"Who is that?" Jill demanded.
"The gardener," Mandy said in a flat voice. "I saw him pruning the hibiscus the other day. What is he doing here?"
"He attacked me." Emma hugged the towel tighter around her as she recalled it was all she wore. "He said Tristan wanted to talk with me."
"Why would he do that, and how does he know Tristan?" Mandy demanded.
"Tristan must have gotten to him," Ethan said as he studied the blanket on the floor.
"Gotten to him and done what?" Emma asked.
"Taken control of his mind."
Emma's head spun, but before she could think of anything to say, a new noise drew her attention to the French doors as Isabelle and Stefan appeared on the balcony. She tugged the towel closer around her. Ethan stepped to the side, yanked the sheet from her bed, and wrapped it firmly around her.
"You can do that?" she inquired as she tilted her head to look up at him. His eyes were still red as they met hers; a muscle twitched in his cheek, and she could almost hear his teeth grinding together.
He fought the urge to crush her against him and never let her go. Instead, he forced himself to release her and drop his hands back to his sides. He had killed a man. He'd thought it would have eased some of his primal urges to destroy, but it didn’t. It only showed him what he was missing as the life force of the man pulsed through his veins, and the taste of the warm blood lingered on his lips. He wanted more. Touching her, if only for those brief seconds, had helped bring him some serenity though.
She had to let him into her life again; she had to forgive him and start trusting him once more. As much as he didn't like to admit it, Isabelle was right; he needed Emma in his life if he was going to stop killing. He wouldn't have her in his life unless she were willing to be there though, and unless she loved him too.
"Do what?" he asked as he'd forgotten what it was they'd been discussing.
"Take control of people's minds?" she inquired.
"Yes." He started to turn away, but her brisk inhalation brought his attention back to her. His eyes narrowed on her paler face and now trembling lower lip. "No, Emma, I've never done it to you."
"How do I know that?" she inquired.
"Because I wouldn't be lurking in the shadows outside your house, I'd be in your bed where I belong." He hadn't meant to be short with her, but the hideous events of the past two nights were pushing him toward a breaking point he wasn't sure he could survive. "And they," he thrust his finger at her friends. "Wouldn't remember any of this. Everything I've done is for you, and I will not violate your mind or the mind of anyone else. Believe whatever else you want about me, but know that much."
He turned away from her, but her tiny hand on his arm stopped him again. "Thank you," she breathed.
"Anything for you, Emma."
Her mouth dropped open, but she didn't try to stop him again as he turned away from her. She didn't understand any of this, but his words left her speechless and her heart aching more than it had when she first woke.
"What are we going to do about him?" Isabelle nodded toward the body.
"I don't know," Ethan answered. "Weigh him down and drop him into the sea."
The prospect didn’t please him. The man had injured Emma, he would have taken her to Tristan, but he was an innocent in this, one probably corrupted against his will.
Emma turned toward Stefan and Isabelle. "You can both come in."
Ethan's head shot up at Emma's words; hope filled him as she seemed to have decided to give them at least a little more of her trust. Isabelle and Stefan exchanged a glance before stepping into her bedroom.
Isabelle gave Emma a small smile before hurrying to Ethan's side. "You didn't have a choice," she murmured. "Even if he was under someone else's control, you didn't have a choice."
He knew she believed her words, but this was something he had always wanted. Guilt was beginning to eat at him as he stared at the motionless body on the floor. Emma started to walk toward her friends, and without thinking, he reached out and grasped her hand. He needed the connection with her and the tranquility she brought to the tumultuous seas coursing through him. He expected her to recoil, but her eyes shot to his, and her fingers brushed over his. More of the bloodlust and strain eased from him as his flesh remained in contact with hers.
"Stay close," he told her.
She bowed her head and pulled her hand away to wrap it within the sheet. Her eyes were darker due to the shadows under them. The lines around her mouth hadn't been there yesterday, but she was alive, and that was what mattered. He watched as she walked over to join her friends, they enveloped her in a hug and hovered around her.
"He wasn't so innocent." Ethan's attention was drawn away from Emma by Stefan's words.
"What makes you say that?" Ethan inquired.
Stefan held up the man's arm to reveal a trail of faded bite marks from his wrist to his elbow. "There are enough here to make me think he allowed at least some of the vampires to feed on him daily. I don't think he was under anyone's control; he came here of his own free will to ingratiate himself further with them."
"Why would he do that?" Emma asked.
"Some people in this world will do anything to be closer to a vampire, will allow themselves to be used as food if there is the slightest hope they could one day become a vampire. We call them Feeders," Stefan answered.
"Why would anyone allow that?" Jill looked as if she’d been told to suck on someone's toes as she asked
