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Nothing flows through the bond, his side closed off, and I begin to worry something is wrong until he pulls back enough to peer into my eyes.

“Say it again,” he pleads softly, his eyes begging me.

This feeling is still so terrifying, I find myself taking yet another deep breath to steady myself before I admit, “I love you.”

I have loved him for years and years.

Ever since I first laid eyes on him as a child.

But I buried that love deep in the tainted soil of my heart, hiding it from myself. Afraid it would make me weaker.

Afraid it would make every day harder.

How could I survive what I survived knowing someone out there loved me?

Someone who didn’t even know I existed yet.

And was he real? Or was he a trick?

A cruel trick to give me hope so they could break it?

“Damn the Order,” Raphael curses. “Damn them all!”

I push the memory of waking up in his arms through the bond. How afraid I was. Not simply because he was a vampire, but because I remembered his face.

Remembered his words.

And what I felt for him when I first laid eyes on him.

A love greater than any other love I had ever felt.

Tears begin to spill from my eyes. I’ve finally given up all my secrets, and while it should be a relief, there is pain in being so exposed.

So vulnerable.

My strength has always been an act, a façade, to protect myself, and now he knows.

Knows all my secrets.

Knows I’ve always been a weak, broken soul…

“No, my love,” he says firmly. “Nothing about you is weak.”

He pushes his lips hard against mine, tasting my bloody tears. “And you were never broken. Only incomplete.”

Kissing me again, he murmurs against my lips, “Now you have me to make you whole.”

A sob spills from my mouth, and as if he’s suddenly become frenzied by my distress, he grabs my ruined dress. Tearing it open, he wraps me up in his arms and presses his skin against my skin.

Holding me tight to his chest, smashing my breasts against him, our love clashes against each other in the bond.

His always strong and unwavering.

Mine still afraid and unsure…

But beginning to bend to his will.

When my distress finally calms, I mumble in a rush, “I still don’t understand what happened when I went outside. The sun didn’t hurt me when it touched my skin, so I thought I was safe. I swear. Otherwise, I would have stayed inside.”