Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
"I would never."
"Well, you did. Twice now," I snap before pushing on his chest, but he doesn't budge.
"You did like two seconds ago," Xavier chuckles.
"I wasn't rejecting her," Latham snaps, turning his face toward him.
"She reached for you, idiot, and you pulled away from her. What else is she supposed to think?" Blaine says before folding his arms across his broad chest.
Latham blinks twice before looking down at me beneath him.
"I wasn't rejecting you. That's not what I was doing. It's not safe. I am not like them."
I scoff, pushing on his chest again. "It's fine, Latham, just move. I will stay and shower here. Just let me up."
"I wasn't rejecting you. I am trying to protect you, Arabella. Why would you think that?"
"Because one minute you say you want to be with me, yet you shy away when I try to touch you."
"No, I don't," he growls, his eyes flickering.
"Yes, you do. Don't deny it. You just did it, and you call me a liar."
"Wanting you is not something I have ever lied about. I am not a liar." His words twist in anger, and his body trembles above me.
"Hey, calm down," Xavier says, gripping his shoulder.
Latham closes his eyes. He appears to be fighting some inner battle I can't see.
"Don't think that. I have my reasons, Arabella.
You just don't understand," Latham says before pinching the bridge of his nose and letting out a breath.
"I have trouble with control. They are young and have issues with control because they become jealous and want your attention; mine stems from a different reason.
I don't want to put you at risk. Just trust I have my reasons. "
"Then explain them. I can't read your mind, Latham."
"No, but I can read yours, and you lied to me. You were still planning on going to work even after I said you weren't going. I won't lie to you, so don't lie to me."
"Then don't keep things from me, Latham. If you don't want to be with me, don't pretend otherwise."
'I never said I didn't want to be with you, Arabella, but it is harder for me."
"Why? Why is it harder, then”?” I tell him shoving him, and he growls menacingly.
I see Blaine and Xavier step toward him.
"Because I will want to kill you! There is a chance I will," he yells in my face, and I flinch.
"What? But you said it's just an instinct all demons have," I stammer out, my hands shaking against his chest.
The aura erupting off him is ice-cold and so thick it threatens to suffocate me.
“I am not like them, Arabella. I need time to adjust; you are human.
I won't kill them. I recognize my own. You, however, I may not.
It's what killed Myra. I brought her back, and I couldn't recognize her.
She changed when I brought her back, and I still killed her even knowing it was her. She still died by my hands."
"Not just yours, Latham," Blaine snarls behind him.
"The blame doesn't entirely rest on you," Xavier adds.
"It does. I trusted him," Latham bellows, and I whimper at the pure rage radiating off of him.
"Leviathan betrayed you. It is on him. He betrayed you, Latham. Promised to help keep her safe. We aren't him, and we will keep our word. You are both safe in our hands," Blaine roars at him.
The energy in the room promises violence, the room heating up, and my throat restricts at the tension, and I fight the urge to run.
"Who is Leviathan?" I stammer out, trying to divert his attention away from Blaine as he glares at him.
"He is my twin," Latham says. "He is a possessor; he betrayed me because my father chose me over him."
"You have a brother?" I ask, and he sighs while nodding his head.
"Yes, he was jealous. I didn't realize how deep his envy went, not until he let me kill her."
"But you said you brought her back and that she changed?"
"I did bring her back after she had an accident. I fed her vampire blood when she agreed to be my mate. Leviatham killed her for me because I couldn't do it. I loved her, and then I killed her. I couldn't stop myself."
"Why would you give her vampire blood and have Leviathan, your brother, kill her?"
"To make her immortal, only when she changed, her scent changed.
Everything about her was heightened. I wanted to bind her soul to me, and I did before I devoured hers and killed her.
Leviathan said he would stop me if I got carried away, but he left, he walked out, and I consumed her, trapping her in hell forever . "
I try to let his words soak in and understand what he is telling me, yet it sounds so far-fetched.
"You trapped her in hell?"
Latham nods and pushes off the bed to stand up.
"Yes, and I will never forgive myself for it. Hell was no place for Myra, only for those deserving, and now she will spend eternity suffering in the underworld."
"If it is only for those deserving, how would she end up in hell?" I ask, confused.
Isn't that a place for sinners? A place only the worst people go?
"It doesn't matter. I will be more careful with you. I won't make the same mistake," he answers.
I look to Blaine, second-guessing about tying myself to them. "So all it takes is for one of you to get carried away, and I will be stuck in some underworld?"
"No, we can kill you but not trap you in the underworld. Only Latham can do that. He is the Prince of Darkness."
"So, you are like the devil?" I ask, and Latham chuckles.
"No, that is my father."
I am stunned; I know they are demons, but this is insane even to me.
"But you just said—"
"He is the grim reaper Ari, the executioner, the Prince of Death."
My heart lurches and beats frantically in my chest at Blaine's words.