"He gave us the answer without meaning to, Alyssa. He used you. Let's face it - you're the kind of girl a guy can fall in love with without having to try too hard. Night stalkers are possessive, but they hate to be possessed. Almost all night stalkers dream of being able to kill their sires, but breaking the bonds it takes to do such a thing is painful and damn near impossible.
"He would have had to break the bonds one-by-one. Some are excruciatingly painful, so much so that most night stalkers refuse to attempt breaking more than enough to distance themselves from their controlling sires.
"Castine is the most notorious among the night stalkers. She has bonded spawn all over the place. She's possessive, just as they all are. It's their nature to be so. Her creations are her pets. Most all of them manage to distance themselves by breaking enough bonds. Few ever break all the bonds they have to in order to kill their sires themselves.
"There's no telling the pain he went through to break the first of those. Though this last one would have been painless, it was still a wall that crumbled between them. She would have felt it, and she'll be coming for you. Her venom is the most toxic there is."
I shake my head in disbelief. Kane comes from the most vicious sire in the frigging immortal community. Fuck my luck.
"So Kane's venom is just as toxic. I guess it's good he didn't get the itch to bite when he tasted my blood."
Gage's face pales, and then he stands to be closer to me.
"He tasted your blood? Fuck, Alyssa. You're more than lucky he didn't use his toxic venom."
"He didn't bite. Did you miss that part?"
"Damn you're so naive," he grumbles while walking away from me as if in exasperation. "Venom isn't in the fangs, it's in the saliva. You won't be affected by it anywhere other than the bloodstream. Even if they taste your blood from a cut, you still get their venom. What did you feel after he tasted your blood?"
Hot as hell. I'm so ashamed and disgusted with myself right now.
"Oh," he says, as if he's reading my aura's tell-all colors. "Poison's kiss. Figures. That's one way to coerce a confession of love."
"Poison's kiss?" I ask, still choking back my cruel, taunting tears.
"Seductive venom. It's highly intoxicating and you almost drown in lust."
It all makes so much sense now. I was just the dummy pawn.
"He never really loved me, so it's possible his bond is still intact," I whimper, giving into the tears when I can't hold them back.
"He didn't have to really love you. He just had to believe it enough to sever their connection. It's a fucked up world we live in. You can't be here. I can't protect you from her. She wears an amulet around her neck that was given to her before the rebellions. It's blessed by several of our kind, and it enables her to shield herself from our magic. She can harness any energy you use against her, and she can use it on you."
Realizing just how fucked up this all is, I finally drop my shoulders in defeat.
"Fine. I'll move, but not to your place. I'll just have to find a new home in a less vampy town."
He releases a breath of relief, as if he's genuinely concerned.
"Sounds like a reasonable compromise. The sooner the better. I'll stay with you until you do find something. I can at least try to get us out of here if she does come. Your spell might slow her down enough to give us that time... if it works on her at all. With her amulet, I doubt it will give us more than a few seconds."
Sighing in disbelief, I fight off the wave of tears beatin
g at the backs of my eyes. My phone rings just as Gage plops down on my couch and pulls up my laptop to start searching for homes.
"Hello?" I almost mumble.
"Alyssa, it's me."
Frankie's voice is soothing, though right now I just want to fall apart.
"Frankie, I've got so much to tell you. You're never going to believe-"
"Alyssa, this is about your mom," he says in interruption. My stomach plummets to the ground as my breaths stop. I reach out to the earth, still feeling her presence, which relieves me somewhat. He finally kills the suspense. "Lyss, she's back."