That makes the bile rise in his throat. He is about to turn from her, unable to look at her after this, w

hen she speaks again, her voice cracking with intense emotion, and it makes his heart break for her.

“Delinda,” she whispers. “I am no longer like her.”

Oh. He gets it. He thinks.

Dracul takes her hand. “Do not worry about that right now,” he says. “You are alive and well.”

“I want her to come home,” she wails. “Please bring her to me.”

Dracul pauses. “I think, under the circumstances, she is better off where she is,” he says eventually.

“Bring her to me!” Aefre demands, giving him a cold glare.

“Aefre, my sweet. I think Dracul is subtly trying to tell you something. Listen to him,” Constantine says, attempting to be gentle with her. He cannot imagine how it must feel to her to have lost half of herself. For real this time.

Her cold glare lands on him and he cringes. He has voiced exactly what she did not want to.

“What are you saying?” she barks at him. “That I am now incapable of protecting my daughter?” The ice in her tone makes him shiver. He will pay for that later; he has no doubt.

“Of course not,” he says soothingly. “But, perhaps Delinda is better off somewhere safe and secure until we figure this out.”

“Figure this out? Figure this out!” she screams at him. “I am dead!”

Everyone just stares at her in anguished silence.

“Part of me is dead,” she corrects herself. “The biggest part.”

“You are still you,” he says, taking her hand again. She lets him, thank the gods. If she had rejected him it would’ve killed him.

She heaves a sigh and her eyes go back to Carlotta, who is looking at her in glee. Her face changes as soon as everyone stares at her and she shifts uncomfortably against the wall where she is hiding in the shadows.

“Leave!” Aefre yells at her. “You are not welcome here.”

“I cannot go anywhere,” Carlotta says. “It is daylight out. Besides, I was offered a safe haven. I will be killed if I Ieave these premises.”

“And?” Aefre growls at her, standing up. “You know too much.”

“I can keep a secret,” Carlotta smirks at her.

Frederick growls at her and takes a menacing step forward. But he stops when Aefre gives him a look.

It annoys Constantine that she has that power over him. Still.

“No, you can’t!” Aefre screams at her. “Not to save your own damn life!”

“Aefre…perhaps we should…”

“Do not defend her again!” She rounds on him and he holds his hands up in defeat. She will do whatever she will do now, and he won’t stop her. Not again. It is not worth the effort of her temper.

“All I am saying is that she knows you are no longer half-Dragon. Perhaps she is better kept in the fold,” he says quietly.

Aefre closes her eyes and takes in a deep breath. When she opens them again, she is looking at Dracul. “If you will not bring me my daughter, at least give me my sire back.”

It stabs Constantine through the heart. She couldn’t have asked for anything worse, in his opinion.

“Aefre,” Dracul says. “I am not purposely keeping her from you. I just think…”

Tags: Eve Newton Fantasy
Source: readsnovelonline.net