Chapter 29
29
V anessa sat on the two-seater sofa in the office where she’d told Cole the truth about her and her family. She was curled up, her arms hugging her knees, tears streaming down her face in little rivulets. The red color of her tears stained her top, but she didn’t care. Cole didn’t love her enough to accept her the way she was. Nothing mattered now. She’d lost. She was the first and only hybrid among her friends who’d been rejected by her mate.
Everything had been perfect between them. He’d accepted that they were both satyrs, and that fact had given her hope that he would also accept that she was a vampire. But she’d been wrong. He hated vampires. And why wouldn’t he? A vampire had nearly killed him. He was traumatized. She should have waited longer, until his love for her was stronger. Maybe then, he would have accepted that she was a vampire. She’d rushed it. It was her own fault.
A shudder wracked her frame, and with it came another wave of tears. She almost didn’t hear the door opening.
“Nessie.” It was Ethan.
He rushed to her, and put his arms around her, hugging her to him. “I was told that Cole was seen leaving the garage without you.”
She briefly lifted her head, looking into her brother’s eyes. “He didn’t want me. He hates vampires. He hates me.”
“He doesn’t hate you,” Ethan protested, his voice soft and beseeching. “I saw how he reacted, when you tried to shield him from the rogue. He wanted to protect you. It’s his instinct. You’re his mate.”
Vanessa shook her head. “He’s rejected me. He sees vampires only as evil and violent. I didn’t even get the chance to tell him what it is like between mates.” She sniffled. “I love him, Ethan. I’ve never felt like this for anybody.”
“I know, Nessie, I know.” Ethan pressed a kiss into her hair, and stroked his hand over her back, comforting her. “Just give him some time. I know he’ll come back. I saw how he looked at you. He loves you.”
“He doesn’t love the vampire in me.”
Ethan put his fingers under her chin and forced her to look at him. “Sis, I promise you he will come back to you.”
She doubted it. Cole had made his choice.
“In the meantime, how about I drive you home, and you’ll rest a little?” he suggested.
Wordlessly, she nodded and rose. Her vision was tinted and blurry from the tears. Ethan took her by the hand, and ushered her out of the office. A couple of minutes later, they sat in a Scanguards-owned SUV, and Ethan drove out of the garage.
In the interior of the car it was stifling hot. She reached for the temperature dial on the dashboard and turned it all the way down, then hit the air conditioning button. Cool air blasted toward her, but it wasn’t enough to cool down the car.
Ethan glanced at her, and pressed the back of his fingers to her left cheek. “Fuck, you’re burning up. Are you going into heat?”
Vanessa didn’t answer. Instead, she lowered the window, hoping the cool night air would help. It didn’t. She had to admit it. She was going into heat, and there was nothing she could do to alleviate her condition.
“I’m gonna drive you straight to Cole’s.”
“No!” Vanessa protested, clamping her hand over his wrist to prevent him from turning the steering wheel to make a turn. “I don’t want his pity.”
“Damn it, Nessie, you need sex now. So if you don’t want me to bring you to Cole, then I’m bringing you to Vera’s. She can give you one of her clients.”
“I’m not gonna have sex with anybody else.” She wanted only Cole’s hands on her, his cocks inside her. She didn’t want mindless sex with a stranger just because she was in heat. She would get through this.
“Nessie, be reasonable. You have to have sex.”
“No, I can get through this. Just take me home. Please. It’ll pass,” she lied, even though she knew that it was only going to get worse over the next few hours, until she would reach the peak of this cycle, and her feverish state would break. She would survive the pain.
Ethan looked at her, but he continued driving toward home. “Maybe call him, and try to explain things to him over the phone. He’ll have to listen.”
“He’s made his choice. I’m not gonna turn into some crazy stalker and hound him about changing his mind about me. It would only prove his point.”
“What point?”
“That he has reason to be afraid of vampires.”
“Are you saying you think he’s afraid of you?”
“You didn’t see how he looked at me.” She turned her head away and looked out at the houses they were passing. “As if I was an apex-predator. And he was the prey. And he hasn’t even seen me in my vampire form.” She whipped her head back to her brother. “What then? What happens when he sees me with glowing red eyes, my fingers turning into claws, my fangs extended? He’ll run. Or worse, he’ll grab a stake and kill me.”
“It’s never gonna come to that,” Ethan insisted. “Just look at it this way. It’s not easy for a man to accept that the woman he loves is stronger and more powerful than him. He’s not used to that. I mean he’s a big guy, and probably never had to be afraid of anybody. And suddenly you tell him that you’re stronger than him, when he thought he had to protect you . That could confuse anyone.”
“He didn’t look confused. He looked betrayed.” And hurt.
Ethan pulled up in front of their parents’ house and turned to look at her. “You need to talk to him.”
“I can’t. It won’t change anything. I can’t force somebody to love me. That’s not how it works.”
“But he needs to see your side, and he can only see that if you talk to him.”
More tears rose to the surface, and ran down her cheeks in a steady stream. Through her blurry vision, she looked at her brother and shook her head. “No. It’s over.” She reached for the door handle and opened the car door.
Vanessa hurried up the stairs to the entrance door, wanting nothing more than to crawl into a corner and stay there until she couldn’t feel anything anymore. Her hand shook when she unlocked the front door and opened it. Inside, it was quiet. Upstairs, in her room, she switched on the lights and headed straight for the shower, undressing on the way and leaving her clothes where they fell on the floor. She turned on the water in the shower, and stepped into the spray of the cold water, hoping it would cool down her body and distract her from the pain in her heart and her body. The pain of losing Cole.