His hands fell limply back to his sides as he took a step back. “You’ll have to forgive me eventually Isabelle.”
“I’ll never forgive you!” she spat. “You’ve taken everything away from me! Everything! If you think that I’ll ever forgive you, you’re insane! I wish I had never met you! I wish...”
Her voice trailed off as sobs racked her body. He reached for her again, but she quickly avoided his grasp. “Youwillforgive me,” he commandedas if that would work. “Now let’s go.”
She shook her head in denial. Stefan’s patience snapped as he seized hold of her arm. She cried out angrily and tried to rip free of him, but he refused to relinquish his hold upon her as he pulled her angrily behind him. “Let go of me!”
He spun around, grasping hold of her chin and jerking her head up. “I will never let go of you!” he hissed. “Realize that now. I can’t change my past, and I can’t change what is happening now.You had better get used to that fact, and realize that nothing is ever going to separate us, whether you wish it or not!”
The fury and anger that radiated fromhimshook her, but she refused to back down, refused to cower like she wished too. He was a killer, and they had invited him into their homes, into their hearts. Her family had accepted him, had considered him one of them, but they had all been betrayed. “It’s not by choice!” she shouted at him.
“Maybe not now, but it was.”
“That was before I knew you were a monster!”
Stefan’s eyes flashed violently, but he grit his jaw and refused to respond to her. Let her think what she would, he knew the truth, and he would be damned if he took the time to explain it to her. She had made her decision about him, and if she wasn’t going to give him the benefit of the doubt than he wasn’t going to lower himself by telling her the truth about everything. Or Ethan either.Liam, Sera, and the others had been a little more understanding, had actually listened to himbut not those two.
“Let’s go,” he pulled her roughly forward, ripping the door open and pulling her into the hall.
Her eyes spit violet sparks of fury at him as she tilted her chin, ripped her arm free and hurried down the hall.
***
Isabelle tossed her backpack onto the bed, and slumped down. The hotel was cold and dreary compared to the warm comfort of her room.Shewas cold and dreary. Every part of her felt deflated, and beat. She felt completely hollow, and alone. Vicky and Abby placed theirbags down and ploppedonto the large bed across from hers.
“Isabelle...”Abby started.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
She kicked her shoes off and slumped back on the bed, turning on her side to face the wall. The sun was just beginning to set, but she took no joy in the brilliant colors that it cast across the darkening sky. She was hurt and lonely,sheinstinctively wanted to reach out for Stefan but she refused to let herself do it. He had been keeping her shut out since lastnight;she didn’t want to meet with the cold wall that he had erected around his mindagain. The possibility that he could be hurt, that she may never see him again, had taken firm root, and she couldn’t seem to shake it. Her fear for him only added to the utter misery she was in.
“Isabelle.” She turned slightly. Her mother was standing in front of the door, Vicky and Abby were gone.She had been so absorbed in her own unhappiness that she had never even heard them leave. “We need to talk.”
Sighing wearily, she pushed herself up. She had been waiting for her mother to confront her about Stefan, waiting to hear her censure of him, and to tell her that he was no longer welcome at their home. “I’m sorry about all of this,” she mumbled.
“Why? You have no need to be.”
Isabelle shrugged as she nervously played with a lose thread on the tattered bedspread. “I know you must be angry.”
“No Isabelle, you’re angry, not me.”
Isabelle’s head shot up in surprise. “What?”
Her mother sighed as she walked over to sit across from Isabelle on the bed that Vicky and Abby had vacated. “I love you sweetie, but you are a very judgmental person sometimes...”
“I am not!” she protested.
“Yes, you are. You’ve never fed from a human, you don’t believe in it, but you censure those around you that do...”
“I do not!”
“Will you let me finish,” her mother said impatiently. Isabelle locked her jaw and nodded briskly. “I know you disapprove of everyone else doingit;you’ve said it more than a few times. You believe they shouldn’t have to, but they never hurt anyone, and yet you still disapprove of it...”
“They can use bags, like me.”
“Isabelle, let me speak!” her mother snapped. Isabelle’s eyes widened in surprise, her mother hadn’t yelled at her since she was a child. “As I was saying, you are very judgmental. It istheirlives Isabelle, they aren’t hurting anyone, and it is in our nature. It’s the way that we survive. I’ve never fed off of anyone simply because your father has supplied me, but I would have if I needed to, or wanted to,” she added quickly when Isabelle opened her mouth to protest.
“They want to,” she continued. “Because they prefer it. It is their right to do what makes them happy, as long as they don’t hurt anyone...”
