Lust Bites
Page 25
Merle puts her hand on the cell door behind her for balance. ‘My parents suggested it!’
‘You can’t blame them. They were desperate. Cobalt was a cushy number and they knew it. I owned them. That nice house you grew up in? That fancy office building just off Whitehall? Who do you think pays for all that? Me. Well, the Black Emerald Clan.’ He leans forward on the bench. ‘Want to know something really funny? Guess who’s been rubber stamping all of Cobalt’s expenses for the last two years, since he took this place over?’ Oberon’s eyes rolled to the ceiling.
‘Never mind that.’ Merle’s shaking, Oberon might be too weak to lie to her, but his truth was still devastating. ‘So you fooled Cobalt along with everyone else. They think it’s all true, too. They think you really did put her soul into their child. Into me!’
‘Yes.’ Oberon looks impatient. ‘Your parents think it’s true, Cole thinks it’s true. The only people who know it isn’t true are in this cell.’
‘So what really happened to Magdalena’s soul?’
Oberon shrugs. ‘Whatever you believe happens to the soul when someone dies. She was shot. She’s dead, that’s all I know. I’m sure when you tell him he’ll start trying to find her.’
‘Oh.’ Merle feels her heart drop straight through her body as she realises the truth in what Oberon is saying. She isn’t Magdalena. She isn’t Darius’s lover.
She pulls the stake out of the back of the waistband of her jeans and stakes Oberon before he’s finished laughing at her. She’s never staked a vampire before. It’s surprisingly easy.
Merle slides the bolts of the cell door closed and turns around, Darius is standing right behind her, right up close in the tiny corridor. She starts. ‘Darius, are you OK? I thought you were busy.’
‘I was. But I thought I’d come and check on you. Did you do it?’
‘Yes.’ Merle swallows. Oberon’s dead. Which means she’s the only one left now who knows the truth. ‘You weren’t in my mind when I was in there with Oberon?’
‘No.’ Darius smiles, a little confused. ‘Why? Were you doing something I wouldn’t like, Magdalena?’ He catches Merle’s left wrist and lifts her bloody hand.
‘Darius, I …’ Merle’s voice trails away. She isn’t Magdalena. But that’s her secret. She doesn’t have to tell him. But he can read her mind. How can she keep a secret from him? There’s a look in his eyes. Something dark and comforting. Unless it wasn’t a secret. Unless he’d known all along. ‘You know, don’t you? You know I’m not … Not her.’
‘I know. And, yes, I’ve always known. Oberon isn’t half as clever as he thinks he is.’ He reaches out touches a wisp of hair that’s stuck to her cheek. ‘She’s dead. They killed her because of me. As for where her soul is now. Gone into the ether to find another place to rest. Who knows, maybe you are her reborn.’
‘It’d be a billion to one chance if I actually was …’
‘But she brought me to you. Her story. My love for her. Something in what was done to me and the lies I was told drew me to you. Only to you. And when I look on you I feel something that I only ever felt before when I looked on her. Maybe …’ He looks intently at her. ‘Maybe there is some part of her. Somehow …’
‘Darius …’ Merle’s voice trails away.
Darius brings her bloody hand to his mouth and licks at her thumb with his cool tongue. ‘Let me get that for you, Magdalena.’
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