Page 21 of Blood Red Rage

“I don’t want to ruin your life,” he said. “I want to keep it.”

My mouth opened and then closed because that hit in a different place. “What… what about my home?” I demanded. “My job? My friends? You can’t just erase me from my own life.”

“I’m not erasing you,” he said, his voice low. “But you can’t go back like nothing happened.”

“Why?” I demanded. “Because you said so?”

His eyes sharpened. “Because of what you are now.”

Cold slid down my spine. “What is it that I am now?”

He stopped right in front of me, close enough that my body reacted automatically, leaning toward him before I could stop it.

He saw it and his expression tightened like it hurt him to witness. “You have my essence on you,” he said.

My face heated instantly. “Don’t call it that.”

“It’s what it is,” he snapped, then breathed out hard, trying again. “Bryn, listen to me.”

The room felt too small. I hugged the sheet tighter, “I am listening.”

He reached up slowly, carefully, brushing his knuckle along my cheek like he was asking permission without words. “You’re tied to me now,” he said. “Not just by the bite but by what happened between us.”

A shiver went through me, it wasn’t fear. Not entirely.

His eyes locked on mine, fierce. “You think I’m the danger,” he continued. “But I’m not the worst thing in the dark. The demons out there are what you need to be scared of.”

I swallowed. “Demons?”

His mouth tightened. “Yes.”

I stared at him. “Real demons?”

“They’ll smell you,” he said. “They’ll want you and they will try to hurt you to get to me.”

My blood went cold. “Why me?”

His gaze flickered…something raw in his gaze. “Because you’re mine.”

The possessiveness in his voice hit like thunder. It should’ve made me angry but instead it made my chest ache. “And because anyone who wants to hurt me,” he said, voice sharpening, “will start with you. You are now my weakness.”

I forced myself to breathe, my brain was scrambling to keep up, trying to build a bridge between the world I knew and the one he was describing. It felt impossible. “You’re telling me I’m… what? A target now?” I whispered.

“Yes.”

Tears burned suddenly behind my eyes, furious and unwanted. “I didn’t ask for this,” I said, voice cracking.

“I know,” he replied, softer now. Something in his face broke open just slightly. Vulnerable in a way that didn’t match the monster he pretended to be.

“I didn’t ask for it either,” he said. “But I would tear the world apart before I let them touch you.”

My throat tightened. “You’re saying I can never leave,” I whispered.

He didn’t deny it, instead he stepped closer, so close my breath caught. His hand slid around my waist, pulling me gently into him until my cheek pressed against his chest. I could feel his heat, his power. The steady beat of a heart that shouldn’t exist if he was what he claimed.

“You can leave,” he murmured into my hair.

I stiffened. “You just said…”