The hostility in the room ratcheted up to the point where she understood how a butter knife could cut it. The air thickened as they stared at each other.
“That will not happen again,” he said.
“You can’t know that. I’ve given up my life, and I’ve agreed to stay here, but I willnottolerate you trying to control my life.” She’d already had one man try to do that, and no matter how much she loved Lucien, she wouldnotallow it to happen again. “I would prefer to leave than to ever let that happen.”
A small part of Lucien realized he was being unreasonable, and she wasn’t asking for much. A small part of him told him to take her to her apartment and let her say goodbye, but it was drowned out by the thundering roar of the demon who heard the wordleaveand broke free of the tenuous cage Lucien had locked it in.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Blood thundered in his ears.The unraveling started in his chest and spread into his belly before seeping into his limbs. He rose from the bed. “You would leave me?”
Callie didn’t know how to respond. She’d never considered Lucien unreasonable before, but he was utterly irrational now, and she wasn’t sure how to handle it.
The red in his eyes unnerved her, as did his unnatural stillness and the flare of his nostrils. Something was wrong here, but she had no idea what, and she refused to be pushed around or intimidated by him.
“Before I let you command me around like a dog, yes, I would leave you,” she said and lifted her chin.
Losing him would shatter her heart into a million pieces, and she probably wouldn’t recover from it. However, she was willing to give up her life to become a vampire for him, but she was unwilling to give up her dignity.
When Lucien’s eyes turned a fiery red, the hair on Callie’s nape rose. Even when she first saw him rushing at her from across the pit, she wasn’t this unnerved by him.
Just an hour ago, she would have sworn Lucien would never do anything to upset her, but she didn’t like this new, commanding side of him. And she sensed the fury oozing from him. It was the same kind of fury Carter emanated while his hands and feet connected with her flesh.
He’d beat her so badly she ended up in the hospital. He beat her so severely she hadn’t slept for a week because every time she moved, it made her battered muscles, bruised bones, and cracked ribs ache. She’d lain there, trying not to sob because it only caused more discomfort, as tears rolled down her face.
Now, she recognized that same unraveling in Lucien, and it frightened her. What Carter did to her was atrocious; what Lucien, with his vast power, could do to her would result in her death.
Her eyes darted to the door, twenty feet away. He was too close to her; she would never get to the door before he caught her, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight.
She hadn’t expected the violence from Carter; he’d caught her off guard and taken her down before she realized what was happening. It would not happen again.
What is wrong with you? Lucien would never do to you what Carter did.But though she told herself this, and believed it, she couldn’t deny the wrath he radiated. It crackled like static electricity against her skin.
Lucien would never hurt her, but something was wrong here. He wasn’t the Lucien she had come to love; he was unreasonable and a complete asshole.
She told herself this, but she couldn’t shake the fight-or-flight response screaming at her to run. When he stepped toward her, she bolted for the door.
From the corner of her eye, she saw him moving toward her. He was a blur of motion as he closed the distance between them. Before he caught her, she spun toward him, and, throwing out her hands, she slammed them into his chest. It was like hitting a brick wall as she shoved against him and stumbled back.
She’d meant to throw him off his pursuit, but all she’d done was cause herself to lose her balance as she stumbled back and hit the wall. Memories flashed through her mind. Carter had thrown her into the wall. He’d held her there as he gripped her hair and battered her head into the wall.
It had been so long since she allowed those memories to surface. So long since she found herself trying not to scream as she vividly recalled every punch and kick Carter delivered while he spat vicious words at her and she was sure she would die.
That certainty was back now.
“No!” she screamed as she threw up her hands to protect yourself.
The gesture was useless against him. What Carter started, Lucien would finish, and that was the saddest, cruelest twist that fate ever dealt her in a life already full of some pretty cruel twists.
Lucien seized her hands, but not before she managed to punch him in the side of his head. It was the only blow she would deliver to him; he was too fast and strong for anything more, but she at least got in one against him. As he leaned over her, he released her hands, and Callie lifted them to shield her head. A scream rose and lodged in her throat.
Her palpable terror as she held up her hands and shrank from him pierced through the storm building inside Lucien. He froze as he realized he was on the brink of losing complete control, of turning her and making her stay with him.
He couldn’t lose her, but she would hate him if he did this. And right now, he hated himself. He wasterrifyingher. He heard it in the frantic flutter of her heart and saw it in her body as she shrank away from him.
He recalled the times he’d glimpsed something in her eyes. The times she’d let her fear show before she’d covered it up, the times when he’d questioned what happened to her, but never asked. And now, looking at her, he realized someone like him, amonster,had happened to her.
No, no, no, he said as he reached for her, but his hands froze between them. He didn’t trust himself to touch her.
