Page 104 of Phobia

“I’m Silas De Vesci,” he says gently. “I’m a vampyre. And now so are you.”

Vampyre. A creature from books and legends. The stuff of fantasy and nightmares. Not real. But then … my mind whirs as I take in everything that just transpired, how the world seemed to completely shift and change around me. How I killed my brother. Drank his blood.

“Why?” I ask.

“He killed you, Adrien. Had I not intervened, you would have died.”

“Killed me,” I repeat, and he nods.

“I couldn’t lose you. Not to him. Not like that. I made a choice, and I hope … you don’t resent me for it.”

So many thoughts, so many questions, swirl through my mind. I voice the first one. The one that weighs the heaviest. “Why me?”

“I’ve been … watching you. For some time. You intrigued me. Lovely but so frightened of the world.”

“You were watching me?”

“This city is my hunting ground. Where I stalk my prey. I saw you one night, walking home alone. I couldn’t take my eyes off you.”

“I was your prey?”

He shakes his head, adamant. His soft waves whisper across his cheeks. “Not you. Never you. I only hunt wrongdoers. Criminals. People who deserve death.”

“Like Mickey,” I supply.

“Like Mickey.” He seems encouraged by my participation, smiling at my offering,

“That night. When I fell and skinned my knee.” I’m putting the pieces together as he sits before me, so open and willing.

“I was following my target. He was following you.”

I shiver at those words. “Mickey?”

He bobs his head in affirmation. “When I saw you, I forgot all about killing him. I forgot about everything. Everything but you. I couldn’t take my eyes off you. I let Mickey get away. So it’s my fault he was able to hurt you. I was almost too late.”

I’m trying to understand, but there’s no reason why someone like me should have caught Silas’s eye. He’s striking and powerful and enigmatic. There’s something truly magical and ethereal about him, and I’m just … me. Nothing special. Nothing worthy of his attention.

He’s watching me, cocking his head, brow pursing as if attempting to discern the thoughts running rampant through my mind. “What are you thinking?”

“Why did you choose me? Protect me? I’m not special. I’m nothing.”

“Adrien.” He shakes his head, moving closer toward me with a sad look on his face. “That couldn’t be farther from the truth.”

My lip trembles as he locks me in his intense gaze. “My sweet, beautiful boy. Don’t you see how special you are? How worthy? You’re like sunshine to me. I haven’t seen it in over two hundred years, but with you, I can feel its glow.”

I feel my face heat and flush as he cups my cheek, brushes stray strands of white-blond curls behind my ear. Something about those words feel important. Life-changing. As if all of this, this experience, these misdeeds, weren’t altering enough. Time seems to stop in this moment as we look at each other, seeing into one another’s souls.

“When I first saw you,” Silas persists, “I knew you were mine. To protect, to cherish. To worship and love. The way you wandered through the world so soft and so afraid. Beautiful, but absolutely terrified. Flinching from contact, never seeking out connection. I was intrigued because I saw in you something I wanted to protect. I was determined to prevent any harm from coming to you. But then I…saw something so much stronger. Something radiant. There’s a fierceness inside of you, Adrien. A brave determination to fight and keep fighting. To never give up. It’s unrivaled, something even a demon like myself could never outmatch. And so I told myself I would never allow that spark to dampen and go out. But even immortals must sleep. And Mickey found you as I rose. He hurt you before I could find you. Before I could stop him. So I did the only thing I could think of to save you. He took your human life, so I gave you a new one. An immortal one. Do you hate me for it?”

It’s now my turn for shock. “Hate you?” I gape. “You gave me a gift. The greatest gift I’ve ever received.” I look down at Mickey’s mutilated body and can’t help but smile,a twinge of something awful yet pure running through me. Something like love. “No one has ever loved me enough to do something like this for me.”

Something like this. Murdering my brother. Gifting me a new life. A better life. Kissing me. Looking at me with such fondness and admiration. I’m suddenly overwhelmed with an urge to give myself to him fully, to show him how very thankful I truly am. As if he can sense my desire, his gaze darts to my lips and then back to my eyes once again.

“You deserve to be loved, sweet one. You deserve to be worshiped.”

Our lips crash together then, our bodies entangling as we pull each other so close. He tugs me to his lap so I sit over his thighs, opening to him in every way. “Take me,” I whisper. “I give myself to you. In every way I can be, I’m yours.”

His eyes go hazy with lust, and he bites his lower lip. “You have no idea how badly I want you.”