Page 113 of Eternal Obsession
“Choose. Catherine or Alex,” I said.
“What?”
“Who do you choose to live, Catherine or Alex? Time is of the essence, so—”
“No!” he screamed.
“Sorry, so much noise in the room I didn’t hear you. Say again?”
“Why? Why do you do this?”
“Habit, I suppose. Now which one?”
“Let me go to him.”
“I see,” I said. “Wait.” I placed my hand to my temple and closed my eyes. “No, I fear the worst. Prepare yourself. Your brother Alex is . . . dead. Yes, not so much a snapping of his mortal coil. More like a disintegration of it.”
Jadeon fell forward, glaring at me, shattered. “You lie to me again. I don’t believe you—”
Jadeon's pain was an exquisite gift to behold. A storm of agony that tore through him. There came a delicious and yet bitter satisfaction as I stood over him. This was all I could ask for, his suffering almost equal to mine.
Almost.
Even if his was the kind that didn’t just hurt, it hollowed him out. His destruction felt like a glorious gift. A divine unraveling of a man who still denied his vampirism.
His agony felt as if the heavens themselves had ordained his fall.
“Who was it, Jadeon, who asked him to wait? Who was it who promised to return to free him? He trusted you. Go back to your bleak castle. It’s over, and you’re once again the cause of your own grief.”
“I beg of you,” he said.
I paused for a gut check.
Was the centuries-old pain finally gone? Had all his suffering meant something? Had it pierced the heart of loss, erased the agony of losing Sunaria? Had justice, at last, been served? And in the wreckage of it all, had my own relentless torment dulled to something I could finally endure?
No, actually. That grief still burned brightly, and I was far from done with him. “If you want to join me, if the loneliness becomes too great, come to me.”
“Never!”
“We have so much to do.”
“What?”
“The time for mortals is running out. It’s now time for us to take our rightful place. We will no longer hide within the shadows.”
“What are you planning?”
“Members only,” I said.
“I could never be part of any of your dark schemes, and I will do everything within my power to stop you. You are Satanic.”
“Satan had his chance but failed. I’m something altogether different.”
“I will kill you!”
“Catherine. She’ll be interested to hear that you chose Alex over her.”
Jadeon was thrown into a corner.
