I shifted so I could look at her, but she was looking up at the ceiling.
“Do you want me to…?”
I trailed off, not being able to gauge what she needed in that moment. The bond was strong between the three of us, but she was obviously trying to pull her emotions inward, trying to erect a wall between us.
“No… I got this.”
Aurelia pushed herself up on her forearms, looking down at our poor hunter.
“If it’s too much?—”
“They starved me,” she forced out in one breath. “They left me in a dungeon and only gave me blood until… until…” She gritted her teeth, the words coming harder now. “Until I lay there, hallucinating the two of you looking down at me with disgust because of what I’d become.”
Panic and pain shot through our bond, but I couldn’t decipher who it came from because Aurelia and I blurted the same thing out loud.
“We would never?—”
“I don’t know when I died,” Vesper cut us off. “I think it was sometime after the hallucinations. I stopped sleeping. Started enjoying the blood. It was hard to keep track of everything, and then suddenly I was pulled from the dungeons and given to my newfamily.”
She spat the word “family” like it was a curse.
Aurelia cupped her face. Only then did Vesper look at her. There was so much pain in her eyes that it physically hurt me.
I hated the council.Hated how they could be so cruel to their own people.
“We would never be disgusted by you,” she whispered. “Ever.I’m sorry this happened to you. I’m sorry…” Red tears welled up in Aurelia’s eyes. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you when you needed me.”
I reached forward, placing my hand on Aurelia’s, both of us now cupping her face together.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t get there fast enough,” I said. “But Aurelia’s right. Human or vampire, you’reourVesper.”
She swallowed thickly. I could see the words circling around in her head, but nothing came out of her mouth.
“We love you. Then and now. Forever,” Aurelia vowed. “You’re beautiful?—”
“Breathtaking.”
Aurelia smirked.
“Caring.”
“Soft.”
“Sexy.”
Vesper’s lips twisted. It was the first sign that she was coming back to us.
“Does our princess need to prove it to you?”
Her eyes fell to Aurelia.
“Gladly.”
I shifted our position so Vesper was lying with her back flush against my front, pillows propped under us. I wanted a front-row seat to this.
Aurelia was already trailing small kisses from her lips to her neck.
“My. Beautiful. Hunter.”
