Page 34 of The Vampire Debt

I swallow my nerves and stride over to him, keeping my eyes downcast.I can do this. I can do this.

My hand presses tightly to my side against the handle of the dagger. He stands when I stop before him and not at my chair.

“You came,” he says. If I’m not mistaken, he sounds almost surprised.

I inhale deeply.

“I’m sorry,” I say, and the words taste foul in my mouth.

He’s silent for so long that I start to think I only thought them instead of speaking them aloud.

“For what, exactly?” he asks doubtfully.

“The other day.”

He hums as though he’s weighing my words. Then, “No.”

“No?” I ask, finally lifting my head to meet his gaze.

“No, I don’t believe you are. Come now, Clara, we both know you would rather see me dead than standing here before you. Yet you would have me believe this blatant lie,” he says. He stands slowly to lean over me.

My anger wends its way through my veins and it’s all I can do to keep it tempered. He’s right, but it still infuriates me.

I clench my hands into fists, my nails dig into the sensitive skin of my palms until the pain stings. I don’t speak. I can’t, not without striking.

“That is an impressive feat without a corset,” he murmurs, and my eyes snap to his face.

“What?” I ask.Did he…my face burns and I am entirely disarmed at the implication of his words, and with them, my resolve comes undone.

I raise my hand and swing, aiming for that smooth, flawless face. I blink and he catches my wrist in his hand. His gaze travels up my neck to my face and gives me a crooked smile.

My breaths come out short and quick with my rising anger. I grab the dagger with my other hand and thrust it at his chest. My hand doesn’t get any higher than my waist. I fight his hold over me, my arm shaking with the effort. Finally, I plunge the blade into the table between us.

“Are you going to make an attempt on my life every time we have a meal together?”

He is already so close, but he closes the distance between us until our chests are all but touching. His warm breath brushes across my face. I glower at his perpetually bored expression. His gaze flicks to the dagger then back.

“Do you know the cost it will take to repair that?” he asks flatly.

“Threaten me all you like, Mr. Devereaux, I will never be afraid of you.”

His head lists to the side as a single dark brow rises in question. “I did not threaten you. If anything, it is you who has murdered my poor, defenseless table.” Finally, he moves away and goes to stand in front of the fireplace. “Were you trying to kill me as you promised your sister you would?”

I blanch. He wasn’t in the room when I made that vow to her. He couldn’t possibly know that…

But he does.

I don’t bother trying to deny it. “I had to give Kitty hope that I would escape.”

Alaric stops pacing, his chin raises a little higher to look down on me as a sneer forms across his lips. “You come to me as though you are some poor victim of circumstance, but you are not.”

Tears of frustration well behind my eyes, burning, but I refuse to let them fall. “You know nothing of my life. A monster like you could never hope to understand what I have gone through.”

The anger fades from his face, leaving behind neutrality. “Monster?” Alaric tsks. “You wound me, Clara. That is not a very nice thing to say after all I have done for you. Have I not been kind?” He takes a step closer. “I have fed you—” Another step. “Clothed you—” Another step. “Given you shelter far superior to anything you could have ever dreamed… and yet you still call me amonster?”

I don’t answer.

“Tell me, my dear Clara, what I have done that is worse than what you are guilty of?”