Alaric
“Where are you taking me?”
Lilith’s voice is small, soft, and yet steady. She isn’t pale. Her skin isn’t clammy.
Soon, after we get out of the elevator, I’ll set her down and check her pulse properly. But everything I see so far tells me it won’t be racing or fading beneath my fingers either.
Thank fuck.
If I hadn’t woken up, things might have taken a dark, terrible turn.
She wasn’t going to stop until she had my name carved into her abdomen.
Which, on its own, would’ve been a good thing. The best.
The possessive side of me still wants that, even now, when I’m aware that another inch and—
No, I’m not going to go there. Won’t entertain it, because it wouldn’t have happened.
Our love story wasn’t meant to end before it started.
She’s mine. No matter what, she’s mine.
That realization has been creeping into my consciousness for the past twenty-four hours. Throughout the time I’ve had her in my apartment.
What sealed it for good, though, was the sight of her blood. Of her unhinged obsession mirroring mine.
The shock hit so hard it cut through the haze in my head. My vision cleared, and I finally saw what Lilith had been trying to tell me all along.
She loves me, no matter what.
“To my storage unit.” I kiss her forehead before going back to watching her wound.
The bleeding has slowed, so it no longer seeps beneath her palm. She’s fine.
She’s fine.
She is fine.
“Why?” Her finger taps against my bare chest, pulling my attention back to her face. Her brow scrunches. “I already know your secret.”
“Yes, you do.”
The building’s security doesn’t. I sneak a glance up at the elevator’s camera before giving Lilith a meaningful look.
“Oh.” Her eyes widen, and she pinches her lips into a fine line that soon curves into a smile. “Sorry.”
God, she’s beautiful.
“I already told you, don’t apologize.” Despite cradling her to my chest, I feel like she’s miles away. I hug her tighter, reveling in her warmth. “I have medical equipment there. You need suturing, and the first-aid kit I have at home won’t cut it.”
“Of course.” She nods vehemently, her long locks grazing my arm. My cock jerks at the sensation. “Any doctor would have them stored close to home.”
The things she’s saying, though simple, are like a beacon in the dark. She does more than accept me.
Lilith is my partner in crime. A willing one.
“Exactly.” I stroke her waist with my thumb. “Any doctor.”
Ping.
The elevator announces our arrival at B1. In large strides, I eat up the distance to my storage unit. Once we’re there, I place Lilith carefully on the floor, make sure she’s standing on her own two feet, then reach for my sweatpants pocket.
“How did you get in, by the way?” I ask as I unlock the door. “The lock was supposed to be nearly impossible to pick.”
Her cheeks flush red. “I told you I’m not a good person, which is why—”
“Careful.” The warning is a joke, but it also isn’t.
No one gets to talk about her like that. Herself included.
She lets out a short, sweet laugh that reaches straight to my core.
The moment is ruined as soon as I open the door.
“Mmm.” Fraser’s groaning is weaker than before.
It might have something to do with how I haven’t fed or changed him today.
“Your spare keys, I duplicated them,” she says as I lock up behind me and guide her farther inside, completely ignoring my test subject. “And, um…”
With her hand covering her wound, Lilith ambles toward the table. I’m right there alongside her, my hand on the small of her back. A territorial gesture. A protective one.
“Yes?” I prod.
“You’ll need to get someone here to fix this.” She points at one of the walls, then grabs the duct tape from the table. “I mean, I taped it from the other side, but better safe than sorry.”
“Taped what?” My eyes narrow as she drags me toward the wall.
“My peephole.”
It’s then that I see it. A tiny hole.
“You…” I can’t help it. The corners of my lips quirk. I run a hand over my face and let out a huff of a laugh. “You broke in there to spy on me?”
“I wasn’t lying.” A smile curls her lips up when she hands me the duct tape roll. “I’ve been stalking you.”
Despite how urgent it is that I suture her wound, I wrap my fingers around the back of her neck and lean in for a kiss. Our lips mate, and it’s intense. It’s right.
It’s home.
Too soon, and to the sounds of Fraser’s mmms, I pull away, then tape the hole shut.
In a couple of days, when this fucker and his stench are gone, I’ll do as Lilith suggested and have someone patch it up.
With that settled, I’m going to take care of what’s truly important—tending to her wound. My hand is curled around her waist as we head to my cabinet.
There, I pull out a large towel and spread it out on the floor behind Fraser.
“You’re really not upset?” She runs a soothing hand through my hair after we’re both seated on the towel, a bottle of antiseptic, gauze pads, and a small suturing kit waiting to my right. “About anything?”
“I told you once, and I’ll keep saying it until you believe me.” I brace her back and ease her down. “I’m fucking flattered.”
“Good.”
When she lifts her hand to reach for my cheek, I grab it and kiss her wrist.
I love kissing her, sure.
Right now, though, I need to check her pulse.
And it’s…within range.
Thank fucking fuck.
What’s left to worry about is suturing her cut.
Unlike the botched job I did on Fraser, I take my time with Lilith. I irrigate the wound thoroughly before I sterilize it, my hands steady as I guide the needle in slow, precise passes. Each stitch is spaced, clean, and even.
In a few days, when I remove them, there won’t be an ugly ridge left behind. I won’t allow it.
Everything about Lilith is perfect. This scar will be too.
Once the sutures are set and I dress her in one of the spare sweatshirts and pairs of sweatpants I have down here, she sits on the blanket, cross-legged and beautiful.
“I’ll walk you upstairs now,” I say.
“Hmm.” The sassy woman she is, she cocks an eyebrow. “Is that a code for something?”
“No.” I laugh, my thumb smoothing over her cheek. “You need rest, and I need to run to the pharmacy to get you antibiotics. Then…” I jerk my chin to Fraser. “He’s served his purpose.”
“Mmm! Mmm!”
“No, no, and nope.” The p pops from her lips.
It’s so sweet that I have to kiss them. I grab her face, lowering mine to hers.
I’m inches from her mouth.
Then she pulls away.
“We’re in this together.” Her lips press into a fine line. “I don’t want you to forget that. You’re not alone anymore. Not an outcast.”
I’m not sure if happiness is the right word for what I’m feeling.
Whatever it is, it’s pretty damn close.
More importantly, it stays. It’s there when I help Lilith get up, when I explain and demonstrate how to choke a person in the most efficient way.
She listens, nods, and kills Fraser with her gloved hands that don’t shiver in the slightest. Her belief in what I’m doing—what we’re doing now—is so deep that she just leans into it.
She accepts that part of her, and so do I.
That’s why both of us fall easily into this dynamic, into Lilith’s new role as an active participant and not just an observer.
Together, we get to work, chopping fingers, pulling teeth, and searching for birthmarks and moles. Her concentrated expression and little gasps of joy as she puts everything into it pull at my heartstrings.
They also serve as a slap in the face.
I’d been so wrapped up in my know-it-all doctor bullshit, so certain I knew what was best for her, that I only made things worse.
By taking away her ability to choose, I turned into the very thing I hate.
It doesn’t matter that I did it with her best interests in mind. I fucked up.
Faintly, in the background, the sound of the tin top closing over the barrel pulls me out of my thoughts.
Lilith moves gracefully through the small space, her gloves off now, her eyes gleaming. My hands are glove-free too, which makes it easier to curl a hand around the side of her neck.
To feel her pulse. Her warmth.
She’s alive and mine.
Everything and everyone else can burn to the ground.
“All done.” That brilliant grin, those perfect pearly whites, steal my breath right out of my lungs.
To think I’ve dimmed her light for over a day now. That I would’ve kept doing it if she hadn’t endangered her life.
For me.
I’m such an idiot. The worst kind.
“Alaric?” The heat of her palms on my cheeks pushes a growl out of me. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry.” Without thinking, I yank her close, devouring her mouth. “I’m so fucking sorry, little devil.” Another kiss, followed by three more. “I should’ve listened. Should’ve realized sooner that if anyone could get me, it would be you. Only you.”
“There’s nothing to get.” Our foreheads are pressed together when she slides her hands into my hair. I love how her nails dig into my scalp. “I’ve loved you for who you are from day one. Nothing’s changed. Or, wait. One thing has.”
My lungs deflate as I wait for the other shoe to drop. The but I’ve been dreading.
“What thing?”
“You’re more perfect than I thought.”
Light explodes from within me, washing away the dirt, guilt, and rot that have been growing inside me for years.
Lilith is that light.
She’s that fire that cleanses me, that gives new meaning to my life.
“Fuck, I love you,” I growl before tilting her beautiful face, stealing those lips that eagerly part for me. “I. Love. You.”
“I love you too.”
She smiles. She cries. She lets me hold her until her tears run dry. She lets me keep kissing her until it feels like we’re floating, like our souls bind together in a way that is uniquely ours.
Then, when we’re back in our bodies, we pack Fraser up. Dress in clean clothes.
And head out to dump him down the Hudson River.