She had turned the corner, stopped, looked back, and hoped that Iro would come to her senses. When she hadn’t, Cassia turned back and watched Iro as she headed in the opposite direction.
