Chapter 0139
That explains Willow’s behavior at the picnic after I made that thoughtless joke about finding my own feeder. Even if it has been a century, some wounds don’t heal for the longest time. No wonder she looks so uncomfortable around me. She probably thinks Lex and I are friends. I need to apologize to her for my careless behavior.
I thank Kane for his help and leave him to look for Willow. It’s getting late, but I have heard from the servants that she likes to stay late in the library most of the night. I’m not disappointed when I find her shelving books in a comer. She stiffens when she hears me coming towards her.
“Good evening.” I say, contritely.
“Good evening,” she replies, without looking at me. She focuses on shelving. “May I help you with something? I’m about to close up here.”
1 came to apologize.”
She stops, holding a book in her hands, clutching it like a lifeline. “What are you apologizing for?”
“I’m apologizing for my behavior earlier, I was careless with my words. It’s no excuse, but I had forgotten about your past, and I didn’t think about how my joke would land.”
She finally looks at me, her blue eyes wide in disbelief. You forgot my past?”
Embarrassment makes me want to hunch my shoulders like I’m some adolescent boy. I run a hand through my dark, curly hair
“I don’t have the best memory,” I admit. “I forgot you used to be a feeder.”
“How?” she asks. “How could you forget?”
“I remember the situation with Lex, but I forgot the details. We never really interacted before recently, so it just slipped my mind.”
“Slipped your mind?” She drops the book back on the cart. Her eyes close as if she is trying to control her emotions. “You just forgot everything?”
“Just the stuff with Lex turning you. I’m sorry. It must not have been a good memory for you.”
Her eyes open, and they’re twin blue flames of anger. “You forgot what you used to do to me?”
I blink. My mind goes blank in shock. “What I used to do to you?”
Her entire body is shaking, her voice rising as she exclaims, “You fed on me!”
“I did?”
“Don’t you look and pretend to be so innocent!” she screeches. “You fed on me the most. You and Lex. Sometimes, you’d come down to the dungeons together, and you’d drain my blood into a cup and share it. You never took enough to kill me, but it was close. You were always on the verge of killing me, but neither of you had the mercy to end things and finally free me from that living hell.”
I think back and I have faint memories of being blood drunk, I remember frightened hazel eyes and long. brown hair. I remember the taste of her blood. There’s never been anythingn like it–before or after. Her
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Chapter 0139
blood tasted sweet and powerful with magic. I used to feel like I could fly when I had her blood on my tongue. It was the only time I’d ever go anywhere with Lex. Both of us agreed to put our differences aside for a taste of that magical blood.
I look at her face, glowing with anger and Indignation, and all the puzzle pieces snap into place. “That was you?”
“Yes, Rainer,” she spits my
careless and drank too me like a curse. “That was me you fed on again and again until Lex got too
careless and drank too much. He turned me into one of you, and then you both forgot about me like I never existed.”
There are flashes of more moments–Willow in my arms as I carry her up the stairs to the healer, bite marks on her neck, her wrist, and her thighs. Her fair skin with a trail of bite marks. She lay still in a dirty gown, unable to move, her hazel eyes glassy with tears!
I struggle to say anything. I was the one who brought her to the healers to try to save her life. But I shouldn’t have let Lex do that. I’d rushed in just in time to keep him from draining her. She must not recall that, and I won’t tell her now. “I didn’t…”
“Didn’t what?”
“I didn’t know that was you.” I’d been under the impression that human had died
Her pretty face twists into a sneer. “Well, now you know. And what are you going to do about it?”
