Chapter 33 #2
I looked from Jack to Warren, seeing the crazed look in my paramour’s eyes. Jack, recognition flashing on his face, stepped back, but not before a warning growl erupted from Warren’s lips.
“War…” I said gently, holding onto his back.
Warren ripped free, breaking my grip on him, shoving me away. Beneath the wild way he was staring between us, I could see his face contort with betrayal. I held my hand out, but he smacked it away, keeping his gaze on Jack.
He snarled, his fangs on full display, keeping that deadly gleam. “This is why you’re leaving me? You’re choosing some random ass over me?”
“Mon cher, you know that’s not true. Jack is one of my—”
“ONE OF?” Warren screamed, hitting my chest. “You bastard! You fucking kill the dude I want to blow off steam with, but you’re out here with an entire whorehouse!?”
Jack stepped forward, putting his arms up between us. I cursed, knowing that chaos would ensue. “Look, friend, you have this wrong.”
Warren’s eyes shifted, darkening as he looked at Jack’s arm touching my chest. I had never seen him like this, so completely filled with rage.
It was so unlike him that it took me aback, and I wondered if I had caused this in him.
Had I ruined all the good in him? I did not think that was possible, but it only confirmed to me that my influence on him was detrimental.
If I stayed, it would worsen him, and there would be no point of return.
I would ruin the very thing that made me fall in love with him.
“Get your hand off me before I rip it off!”
“Hey, there’s no need for that,” Jack said calmly, trying to ease Warren’s craze. But he did not know Warren as I did, could not see the clear warning in my lover’s face.
Warren hissed, grabbing Jack’s arm and twisting it until his bone snapped. Jack shrieked and staggered back, holding his arm to his chest. I could see the anger in his face, the urge to fight back almost taking over, but he would not lay a hand on Warren when I’d claimed him as mine.
Warren, however, was not so considerate.
He leapt at Jack again, shoving me to the side. Jack dodged to the side, falling into another vampire who hissed. I grabbed Warren, throwing my arms around his chest to keep him pinned against my body. “You have this wrong, War. Tu dois te calmer!”
Thrashing against me, Warren fought to get loose. I used all my strength to hold on, but he was alarmingly strong. Something was wrong with him; he was not himself.
While I was holding him back, the party around us had shifted, turning into complete havoc.
The small commotion had been enough to break the peace treaty Lena had implemented; vampires were now draining humans and fighting with one another.
I watched in horror as ornaments were shattered and blood was spilled.
Bodies began to drop around us, the human blood spilled, throwing even the most controlled vampire into a frenzy. Warren continued to fight against me until he managed to gain some purchase, shifting enough that he could elbow me in the stomach hard enough to loosen my grip.
“Leave, Levette! Just go. You said you won’t beg me to love you, but I won’t beg you to stay.” There was a coldness to his tone that I had never heard from him before, and it made my entire body feel wrong. This was the man I loved with my all, yet his usual self seemed to have vanished completely.
“Warren, stop this. This isn’t you,” I pleaded, reaching out to him.
Warren stepped further back, glancing towards Jack who stood behind me, his broken arm beginning to heal. He shook his head, that fierce anger snapping back into place.
“Maybe not, or maybe you just do not know me anymore.” He reached out beside him, grabbing a human woman as she screamed.
Keeping his eyes on me, Warren tore into her throat and drank before letting her slump at his feet.
“Either way, I think I like this version of myself. It feels good not to care. I’m damned anyway, right? Might as well enjoy the ride to Hell.”
I winced at his words, knowing that my Warren was still there, just buried deep down. He was hurting and saying things he didn’t mean or believe. I hoped that his God would forgive him for that.
“Boss, we have to go,” Jack warned. “Look around.”
I closed my eyes, hearing the turmoil around us. I tried to hone in on Lena, see if I could find her scent in the crowd, but that crafty little witch was probably cloaking herself.
“I can’t leave him like this!”
Jack shook my shoulder roughly, trying to snap me out of my daze. “You can’t stay either! He’ll kill everyone here just to prove his point to you.”
He had a point, and I knew that I should listen. My feet were struggling to move, and I stayed still, watching as Warren continued to terrorize the poor humans left alive.
I love you, Warren. Do not lose yourself because of me.
I turned on my heel and pushed through the bodies, the onslaught of tears finally breaking free.
It wasn’t until I reached my apartment that I fell to my knees and screamed until my throat was raw, praying that my love hadn’t ruined him.
Perhaps without me, he would return to himself, and salvation would await him with open arms.
“Please, God, do not leave him like I have to.”