28. Tears

Chapter 28

Tears

Victor

I swear that fate was fucking laughing at us!

After the night that we just experienced with our Moirai I thought we had made a breakthrough. Although Tal and I had both agreed it was too risky simply to let her roam the nightclub freely, as there was far more to our place of business than met the mortal eye. Meaning it wasn't safe for us to leave her sleeping in our room, instead having the foresight that this might happen we had her situated comfortably in our vault.

Not that it had fucking mattered.

At this point, I would have believed her to be a fucking witch, despite it being virtually impossible because she tasted one hundred percent human. A fucking delicious one at that. In fact, it had taken every ounce of self-control I possessed not to drink from her last night.

But Tal and I had agreed that for now it was best that we each take turns when feeding from her. Because this was all too fresh, and our restraint was one that had to be cultivated. The Fated were usually only meant for one Vampire, not two, and therefore we wanted to build her tolerance to our needs slowly.

The same could be said for our sexual appetite, and last night had been only a taste of what was to come. For last night had been about her. About her pleasure, and in that was where we found our own of a different kind. A selfless kind that we had admittedly never bothered to explore… because well, pleasure had usually only been for our taking.

But with her it was different. Just drinking in her reactions to our touch was almost as addictive as consuming her blood. For there was nothing like the taste of a Fated one. A unique flavor only found in one of the Moirai and each linked to their Fated Vampire. There was no mistaking who she was to us once we had tasted her. It was the only way to be sure and we had both experienced that.

Just as we would soon experience what it was like to know what it was to bed her. Last night was only a glimpse of how fucking sweet it would be. How incredible. How insatiable.

We would never get enough.

A craving never to be sated.

Just as it should be.

However, what it shouldn't have been was having her keep slipping through our fingers the way she continued to do. And how the fuck she was doing it…? We still didn't know. It wasn't through lack of trying as we had all our resources on trying to discover how. The vault last night was the last fucking straw. The video footage only showed us her standing, nodding at the camara before the fucking thing cut off.

Like fucking magic.

Of course, we should have been with her, not out hunting like we had been. However, we had a fucker to punish on her behalf and the trail had led us close enough that he only just slipped our grasp early this morning. Which meant having to give up for the time being and redouble our efforts the following night. And as luck would have it, it turned out the fucker already had a price on his head. One I tripled to any man that managed to bring me the asshole alive.

I didn't care who wanted a piece of him or who the dumb shit owed money to. My brother and I were the only ones that were getting their hands on him. Especially considering how furious we both were when discovering too late that she had escaped once more. Hence why I had called her to demand she return to us, or tell me where she was. Her little sorry message only managed to cool some of my temper.

Because despite being a demanding bastard, I wasn't void of all understanding. Not when it came to her. Not when I knew that she struggled with it all. Struggled with finding herself as our prisoner each morning. Struggled with how badly she wanted us, despite the fear that was warranted, considering what we were at our core.

She didn't yet trust us. I knew that. But I also knew that time would be the only weapon to aid us in this fight. Time for trust to build and grow. Although, it seemed that locking her in the vault had been when she hit breaking point. A laughable notion on our side considering she would never be rid of us.

We would never let her go.

Now the sooner she accepted that fact, the easier she would find her new life. Because there was only so far we would go in regards to our patience and how far it would stretch when she kept running. No, tonight she would learn once and for all.

For we had plans.

By now, we knew that she would find us. For we may not have known what had gifted her with the ability to escape, but we did know more about the pull of Vampire Mates. After researching more about the subject, we learned that the pull was something most Moirai felt and couldn't fight for long. For Nessa, she seemed doubly effected by it and it might have made us bastards, but we could help but grin when learning this.

Learning that she would always come to us.

It was fact.

It was Fate.

And it was fucking beautiful.

Like last night, finding her near falling through the doors was like delivering herself as a gift. One thing that was puzzling… because it had never been experienced in a Moirai before… was the way she couldn't deny an order given by either of us.

I hadn't yet spoken to my brother about this, his anger too close to the surface as it had been his idea to leave last night. He had truly believed the vault was the only place secure enough. Meaning since we had awoken after our fruitless hunt, he had been berating himself with the fact that the vault had not worked like we had hoped.

Of course, as soon as the call had come in that her ex had been found and delivered to the warehouse ready for us, we had wasted no time. Now we had someone to take our frustrations out on. Damn but it had felt good, despite having to hold back a considerable amount because one punch to a mortal with full force and we could have embedded our fist straight through their bodies with ease.

Meaning for us, we were taking it easy. But for him, we inflicted enough pain to have him passing out a few times now. Of course, when we had mentioned why we were inflicting such torture, he had spoken her name and my brother had fucking lost it. Hitting him hard enough that it stopped his heart, and to the point that our men had hard time trying to bring him back.

Because we were far from being done with him.

That was until we heard the scream.

And for once, it wasn't a sound I relished in hearing.

"Fuck!" I hissed the second I looked to the door and found her frightened eyes wide and looking on in horror. It didn't occur to me that she would find us here. The pull should have taken her to places where she knew we would frequent. Like the club or the apartment she was used to. But then I should have known better because everything when it came to her wasn't typical.

"She's going to run," Tal gritted out, making me say,

"She won't get fucking far," I said, making my first step toward her, and it was enough to get her doing as my brother guessed she would do. But the sight of her disappearing had us both acting. For we made it to the door in the blink of an eye, now it was safe to do so without her watching. It wasn't exactly the time to introduce her to our darkness. If she thought watching us beat her asshole ex near to death was frightening, then seeing that side of us would have really fucking terrified her.

I very nearly ripped the fucking door off its hinges.

Getting to the deserted street and seeing our girl running for her life made me tense. But as my brother was about to make chase, I placed a hand on his chest and told him,

"Wait."

"What fucking for? Until she gets to the Brooklyn Bridge?"

"I want to prove a theory I have… Nessa, stop!" I told him before shouting out my order. Instantly, she did as I suspected, halting her steps suddenly.

"What the fuck?" Tal asked, making me grin and say,

"You try it."

He raised a brow before shouting out to her,

"Turn around and walk back toward us!" His eyes widened in shock as she did just that. The fear on her face was easy for us to see thanks to our advanced eyesight.

"Please… please just let me go," she pleaded, even as she continued to walk toward us.

"She isn't just submissive," my brother assumed, making me shake my head and agree.

"No, she is compelled," I replied with a hardened jaw.

"A witch?" Tal asked, and again this thought was troubling enough to have me clenching my teeth. The sight of her walking toward us was now tainted, just like all other times I thought back to her easy compliance. No wonder she had struggled the way she had.

"Have Andras reach out to our own, I want her assessed to discover the source and see if they can detect a known signature."

Tal nodded, knowing what this meant.

We could have a little spy in our midst, one we didn't just want to fuck but one we wanted to keep. Because it didn't change facts, she was our Fated, regardless. But it did mean that she had been targeted because of it. As if someone had recognized who she was to us before we had the chance to.

She was being used as a pawn.

Fucking heads would roll.

I tried to get a lid on the furious thought by the time she approached, so as not to add to her fear of me. The second she came close enough, I reached out and curled my arm around her waist to draw her into my frame. The shuddered breath she released was a mix of relief and distress.

"Oh Firefly," I said as I felt her start to cry softly against me, her head buried in my chest as I cupped the back of her head to me. But then she pulled back and those big, tearful eyes of hers nearly undid me.

"Why… why did you have to do that?"

I knew what she referred to, which is why I told her the truth.

"You weren't supposed to see that, Sweetheart." My brother then tipped her head his way while he told her,

"No one hurts you and gets away with it."

Her eyes filled again before overflowing, making my brother take them away with his thumbs. Then she shook her head free of his hold and said,

"This hurts me… so who is going to punish the both of you?" I nearly laughed at her bold statement, but it was my brother who replied perfectly.

"Seeing the tears we bring you is punishment enough."

She closed her eyes, as if it was all too much.

"Please don't kill him," she said, making me tense, my growl slipping through before I could stop it. My arms tightened the moment she tried to break free of me.

"How is it possible you could still care for someone who caused you so much pain?" Tal asked, because I didn't have the strength to without snarling.

"I don't care about him. I just don't want his death on my hands." I scoffed at that, causing her to shoot me a distasteful look.

"His death will be on our hands. Nothing he does will touch you ever again."

But this was when she astounded me because, for the first time, she willingly touched me. Cupping the side of my cheek as she granted me her wisdom, telling me there was far more to our Fated than I had allowed myself to see before.

"But don't you see? If you kill him, it will touch me because he will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. Because instead of keeping him the villain of my story, you will only end up making him the victim," she told me, making me lean into her touch, hating that she spoke the truth.

Her pure, kind soul would do just this. Because our darkness hadn't yet tainted her, and quite honestly after this, I doubted it ever would.

And I couldn't find it in myself to be disappointed.

Neither could my brother, and he communicated as much with just a look. Something that we had perfected over our many years, being able to tell what the other was thinking without a word spoken. Which was why I nodded, jerking my head toward the warehouse. Tal then left and the second she heard,

"Let him go and dump his ass off at a hospital," she relaxed against me, her hand slipping from my cheek to grip the lapel on my jacket. Like she was holding on for dear life fearing that she would soon float away. Which was when I knew something else had happened. Her eyes, despite the fresh tears I could see still clinging to her long lashes, were red and slightly swollen. As if she had spent a long time crying before this point.

"What's wrong, little Love?" I asked, the endearment too close to confessing my true feelings for her. But just asking this and it was enough to have her clutching to me harder than ever before as a fresh wave of tears hit. This time with enough force that she ended up shaking like a leaf in the storm against me.

"What happened?" Tal asked, making me shake my head at him, telling him with my worried expression that I didn't yet know.

"Speak to us, little Peach," he tried, cupping the back of her neck, trying to urge her to tell us.

But then she finally looked at us both and said in an utterly heartbroken tone,

"I am so sorry… it was all a lie."

I frowned, not understanding what she meant but then she opened her mouth again and this time got only one word out.

"Cursed… ohh." Before she then fell…

Unconscious.