Chapter 31 #2
I closed the bathroom door on his murmur of a reply and cranked the shower as hot as it could go. The blazing onslaught of water did nothing to purge the dueling thoughts of two women in my mind, all of which meant nothing in the frigid shadow of my own disownment from the Reyes family.
* * *
Lazaro Reyes
It was a wonder my icy demeanor throughout the entirety of Selena’s party didn’t turn the witches’ opinion against me. That they didn’t call it all off only worsened my mood. I should have just let the Hunter kill me.
Selena flitted around like a blackbird between her guests, and so she hardly spent enough time in my presence to notice that anything might be troubling me.
I would have welcomed Peter’s sodden company, even, but he had either never come out from hiding in the guest room, or if he had, he’d slipped out of the house before I noticed.
I clung like a shadow to a corner among other vampire acquaintances, and as long as I ignored their smirks and whispers, I was left unbothered.
I paid little attention when Selena announced to the crowd that her hour was nearing.
The only relief that came from it was the guests oozing away from my overfilled house like the lancing of an infected wound.
I managed polite and businesslike farewells in return to any given to me, and I even mustered a small amount of warmth for the witches closest to Selena who lingered longest. I gave my fiancée privacy to speak freely with her mother and aunts and retired to our bedroom.
I poured myself a drink or two and settled my restless body in a padded chair near the built-in bookshelves.
“Are you nervous, my love?” Her voice was soft and worn with excessive use that night. She slipped off her heels and her dress, favoring me with just a glance before her undergarments came off, too.
“Not at all, my sweet.” I took a slow drink of the newly opened mezcal that some guest had gifted me during the party.
A bribe, perhaps, or a favor to stand out.
I couldn’t remember which vampire had handed it over, but he’d find out soon enough what a wasteful gesture it had been.
My thoughts drifted back to the present when the shower started in the adjoining bathroom.
It was inching towards 3 AM, which meant Selena’s perfect 15-minute window in which the stars and planets aligned to make for a bountiful rebirth would be here soon.
I would be responsible for turning my first vampire tonight, and it would be the woman I loved.
I repeated the statement in my mind over and over, hoping to make it fit in place and feel more real.
My gaze was locked on the door leading out of the bedroom when Selena emerged from the steamy bathroom wearing her black silk robe. I nearly choked on the sip of liquor that seeped down towards my lungs after a gasp. Her hair was a chin-length bob now that she’d presumably cut herself.
“What do you think?” She shook her head, making it bounce. She checked her phone, likely for the time, then put it back on her nightstand.
“You look adorable.”
She straddled my lap, and I stroked her hair.
Already, she looked so different. I set down my glass and memorized her features, those eyes so dark they were nearly black, big and round in the deep sockets, her soft cheeks, round bottom lip, dainty chin, the nose she wrongly despised.
Selena Castillo was perfection. She was everything I’d ever wanted.
This was everything I’d wanted, and more than I deserved after my failures.
“I wanted to wear my marks like jewelry.” She skimmed sensual fingers over the soft skin of her exposed neck.
My hand went there, and I marveled at its warmth. I’d begun taking it for granted, and this was the last time I’d feel it before I drained that vitality from her.
Selena pressed her lips to mine while she spoke.
“Are you ready, mi amor? To be together forever?” Her body melted into mine, and she tilted her head to present her neck.
Every instinct I had should have made it almost impossible to stop myself from drinking from her eager throat.
I closed my eyes and buried my nose into her heated scent.
I kissed her skin, but my jaw wouldn’t open. I was shaking.
This was all that goddamned Hunter’s fault. Her intrusion into my thoughts clenched my jaw tighter.
“Do you want to lie on the bed?” I asked. I needed to stretch and release the tension in my shoulders.
Selena giggled. “Baby, I don’t care,” she whined. “Fine.” She pranced over to the bed, but my body was too heavy to move. The traitorous thoughts were slamming against my skull like that tell-tale heart.
I couldn’t do this.
It was a punch harder than any that Hunter landed tonight. I might have even made a sound.
“Lazaro.” Selena’s flare of anger was a slap across the face, and all I could do was look up at her guiltily from my chair. She already knew. “What’s wrong with you? It’s time! You have to turn me.”
Her sharp little limbs were back in my lap.
Her ghostly eyes searched me. I was 200 years old, and I couldn’t make myself talk.
How was I supposed to even think, though?
The entire foundation of my life had slid right out from under me tonight, and I had nothing to soften the impact of the fall that would come. I was mute as a frightened child.