Original Sin (The Order of Vampires 1)

He didn’t raise his voice and she almost trusted his promise not to hurt her, but something terrifying hid in his eyes. “Or what?”

Something shifted between them as she called what she hoped was a bluff. His nostrils flared and he rolled to his back. “If there’s not honesty between us, we have nothing. You may leave.”

Chapter Twenty

Annalise balked. “What? All this and you’re suddenly going to let me just walk out the door?” What the fuck was going on? “This has to be a dream.”

“It feels more like a nightmare,” he said, in a voice so defeated she stilled, one foot already on the ground.

She glanced over her shoulder. His hands folded across his broad chest, fingers entwined as he stared at the ceiling. His jaw ticked with tension and his brow furrowed.

It wasn’t fair for him to make her feel guilty when he was the one who brought her here against her will. Was this how Stockholm syndrome started?

She forced her other foot to the ground, but found it impossible to stand. Damn it. What was wrong with her? This was her chance. Her freedom.

Move your ass, Anna!

She looked back at him again and an inexplicable ache formed in her chest. No! She would not take pity on him. She was not that girl!

She swallowed against a lump in her throat and stood. He wouldn’t look at her.

She glanced at the door. Should she just go? How far would she get? Her fingers brushed the knob and she hesitated.

The pitch-black sky would make it impossible to see. Without her phone, she had no clue which direction was home. Back roads would form a labyrinth and she didn’t have shoes or clothes.

She was making excuses.

This was what she wanted. She’d finally worn him down. So what the hell was this wretched ache in her chest anchoring her to this unending nightmare?

“Adam?”

When he didn’t answer, she approached the bed. Looking down, she read the stricken expression that tightened the skin around his eyes and mouth. She shouldn’t care. He kidnapped her.

But when his gaze turned to her she sucked in a breath, suffering his sadness as if it were her own. In an almost spiritual jolt, she took a clipped step back.

The sensation wouldn’t break. It knifed through her. Hopeless surrender. Defeated optimism. Grieving faith.

She’d only felt something similar to it once before in her life. It had been a pain so acute and damaging, so irreversibly sad she had no idea how she’d ever survive it. That had been the day her mother died.

It made absolutely no sense why she’d feel something similar now. But these weren’t her feelings. They were his. As if a valve had turned, they flowed into her, battering her insides and triggering an excruciating wave of empathy.

Her hand pressed to her chest. “I ... feel your pain. How is that possible?”

He shut his eyes and the connection severed. She wobbled back a step and caught her breath.

“What was that?”

“A slip. I apologize. My faculties aren’t what they usually are.”

She frowned, not understanding his meaning. “But I felt you. How could you feel so much when we don’t even know each other?”

“You haven’t been listening, Anna. Our souls were made as one, divided and lost until now. I’ve been trying to explain it to you, but you’ve been too angry to listen.”

She frowned. “But you haven’t explained anything. No one has. Everyone just keeps telling me to trust you.”

“And so you should,” he snapped, eyes hard. His brow softened. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to lose my temper, but I never expected this amount of complication. I did everything I was told, but even when you hand over the reins I feel you fighting me. You have the nature of an unbroken mare.”

She scrunched her face. “I could do without the comparison to farm animals.”

“Do you see? Even now, you make jokes.”

“Adam, I make jokes so I don’t cry. Believe me, nothing about this is funny.”

He exhaled and scrubbed his face with his palms. “I’m running out of time.”

“Time for what?”

He looked up at her and the sharp sorrow was back, stealing her breath. She had no power here, yet he suddenly seemed the fragile one.

“Adam, tell me what you’re hiding. You want my honesty? Earn it. Be honest with me first.”

“I’m dying.”

His words pierced whatever fantasy protected her and her entire existence jerked with sharp awareness. As if an umbrella had been sheltering her all this time, she was suddenly doused with truth. And without knowing why, she felt a strange tie to his mortality, as if responsible for his life or his death.

“Have you seen a doctor?”

“There’s nothing to be done.”

That couldn’t be true. He just didn’t understand the advanced technologies available. “Adam, there are great hospitals out there.”

“They can’t help me.”

And he called her stubborn? “How do you know? Have you tried visiting an actual doctor?”