Lover Awakened

Zsadist looked up and smiled. Then his head whipped around toward Bella and he lost the expression.

Oh, good Virgin in the Fade, she thought as she drank in the sight of him. She still loved him. She knew it down to her gut—

Wait a minute… What the… hell? His face was really different. Something had changed. Not the scar, but something was different.

Whatever, Get this over with so you can get going.

'I'm sorry to interrupt,' she said. 'I was wondering if I could talk to Zsadist.'

She was vaguely aware of Mary getting up and coming over, of the two of them hugging, of the female leaving and shutting the door behind her.

'Hi,' Zsadist said. Then slowly rose to his feet.

Bella's eyes widened, and she took a step back. 'My… God. You're huge.'

He put a hand to his thick pec. 'Um… yeah. I've put on about eighty pounds. Havers… Havers said I'm probably not going to gain much more. But I'm about two-seventy now.'

So that was the change in his face. His cheeks were not hollow anymore, his features no longer so stark, his eyes not sunken. He looked… almost handsome, actually. And much more like Phury.

He cleared his throat awkwardly. 'Yeah, so, Rhage and I… we've been eating together.'

Jesus… They certainly had. Zsadist's body was nothing like she remembered. His shoulders were massive and corded with muscles she could see under the tight black T-shirt he was wearing. His biceps were three times the size they'd been, and his forearms were big enough now to fit the size of his hands. And his stomach… his belly was ribbed with strength, and his leathers were stretched over heavy, roped thighs.

'You've been feeding, too,' she murmured. And instantly wished she could take the words back. As well as the tone of censure.

It was none of her business whose vein he took, though it hurt to imagine him with one of their kind—and surely that was who he was drinking from. Human blood couldn't possibly have been responsible for this kind of growth.

His hand fell from his chest back to his side. 'Rhage has a member of the Chosen he uses because he can't take Mary's vein for sustenance. I've been feeding from her, too.' There was a pause. 'You look well.'

'Thank you.'

Another long pause. 'Um… Bella, why have you come? Not that I mind—'

'I have to talk to you.'

He didn't seem to know what to say to that.

'So what are you doing?' she asked, pointing to the papers on the desk. This was also none of her business, but she was hopelessly stalling again. Tongue-tied. Lost.

'I'm learning to read.'

Her eyes flared. 'Oh… wow. How's it going?'

'Good. Slow. But I'm working at it.' He glanced down at the papers. 'Mary's patient with me.'

Silence. Long silence. God, now that she was in front of him, she just couldn't find the words.

'I went to Charleston,' he said.

'What?' He'd come to see her there?

'It took a while to find you, but I did. I went the first night I was out of Havers's.'

'I never knew.'

'I didn't want you to.'

'Oh.' She took a deep breath, pain doing a quicksilver dance under every inch of her skin. Time to jump off the cliff, she thought. 'Listen, Zsadist, I came to tell you—'

'I didn't want to see you until I was finished.' As his yellow eyes stared at her, something changed in the air between them.

'With what?' she whispered.

He looked down at the pencil in his hand. 'Me.'

She shook her head. 'I'm sorry. I don't understand—'

'I wanted to give you back this.' He pulled her necklace out of his pocket. 'I was going to leave it with you that first night, but then I thought… Well, anyway, I wore it until I couldn't get it around my throat anymore. Now I just carry it around.'

Bella's breath left her, just eased out of her mouth until she was empty of air. Meanwhile he started to rub the top of his head, his biceps and chest so big now, they pulled his shirt until it strained at the seams.

'The necklace was a good excuse,' he murmured.

'For what?'

'I thought maybe I could go to Charleston and show up at your front door to give this back and maybe… you might let me in. Or something. I was worried that another male would court you, so I've been trying to go as fast as I could. I mean, I figured maybe if I could read, and if I took a little better care of myself, and if I tried to stop being such a mean-ass motherfucker…' He shook his head. 'But don't misunderstand. It's not like I expected you to be happy to see me. I was just… you know, hoping… coffee. Tea. Chance to talk. Or some shit. Friends, maybe. Except if you had a male, he wouldn't allow that. So, yeah, that's why I've been hurrying.'

His yellow eyes lifted to hers. He was wincing, as if he were afraid of what might be showing on her face.

'Friends?' she said.

'Yeah… I mean, I wouldn't disgrace you by asking for more than that. I know that you regret… Anyway, I just couldn't let you go without… Yeah, so… friends.'

Holy… Moses. He'd come looking for her. With the intent of coming back and reaching out to her.

Man, this was completely outside any scenario she'd imagined as she'd prepared to talk to him.

'I… What are you saying, Zsadist?' she stammered, even though she'd heard every word.

He glanced back down at the pencil in his hand and then turned to the table. Flipping the spiral notebook to a new page, he bent way over and labored on top of the paper for quite a while. Then he ripped the sheet free.

His hand was shaking as he held it out. 'It's messy.'

Bella took the paper. In a child's uneven block letters there were three words:

I LOVE YOU

Her lips flattened tight as her eyes stung. The handwriting got wavy and then disappeared.

'Maybe you can't read it,' he said in a small voice. 'I can do it over.'

She shook her head. 'I can read it just fine. It's… beautiful.'

'I don't expect anything back. I mean… I know that you don't… feel that for me anymore. But I wanted you to know. It's important that you knew. And if there's any chance we could be together… I can't stop my job with the Brotherhood. But I can promise that I'll be so much more careful with myself—' He frowned and stopped talking. 'Shit. What am I saying? I promised myself I wouldn't put you in this position—'

She crushed the paper to her heart, then launched herself at him, hitting his chest so hard he stumbled back. As his arms came around her with hesitation, as if he didn't have any idea what she was doing or why, she wept openly.

In all her preparations for this meeting, the one thing she had never considered was that the two of them might have some sort of future.

When he tilted up her chin and looked down at her she tried to smile, but the crazy hope she felt was too heavy and joyous a burden.

'I didn't mean to make you cry—'

'Oh, God… Zsadist, I love you.'

His eyes flared so wide, his brows nearly hit his hairline. 'What…?'

'I love you.'

'Say that again.'

'I love you.'