By My Choice...: A Valentine's Day Story (Valentine's Day Stories) Read Free Page A

pack my things. I will get on with it then. Don’t expect me to say goodbye, Milord.”  
    He had not. He could have argued it was all because he had so desperately searched for another solution, but in the end it did not change the facts. She did not look at him, dismissing him and her anger at him. Her hand had reached for the computer bag at her feet, the constant companion of her life. How often had he offered to replace the threadbare bag with something more durable or stylish? How often had she told him she loved that bag and its patches because it was a record of her life? How could he take the last bit of safety, of dignity, from her? But he had to.  
    “You won’t be able to take anything with you.”
    She had already risen, turned to the door but his words halted her, drew her back to face him seemingly against her own will.  
    “What?!?”
    He took a deep breath and realised, with a bitter sense of amusement, that his shoulders had tensed in a discomfort bordering on fear. He was a vampire, for Christ’s sake! And she was nothing more than a slip of a girl, no matter how much he loved her. At least so he told himself as he tried to find his spine. Then he exhaled with his own, personal realisation of defeat. Five years ago she might have exploded, yelled, given him a precious spark of temper before cutting him down with cold sarcasm and sharp logic. Today, he would be lucky if she raised her voice, though he was certain her fear, the source of the temper, would be nonetheless real. The tight control she did not let him break was strangling her.  
    “I am sorry. Lord Adrian has requested you bring nothing with you — he will provide all you need.”  
    Fabian saw the disbelief in her eyes, held them and watched the emotion be replaced by terror and anger as she realised he was not in jest, that she would be leaving her home, being handed over into the charge of a man she had met only a few times before, without even the comfort of her own possessions. He saw how the realisation of utter vulnerability, of the loss of control and the trepidation of what was to come settled on her shoulders, tensed the small muscles around her mouth into hard lines, darkened her eyes and he cursed the orders he had been given. Adrian, the Lord of Paris, the man he entrusted with his best friend because in reality he had no choice either, had known exactly what he demanded, what he would be doing to her with those demands. Her new liege had wanted her completely at his mercy — physically, emotionally and mentally. Fabian could see the beginning of it settling into her subconscious now.  
    “You cannot expect me to simply leave everything behind. My whole life.”
    “Everything you leave behind will be kept in storage for you, safe and sound, until you can return for it or have it shipped to you.”
    “So you have not only sold me; you have also robbed me of all my possessions. Has someone reminded you that you are not God — and that I am not your slave?”  
    “No, you’re not. But you swore an oath of fealty for five years, so until the time when the oath expires in three months, you are under my protection and under obligation to follow my orders. All my orders.”
    “It’s archaic. It is not even legal.” Even though she had grown up in a vampire court, her modern mind was unable to truly comprehend some aspects of their lives. She would learn. Unfortunately, she would have to. In the end, she would not have a choice but to learn. No human court would be able to enforce the oaths she had sworn, but any paranormal would, and there was no place on this earth she could have run to in order to escape their rule. She knew at least that much.  
    “I truly am sorry, Jen.”
    There was a long silence, not any less bitter for the empty space it seemed to fill between them.  
    “You bastard, you utter bastard.” And then, so quiet a human would not have been able to make it out: “I hate you.”  
    He did not