“He’s insufferable. I can’t get him to stop talking most of the time. Like a constant annoying little brother always nagging me about something.”
I bite my lip and then say, “Thank you.”
Ambrose’s eyes widen at that.
I reach across the table and take his hand in mine. “You don’t know what it means to me that he isn’t alone.”
He nods. “I can see why you fell in love with the bastard. I understand what he does for you. But I’m not him. I can never be him. I’m sorry.”
I shake my head. “I don’t want you to be him. I’m just not sure how to do this. How to fall back in love with you when he has dug himself so deep into my very essence of who I am. I think about him before I even open my eyes in the morning. And it will be him I think about as I take my last breath.”
“You’re afraid,” he says, not as a question, but because he feels the energy I’m giving off through our bond.
“Yes, I’m afraid. I’m afraid I’ll never love you as I do him. That you’re my mate. The entire universe says so. But what if we never have that epic love story that being mates usually entitles you to?”
“We have a lifetime to find that love. And epic love doesn’t have to be this huge thing. It can be small. It just needs the tiniest of sparks to light an entire forest.”
I nod.
“Tell me the rest,” he says so gently. I know he already knows what I’m about to say via our bond. But I need to get the words out anyway.
“I’m also afraid that I can’t love two people at the same time. If I love you, I’ll lose my love for him. And that—I think it’d feel like losing a part of myself to lose my love for him. But my love for you would never be enough for you if it were split between the two of you.”
“Any love you have for me is enough.”
“Maybe. Maybe it would be enough for you, but not enough to break the curse. What if, to break it, I have to give all of my love to you? And if I do, if I break the curse, I lose myself in the process and wish I were dead anyway.”
Ambrose is about to speak, when the world goes dark. We’d been having dinner under the moonlight. But it’s like someone covered the moons and stars, throwing a blanket of darkness over us.
I fight against the darkness, trying to throw it off of me. But it’s like fighting against an invisible blanket. No amount of thrashing will get it off.
I’m suffocating. There is no oxygen here. The darkness has snuffed all of it out.
“Ambrose,”I whisper into his head.
He doesn’t respond.
Fuck, we are being attacked. And our connection isn’t working.
I feel the first sharp slice against my cheek. Nails or teeth? I’m not sure, but it hurts all the same.
Shift, dammit, shift.
But I can’t.
I should run, but I can’t see an inch in front of my face. I’d be running blindly, most likely, toward the enemy. And I’d be leaving Ambrose alone.
Another strike slices through my side, and I scream out. The pain blinds me even more.
I’m powerless.
Completely blindsided by this attack.
Witches?
Vampires?
Doesn’t matter.