“You’re wrong.”
Boaz slapped me with the back of his hand. Sable and I jumped at the same time. “Don’t test me.”
“What’s going on, Boaz?” Erik asked behind him. “I thought you said she had changed.”
“She has. She’s just being stubborn, but I can change that. Leave us.”
Before turning away, Sable shook her head sadly and followed Erik from the room.
As soon as the door closed, Boaz whirled on me. “I don’t like hurting you, you must believe me.”
“I will never believe another word you say.”
“What’s happened to you?” He eyed me up and down. “Where have you been?”
“I went to the city, alone.”
“And what did you do…alone.”
“I was my usual mean self. I used magic to hurt others.”
“And?”
“And I met someone who reminded me of who I used to be.”
Boaz grabbed my arm. “Who?”
“I don’t know his name. He was a vampire, and he didn’t hurt others. There was light inside him.”
Boaz flinched, almost hissing.
“Do you know him?” I asked, startled by his reaction.
His expression darkened. “None of that matters now. We’re wasting time. I need you, and you need—”
“No,” I said. “I don’t need you.”
Boaz clenched his fists and breathed heavily through his nose, nostrils flaring. Without touching me this time, he sent me flying across the room and into the wood headboard. I cried out, but only for a moment as my body had already begun to heal.
“Don’t think that just because you’re an immortal I can’t hurt you. I can spend hours breaking your bones, and after they’ve healed, I will break them again.”
“It won’t matter. I won’t do what you want. I went years with my parents’ abuse.”
Boaz glided to the bed, his feet barely skimming the floor. “There are other ways to hurt you than just physically, love.” He took hold of my ankles and jerked my legs toward him. He forced his weight upon on me.
More than anything else ever, I wanted to use magic right then to throw him from me, but that’s exactly what he wanted me to do. I closed my eyes tight as he ripped open the front of my gown.
“What are you waiting for!” he screamed, spittle spraying from his mouth.
When I didn’t give in, he stepped away and stormed from the room without Hunwald. The wolf remained, watching me with a satisfied expression upon his hairy face. I covered myself quickly and moved to jump out of the window. The impact of the fall would only hurt for a minute.
Hunwald jogged over and leapt upon the windowsill as if guarding it.
“Stupid dog,” I muttered.
Hunwald growled.
Outside the open door, Erik argued with Boaz. “You said she changed. You’ve wasted our time!”
“I’ve wasted your time? I’ve wasted almost a year with that bitch.”
“You’re the one who so arrogantly insisted you could change her.”
“Watch your tongue, Erik, or I’ll rip it from your throat. I’ve made more progress than you made in her whole life.”
Sable sighed. “This has been a waste for everyone involved. Let’s kill her and start over. I know it will take more time, but really Boaz, don’t you have plenty of that?”
Boaz scoffed. “You’re too old to bear any more children. Besides which, I refuse to waste any more time. I want Eve!”
“Then what do you suggest we do?” Erik asked.
I heard silence for several moments, then, from Boaz, “Get the necklace.”
“I told you it’s not safe,” Sable hissed.
“I’m willing to take that chance. Now get it and make it work or you will lose everything, the money, the power, but most of all your lives.”
I couldn’t hear anyone move.
“Get it, Sable,” Erik finally said.
Sable’s light footsteps moved down the hall. Boaz came back into the room and knelt by my side. When he tried to smooth back my hair, I flinched.
“I don’t enjoy hurting you. And despite what you may think, I am quite fond of you, except for this side. The poor me part needs to be destroyed.”
My shoulders slumped, and my gaze slowly lifted to meet his. “Is there any way you can just let me go?”
He laughed.
I tried again. “But there are so many others better suited for you. Helen?”
He stopped laughing. “You are suited for me. I will have no other!”
“Don’t I have a say in this?”
“Of course you have a say! It’s ‘I will do whatever you want’. That’s what you can say,” he snapped.
I turned away from him.
“I’ll give you one last chance, love. Give your whole self to me, the powerful part not the weak, ‘I-feel-nothing’ Eve. I want the part that loves darkness, loves to hurt others and takes pleasure in other’s pain. That’s the Eve I want by my side. Give me her, and I will not do what I am about to do.”
The image of the vampire I’d met only yesterday came to my mind. Had it only been a day?
“Power is a dangerous thing,” I whispered.