Forget Ever After Read Free Page A

that, and
Lena thought for a second he even grimaced. “Alexei said I’d draw
attention to our clan if I went to anyone I used to know. He had
forbidden me to see you.”
    The strain in his words hinted that there was
much more hidden behind them than he was saying. Lena knew very
little about vampire customs, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to
know anything more about them, but she had to ask.
    “But you’re here now. Won’t he be mad at
you?”
    “He’s dead.” His voice seemed flat, but again
Lena could have sworn it was only a mask. “He died a few weeks ago,
and so did the Master of my clan. Those of us who were left tried
to stick together but…” He shrugged. “It didn’t work out and we all
went our own way. I’m living on my own, now.”
    Lena still had dozens of questions that she
wanted to ask. Hundreds of them. But at the same time, she
wondered, yet again, if she truly wanted to know. As long as she
didn’t ask, she could tell herself that Liam had been happy all
those months. That he had found a new family, a new life. That he
didn’t kill to feed.
    Once more, silence stretched between them, and
Lena could feel his eyes on her even as she observed him and
thought about what he had said, and not said. In the end, none of
it changed anything, and she had to let him know that.
    “I love you.” To say it aloud again, to say it
to Liam after months of whispering it to a picture felt liberating.
“I never stopped loving you. Even when other people were telling me
you had bailed on me because the wedding was coming and you got
cold feet. Even when I started accepting that I’d probably never
see you again. I still loved you this whole time, and you
being…being a vampire makes no difference. I’ll always love you,
Liam.”
    Months of endless waiting seemed to melt away
with those words. It wouldn’t have taken much for her to believe
Liam had never disappeared, never left such a void in her life and
heart. He only needed to say the words too.
    But all he did was pick up her hand and cradle
it between both of his on the table. He wasn’t even looking at her.
The numbness was overwhelming, but she had to know, and she fought
to push the words out.
    “You—you don’t feel the same anymore?”
    Slowly, he brought his eyes back to her, and she
could have sworn there were flames dancing in them.
    “ Some vampires change when
they are sired,” he said, his words barely loud enough for Lena to
hear them. “No one can know until after if they’ll be the same as when they were
humans or completely different.”
    As before, he wasn’t really answering her
question, but she thought she could see where he was going with
that line of thought.
    “You changed a lot?” she asked, fearing his
answer yet needing to know.
    “I thought I had. I…well, you don’t want to
know, really. There are things that vampires do that would have
revolted me a year ago. I know I would have died rather than kill
anyone, but, I’ve done as much, and I don’t regret it. It’s just
what I am, now. I can’t pretend otherwise even if that means losing
you.”
    He dropped his eyes to their entwined fingers on
the table, and Lena realized she was trying to pull her hand free.
She managed to stop. She had just told him she loved him regardless
of who or what he was now. She couldn’t go back on her words
because he was being honest in return, even if fear was beginning
to seize her.
    “That’s another reason why I didn’t come to see
you,” he continued when she had relaxed a little. “I could have
gone against my Sire’s orders. He’d have punished me, but it’d have
been worth it to see you. I knew you’d be hurt, though, and I
didn’t want to see that look of pain on your face.”
    His smile, somewhere between resigned and
bittersweet, broke Lena’s heart, and made her want to hold on to
him and never let go again.
    “I thought I had changed,” he repeated, meeting
her eyes again. “My Sire said vampires