Finn knew too well the implication of this exchange of blood, and he didn’t care. They would now be linked like never before, with deep access to each other’s soul until one died, and the other would turn mad. After all, he was already mad for wanting her and he’d never let her go.
From the depth of his soul, his voice resonated. “I love you, Violet. I love you.”
The same words kept coming until their bodies were spent. Ever so gently, he released her neck and licked the pinpricks closed. Limp in his arms, Violet released him too, her cheek resting on his healing wound.
Balancing her body with one hand, he shut off the water. Silence surrounded them, and Finn almost stopped breathing when Violet spoke in the softest voice.
“I love you too, Finn.”
Chapter 17
Was it supposed to be like this? Cold and desperation insinuating themselves just as Violet was immersed in a sea of bliss? Love. This vampire who’d made her want to pull her hair and smack his smart mouth half of the time had said he loved her. And even worse, she’d said it back, meaning every syllable.
While he was deep inside her, she’d begged him to bite her, and she knew the consequences of biting him back. They were linked now, bonded. The legend humans spread was only partly true; as a magical being herself, she wouldn’t be able to turn vampire as a normal human would, but an exchange of blood during sex acted like magical shackles, binding them together forever. Well, for as long as one of them lived.
What would her poor parents say if they were still alive? Their cherished daughter, the one they’d died protecting, had succumbed to the very thing that killed them.
That very thing was lying beside her, but she could only see Finn. Although a vampire, and with all the darkness and danger defining him, he wasn’t a ruthless killer. He’d been there for her, cared for her, saved her even. He’d protected her every step of the way while accepting her for who she was. Apart from her closest friends, she’d never found someone who understood her like he did, and yet she’d condemned him.
Her eyes filled with tears when he opened his eyes and looked at her.
“Hey, Violet. Are you all right?” Worry clearly overcame him as he sat up fully alert, bringing her against him. He was naked under the sheet, and the cool skin of his hard body soothed her a little. “Why are you crying?”
The words were the hardest she’d ever had to speak. “I condemned you, and I’m so sorry, Finn. I shouldn’t have asked you to bite me, and I shouldn’t have bitten you back. I wasn’t thinking, only feeling. It’s so unfair to you. Please forgive me.”
Through the tears, his frown turned into a smile as he gathered her closer in his embrace. “I was scared for a minute, witch. I thought you were regretting what we had done, our bonding. Because I wouldn’t give it up even if I could.”
Violet tried to push away to see his eyes, to make him understand, but his incredible strength kept her caged.
“Darling Violet, you don’t know how many times you saved me, do you?”
She shook her head. “It was Valeria who saved you in that forest. I wasn’t there.”
His fingertips traced her cheek before pushing a stray curl of red behind her ear. “I know. Valeria saved me from demise that day, but not from death. I may not have planned it, but I welcomed being captured by those wizards. I wanted my life to end. I was tired, empty after centuries of living.
“Everything changed when she brought me back to Sanctuary and you appeared. Somehow, in the most improbable way, you pushed back what was haunting me, even if it was only temporary. You made me curious, interested, and even excited again, and that was no small feat.
“I knew it was only temporary because I could never have you, especially when I learned what happened to your parents. So, I stuck around, getting as close as I could to soak up the light that is you until I had no other choice but to return to the shadows. Forever this time.”
He spoke as if explaining something distant from himself, some piece of history, but Violet felt as if he’d closed a vice around her heart. “You were going to leave, that’s what you told me—leave after everything was over. That’s when you intended to end it. For yourself.”
His hold relaxed, and Violet could look up at him. “I won’t lie to you. That was my intention.”
“Why?”
He continued to touch her face, to run his fingers through her hair, and Violet realized she was doing the same, her fingers moved all over his body, detailing each muscle and sinew. That contact with him had become vital, as if she breathed through him.
“People dream of living forever, of experiencing the walk of time and the changes all around. I have to admit, when I became a vampire, I was fascinated and took advantage of everything that the ever-changing world had to offer. A sort of payback for all the pain I’d suffered during my short and inconsequential human life. But even that became like background noise, and boredom replaced interest. And for vampires, it’s the most dangerous of enemies as it turns us into the monsters humans portray us to be. Like that Dracula story, they invented.”
“How old are you, Finn?”
His mouth trembled in an amused smile. “How much will you give me?”
Violet rolled her eyes as she swatted his arm. “Don’t play that game with me. You know full well that you stopped aging the moment you turned. Is Finn even your real name?”
Amusement fled, replaced with a void that overtook his face. “Finn may not be the name I was given at birth, but it’s the only one that counts. To answer your first question, what I said back at
