ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (256 page)

When I looked at him, his face was pale. His eyes were deep and darkened, and hurting.

“Mariah was killed in a riot,” he said. His voice was suddenly thin and hoarse, like it didn’t come out of a man capable of murder. They killed her.”

“Shifters?” I asked, and the moment I did, I knew how dumb I was. Of course not.  “Vampires,” I added softly, but he shook his head.

“No, shifters. You were right.”

I frowned. “That doesn’t make sense.”

He breathed out in a shudder, squeezing his eyes shut. It looked for a moment like he was going to start crying.

When he opened his eyes again, though, the vulnerability was gone.

“The decree had just been passed. Shifters weren’t allowed to be among vampires anymore. Mariah was still at the house where she worked as a secretary. Some aristocratic family. The moment she heard, she made her way back to our house. On the way, a storm broke loose. Shifters in all shapes had turned loose on vampires. She was only seventeen, a girl. She was scared. The war was bloody. Shifter and fell at her feet, thousands of them. I knew, I had gone to fetch her when I’d heard, and I saw her. She was at the bottom of the street. I had to fight through a civil war to get to her.”

I could feel the sorrow in the air, permeated from him like a body odor. It was laced with hatred. I felt like my own heart was breaking, even though I was very aware of the fact that I was feeling his. Whatever magic he was capable of, it made everything so personal.

“She shifted into a vampire so she would be safer. With the decree, it made sense. If she could just disguise herself long enough to get to me, I could take her home. I’d reached out for her, and she’d called out my name. But then out of nowhere a Shifter had appeared out of the shadows, and staked her. He’d mistaken her for a vampire, just as she’d intended. As she died, she shifted back into her natural form, and the Shifter realized what he’d done, but it was too late. She was gone.”

I looked at him. He was a crumpled mess. He looked three times smaller than usual, the sadness crushing him like an insect.

“So you want to kill Boris for it?” I asked.

Christian snapped his head up. The sorrow sucked out of the room, leaving a vacuum behind. Hatred filled the room where the sorrow had been tangible just a moment before. A searing emotion that I could feel prickling my skin.

“He was the last vote. The vote that passed the decree. I lost my world. He had to pay.”

His words dripped with malice. It sent shivers down my spine.

“Christian, it was an accident. Boris didn’t mean for anything like that to happen. I’ve grown up in his home. He’s only ever tried to save—“

“Don’t you dare defend him!” Christian roared. His mood switches happened so fast, I couldn’t keep up. I shrunk back from him, the fear pushing me away. The room became ice cold, fingers of frost licking across the walls.

“My parents died too, you know,” I snapped. “They died in a riot too. And there isn’t one day that I don’t miss them. Sure, Boris tries to make up for it, but as much as I love the Kirilovs, they can never replace my real family.”

“So we’re not so different, then,” Christian said.

“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong. You see, it wasn’t my own kind that killed my parents. It was yours.” At those words, Christian flinched, but I kept going. “You don’t see me trying to kill any Shifters out there, do you? No, because I know what war does. It’s death and pain, and no matter what you’re fighting for, it will never change. Nobody wins, Christian.”

It looked like he was about to break. I wanted to reach out and touch him. No matter how much of an enemy he was, he still had that magnetic force around him that made me want to throw myself at his mercy. I wondered if it was only his magic, or if the love that had grown between us had meant anything at all.

“You should leave,” the guard said from the door.

“I’m fine,” I answered. I didn’t want to leave. Not yet.

“Why me?” I asked when Christian’s cold stare became almost unbearable. Compared to the warmth that he’d always used to look at me, it was almost painful to see him look at me like I was the enemy. “Why did you choose me, if you knew who I was? If you knew that Boris was my foster father, and I’m gathering you did because you’re no student, then why did you stick with me?”

He looked away, and I was relief to finally have those eyes away from me. I was about to buckle.

“At first it was to stop you. You were too good at this. You were a threat.”

“So you pretended to help to throw me off track?”

He nodded. I shook my head. I couldn’t believe it.

“But later, during the year, I started to get to know you. And I felt different about it.”

“Different?”

“I fell in love with you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, that wasn’t enough to stop you from trying to kill my family,” I said. He looked at me, and this time his eyes were so gentle I nearly did lose it. I bit my cheek and willed the lump in my throat away. No matter what happened now, I was not going to cry.

“I lost it, Adelaide,” he said, his voice very close to cracking. “I lost it all. I wanted to leave it. But Mariah… I couldn’t just leave her death. I couldn’t—“ His voice broke and he swallowed hard. “I couldn’t stop them. I used the Walkers and they had their orders. And when they failed, I looked at you where you sat in the crowd, and I lost it.”

Two tears rolled over his cheeks. I realized his skin was a greenish tint again, and he was rising in height. He was shifting.

“Why?” I whispered.

“Because you look like her. You remind me so much of her it hurts. Not who you are, but what you look like. And I can’t stay away from you, because then I win a bit of her back. And I can’t leave you because then I lose the real you, the one that’s nothing like her. The girl I love. But Boris… he—“ He stopped again, swallowing hard.

“I have to go,” I said, and turned away. He didn’t call after me. I didn’t leave because I couldn’t deal with it. I didn’t leave because I hated him.

I had to get out of there, because I wanted to cry. Because I understood.

Everything that he was feeling, I felt too, about my own parents. I pushed it far, far away. I didn’t look for revenge, or for a way to find them in someone else. But I died a little bit every day when I remembered them, when they were present in the way the snow fell, or the breeze felt in the middle of the night.

The guards escorted me back through the maze of tunnels, and I got back in bed in the medical center. I could go back to my own room, but I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to see anyone, not the matron, not the people that must have heard. Not even Beth.

I closed my eyes, and slipped away from reality.

4

When I woke up again, the room was dark and the clinic was quiet. There was no shuffle of nurses’ feet. There were no beeping monitors. The only light shone from the reception area, where the counter was unmanned and a steaming cup of coffee sat on the desk, alone.

I felt like my world was cracking, and the ugly reality seeped in. This place, the school I’d wrapped myself in like a cocoon, had protected me from the truth. And now that Christian had ripped it open, I felt the loss of my parents like the day it had happened. I thought of Christian in his cell, miserable and cold, a sad, watered down version of the person he could be.

I could see it now. The Shifter he was, in everything he’d said and done before. Somehow, I’d always known there was something off. Something different, something dangerous. And still I’d wanted to be with him.

Was it all because of him? The spell? I buried my face in my pillow, trying to force the thoughts out of my head. But they wouldn’t go away.

He was down there. It felt like it was nighttime, which mean that he was going to be transported to the city prison. That meant he would die.

Shifters were executed. And after what he did, there wouldn’t even be a trial.

I pushed myself off the bed. My feet found their way to the door, and I was pulled to the office building where I knew the cells were. A purpose drove me, a force pulling me to him.

He couldn’t die. Everyone made mistakes. Everyone was a mess. Everyone deserved a second chance. Flashing blue and red lights reflected against the old brick walls of the building. The police were there. They were moving him now.

I ran, my feet soft on the wet grass. The nightgown I had on rustled against my legs. I hoped I wouldn’t be seen. When I reached the buildings, I hid behind a handful of bushes, and watched. Four policemen were escorting Christian out of the building. He still looked like vampire, and his face was solemn. He would bear the consequences, I knew he would. He would take what was coming to him. Christian would face death with his head held high.

The idea made my chest constrict. I had to do something. I couldn’t breathe, and I knew if something happened to him, I would go through the rest of my life like this, a broken version of myself, just like he had been.

I lunged through the bushes without a plan. I ran into the group of police officers, screaming at the top of my lungs. They looked bewildered. I caught Christian’s expression, and for a moment our eyes locked. Something passed between us, something that gave me an idea, and him a chance.

I started smacking my own head with flat palms. Running in circles, knocking against some of the officers. They grabbed for me, trying to get me to calm down, but I could be slippery if I wanted to.

At some point I tripped over my own feet, my nightgown tangled between my legs, and I hit the ground, hard. I felt concrete underneath my head, and I saw stars. When I lifted my head, blood ran into my eyes, thick and warm.

“She’s gone mad!” one of the officers cried, and khaki pants kneeled in front of me. When I looked up it was Principal Cole.

“Have you lost your mind?” he asked when I looked like I was in control. I shook my head. It felt like my brain was loose and I groaned, putting my head back down on the ground. But my insides sang, because in answer to his question: no. I hadn’t lost my mind. And when I’d looked up I’d cast a glance around the group of officers first.

Christian had been gone.

I was back in the clinic, bandages wrapped around my head. I was conscious, but I kept my eyes closed. I wanted to listen to what they were saying around me.

“He put a spell on her. Why else would she lapse into insanity just for a moment, and give him the break to escape?” It was the doctor speaking.

“Are you sure she’s going to be alright?” Cole was asking, his voice concerned. I felt guilty that I did this to him. To all of them. But not guilty enough.

“Just let her rest. Give her what she needs. When she’s ready to receive guests, I’ll be back.” It was Boris’s voice. My heart leapt and I wanted to open up my eyes, ask him to stay. But I had to keep it up. He would be back. He would always be in my life. The danger was over, I believed. Christian would still struggle, but he wouldn’t try something again. Something had snapped inside him in the cell that night. I’d felt it.

“She’ll be fine. She’ll have a concussion for a while, she might not be able to keep up the pace with her schoolwork, but she’ll be fine in a short while. Don’t worry. He might have escaped, but at least that means she’s out of his grip.”

They left, and I was alone in a dim room. I opened my eyes, but the room spun slowly and it made my stomach turn, so I closed them again. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to stay in bed for a couple of days.

When I got the go ahead to go back to class, the whole school was burning with stories about my heroics, my horrible accident, and the spells Christian had put me under. No one could believe a traitor had been right next to them all along, and they hadn’t know. And of course I was the victim. Everyone was on my side.

“I can’t believe it,” Beth said to me when we walked into the cafeteria at midnight. “After everything… a Shifter.”

I shrugged. I had a bit of a headache, but otherwise I was okay. In fact, I felt lighter than air.

“How are you doing?” she asked when we sat down.

“I’m alright. I still struggle to focus now and then, but the doctor says that will go away.”

Beth shook her head. “I’m not talking about your health. I’m talking about your heart.”

I shrugged. The truth was I didn’t know what to think. No one knew about the conversation I’d had with him in prison. Only the head of the guards, and the doctor. And they didn’t ask. I haven’t even told Beth. But that night, something in me had changed, too. I didn’t lose him, not like that. He hadn’t betrayed me, not in the real sense of betrayal. I didn’t see it that way. The only thing he did was try to save his sister. That I could understand, even if I knew that it was a losing battle. She was dead, and nothing he did could change that.

“I’ll get through it, I guess,” I said. I took a bite of the Jell-O on my tray. “One day at a time.

Beth nodded and started filling me in on what I’d missed while I was in hospital. I pretended to listen to the gossip stories, but my mind kept slipping back to Christian. Where was he now? What was he doing? I realized that everything he’d told me was a lie. His summer with his father, the banker. Probably not true. His strange features made sense now. A lot of things did.