"You mean to tell me they could become trapped on this island, terrorizing these people?" She'd go to Tristan before she ever let innocent people suffer because of her.
Ethan couldn't stop himself from grabbing her shoulders at the panicked and appalled look on her face. "No, they'll leave before that's possible. Tristan was sick and twisted before all this began, but I doubt every human he changed was the same way. Self-preservation is key for almost everyone; it's even stronger in our species. Once immortality is gained, it's not something willingly given up. Keeping themselves trapped on an island with a growing pile of bodies and missing people reports will arouse suspicions amongst the humans. It’s almost a sure way to guarantee their immortality comes to an end. They'll leave before they’re trapped here."
"Even Tristan?"
Ethan thought over her question before shaking his head. "No, I don't think Tristan will go with them if they leave and you are still here. What he's become has done nothing to ease the madness residing in his mind before he changed. His safety isn't his number one concern, his obsession is."
"And I'm his obsession."
"You are," he confirmed.
"And what am I to you?"
Words tumbled through his mind so fast he didn't know what to say. There was so much he had to explain to her, so much he had to tell her, but he wasn't sure where to begin or how to start to make her understand what she was to him. In the end, he settled for the simple truth. "You're my everything."
His words melted her heart. "Ethan—"
"I didn't say that because I expect a response from you, or because I expect it to make everything better. I said it because it's the truth, and you have to know that."
How could she possibly stay mad at him when he was saying things like that to her? She didn't have time to process the question or how to answer it before Isabelle appeared in the hallway.
"Are you two going to join us?" Ethan tore his attention away from her to focus on his sister. "I think it's time for us to answer some questions."
"So do I," Ethan agreed. He reluctantly removed his hands from Emma's shoulders. "Come on."
Emma almost grabbed his hand, but though his words had melted a good chunk of her resolve, she thought it was better to have some of her questions answered before she made any rash decisions.
Chapter Twenty
Emma settled onto the couch between Jill and Mandy; she folded her hands before her as she studied the three vampires across from her. She'd just said that to herself, three vampires, but that was exactly what they were, what Ethan was. She watched them as they moved with the fluidity of liquid mercury around the room. It was impossible not to see them as predators now that she knew what they were, but she didn't feel the urge to get up and run away like she'd experienced last night.
She wasn't frightened of them anymore, she supposed she should be, but she couldn't seem to summon the emotion. Maybe she was as batty as Tristan, but she didn't think so. These three had done nothing to warrant her fear; Ethan had saved her and her friends’ lives multiple times over the past twelve hours. Even if there was never anything between them again, she would always remember him with love, and she would think of him daily.
Her heart shriveled a little at the thought of never being with him again, but her mind, full of its annoying practicalities, reared back to life. She had a family and friends; she didn't know what Ethan expected from her if she were to stay with him. What would she lose or gain, what was she willing to lose or gain?
"What is it you want to know?" Stefan inquired from his position by the sliding doors leading to the balcony.
"Who changed you?" Emma asked, her gaze focused upon Ethan.
"No one changed Isabelle or me, or any of our siblings. We were born this way," Ethan answered.
"That's possible?" Mandy asked as she wiggled forward on the couch. Emma could almost see the scientist wheels spinning in her head as she practically salivated over Ethan's words.
"It is," Ethan confirmed.
"So you're not the living dead?" Emma inquired.
"Well, considering Isabelle and I never died, no, we are not the living dead."
"But to be changed, you have to die?" Jill's eyes were focused on Stefan as she asked the question.
"Yes," Stefan slid his arm around Isabelle's waist and pulled her against him. A twinge of longing coiled through Emma's chest as she watched them, she found she couldn't look at Ethan.
"Your heart still beats?" Mandy asked.
"And we still breathe. Think of the change as similar to being brought back to life after a heart attack, like being hit with a defibrillator. The heart briefly stops beating, breathing ceases, but you're still aware of what is going on around you. Then the influx of vampire blood shocks the heart back to life. We become something more afterward, but we also retain our ability to do human things such as reproduce, eat, breathe, and have a heartbeat."
"Amazing," Mandy breathed. "What exactly are you? I mean where did vampires originally come from? Was Dracula the first?"
Stefan and Ethan both chuckled as Isabelle shook her head no. "Vampires go much farther back than Dracula, or so the legends go," Isabelle said. "It's said they go back to a time when demons used to roam the earth freely. They were forced to retreat when humans began to hunt them and sealed themselves away in what the legends claim to be Hell."
"And these demons gave their blood to humans before they were forced into Hell?" Emma inquired.
"No, they mated with humans. The first vampires were born. They discovered later that by sharing
