Crimson Highlander (Onyx Assassins 2)

He tipped his chin, a glint of wickedness flashing in his eyes. “Is this the part where you tell me you’re about to kill me, lass?”

My lips parted open, a gasp escaping at the way his eyes burned with desire while he spoke such horrific words. “Why do you look like you’d enjoy me trying to hurt you?”

He slowly rose from the chair, spanning the distance between us in a heartbeat. Close, but not touching. Instead, he let that fire and tension build between the inches separating us. My heart beat wildly in my chest as I looked up at him.

“I’m just picturing you in leathers, a blade in your hand, and the fire in your eyes. Hard not to like it.” He skimmed a knuckle down my cheek, and I swear every inch of me burned.

I barked a laugh, shaking my head. “I would never intentionally hurt you, Lachlan.”

He stilled, then took a step back. “Intentionally?” He tilted his head. “Why do I feel like you’re about to ruin me?”

I huffed again, swallowing around the rock in my throat. “You trust me, don’t you, Lachlan?”

“Aye,” he said the word almost like it was hard to admit.

“You shouldn’t,” I admitted, my guilt twisting around my insides.

His jaw hardened.

“I’ve kept things from you,” I said, tears threatening to sting my eyes. “Not because I didn’t trust you, Lachlan, because I do. I do more than I ever thought possible. The way you are…the way our friendship has developed…I’ve never had anything like it. Even with Lyric—I love her, and still I find myself telling you things I’ve never even told her.”

“Valor—”

“I don’t want you to be angry with me,” I cut him off. “But I can’t deny what’s happening between us. I don’t have the energy to anymore, and keeping things from you feels like slowly burning from the inside out.”

“Then don’t.”

I furrowed my brow. “What if you don’t like what you learn? What if you despise me for every single dark thing I unveil about my past? What if you can’t stand the truth about what I did when I still believed you all to be evil, malicious creatures? Because I can handle our fights, Lachlan. I can handle the fire between us, too. But what I don’t think I’ll survive is your hate.”

Lachlan stepped toward me, taking my face between his hands. “You’ve overlooked the blood drenching my past, Valor. I most certainly can overlook yours.” Tears rolled down my cheeks, my heart swelling. He swiped them away with his thumbs. “Talk to me. Let me help you carry this weight that is threatening to crush you.”

I leaned into his touch. “My mother was killed by a vampire. Did I ever tell you that?”

He shook his head, continuing to hold me.

“I was nine, and I loved her more than anything in the entire world. She was good. Everything good in me came from her.” The pain in my chest screeched with the words. “And it was so easy to hate vampires after that. So easy to buy into everything my father and the Sons preached. Because a vampire had taken my world from me, and in my mind, that made you all vicious, soulless creatures.”

“And as I grew older,” I continued. “There was a time where I dedicated everything to thinking up new ways to kill your kind. I used countless resources at my disposal to streamline research into ancient ways to hurt vampires. Not just kill them. The hate and grief in me urged me to take revenge in the most brutal way possible. For a time, I actually thought my mother would be proud of me.” I shook my head, and Lachlan let his hands fall to his sides. “I finally snapped out of my own darkness—it was like waking up from a nightmare. But the damage had been done.”

“Valor,” Lachlan whispered. “What did you do?”

I straightened my spine, the weight lessening with each word I spoke. “It was my research, my resources, that helped uncover and weaponize Night Thistle.” Lachlan flinched, and I held back more tears. “And…my research, the plans I had for future advances on weaponizing the poison went even further than what the Sons have now. I have no doubt they’re using what I started to continue the project. That’s why they want me dead. Not only because of my traitor status but because of what I know about their weapons. All the information I can give you about how to defend against it.”

Lachlan stepped away until the back of his knees hit the chair, and he sank into it. “You kept this from me—”

“I was afraid,” I cut him off, frozen to the spot where I stood. “I didn’t want to drive you away from me. It hurt too much…even when I hated you, I wanted you. And I couldn’t stand the thought of you hating me anymore than you already did. But now…things have shifted between us. I know we’re not accepted mates, but we’ve become…”