Page 81 of Fighting My Demons

"Eat it," he says, and Blaine rolls his eyes, clearing the table when I shake my head.

"Blaine!"

"She is full. You said it yourself. She had a late lunch with Addie," Blaine growls, and I can't understand his weird mood. He has never been like this before.

Xavier sighs before helping Blaine, and then he wanders into the bathroom. I hear him start the shower, and Blaine walks in there with him a few moments later, shutting the door.

I scull the rest of my wine before reaching for the bottle and plucking it from Latham's hands. He eyes me but lets me take it. I hold it up before noticing there is only a glass and a half left, so I instead opt to drink from the bottle. Latham watches as I bring the bottle to my lips, leans back in his chair, and folds his arms across his chest.

Swallowing the sweet liquid down, I watch him back. "How bad will it hurt?"

"Depends how willing you are."

"And if I am not willing?"

"Death would be kinder," he answers, and dread pools in my stomach.

Death would be kinder? That doesn't sound so good. No, that sounds fucking horrible.

"And willing?" I ask hopefully.

"Endurable."

"Wow, you really know how to sell an impossible option. Could you have used worse words to describe it? Death would be kinder. Oh, and death you will wish for, lucky me?" I say sarcastically.

Latham says nothing.

"Can't you do that demon thingy you do where you take the pain away?"

"Not without running the risk of killing you, but we can mask it."

"How? You just told me I am basically going to want to die."

"There is pleasure in pain, Arabella."

"Yeah, when you're the one inflicting it," I tell him, drinking from the bottle again.

Latham reaches behind him to the bench leaning the chair back on two legs before falling forward after snatching another bottle of wine off the bench. He hands it to me.

"How many of these you got?"

"Enough to get you wasted, though I would be shocked if you found the bottom of that bottle," he says.

"And there is no other way?"

He chews his lip. "Make you immortal."

"Like Addie?"

Latham nods.

"Can you have kids as a vampire?" I ask him.

His brows crease, and he leans forward in his chair. "To be with us, Arabella, means you won't ever have kids, none of your own, anyway. You wanted kids?"

"Well, honestly, I never gave it much thought until now, when it suddenly didn't become an option. But aren't demons born?"

Latham nods. “It's complicated and not a possibility for you."