Piercing My Heart

13

I slowly advanced towards her. I didn't want to scare her more than she was. It pained me to sense her fear and hear her frantic heartbeat. I really am a monster. I lowered myself next to her and kept my head down. I was struggling to hold back my tears. I was able to fight back my tears and speak.

"I should take you home." I looked up.

"Can we go to your place? I don't feel safe being by myself." She softly said.

"This will be faster." I picked her up bridal style and sped away.

When I got home, I immediately texted Hailey about cleanup duty. They'd need to burn the man to actually kill him. Hopefully, they could find something on him that would identify why he was here.

"What about the body parts-"

"Lexi and Hailey will take care of it." I cut her off and showed her my phone screen. I was now texting Lexi to assist Hailey. "You should rest." I led her to my bedroom.

"You're right. I'm tired."

I brought her some lounge clothes for her to sleep in. She took it and entered the bathroom. I sighed and walked onto my balcony. I looked up at the moon and sighed again. I was out of my element. I had no idea what would happen next. I hated not being able to anticipate someone else's move.

"Penny for your thoughts? Actually, no. You're a billionaire. A thousand dollars for your thoughts?" I heard her move the covers.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you can sleep after an almost fatal attack." I chuckled and moved to sit next to her.

"What do you mean?" She had a faux befuddled face.

"You're not who you say you are." I decided to stop playing mind games.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're not as innocent as you pretend." I sighed and I lowered myself onto the bed. I then stared at the ceiling. "Finding out who you really were plagued my mind from the moment I met you, but right now it's importance is minute." I turned onto my side so that I could look her in the eye. "I heard the man when he spoke to you. He wasn't the only one watching you. There were others and I need to find the others."

"Are they the ones who you said would kill me if I revealed the experiment?" She questioned.

"Ahh, the experiment." I chuckled. "I guess I can be fully honest after what you saw. The participants were vampires who were undergoing a trial of sustenance pills. We wanted to test to see if there was a potential to forego our previous means of feeding in favor of pills that are synthesized to have the same effect as blood. A scientist who was against the experiment caught wind of it and tampered with the pills, making the vampires deathly ill. It baffled us since vampires can't get sick. The man went into hiding since he knew we'd torture him about the unknown substance that posed a threat to vampires. He came out of hiding to destroy any evidence, which included the sick vampires. He burned them alive in the incubator. We eventually tracked him down and he was tortured. On the brink of death, he revealed the fatal component... silver." I paused for dramatic effect.

"When ingested, pure silver paralyzes a vampire's body and can burn them from the inside out. Touching it will mildly burn a vampire, but being sliced open with it or shot with it can be fatal." I watched her reaction.

"Now I understand why you guys hid that." She breathed out.

"It was an off the record experiment. Only a select few knew about the procedures... only vampires knew." I stated.

"Hmm... so are you going to compel me to forget or..."

"Go to sleep, love." I chuckled. "It's going to be a hell of a discussion in the morning. My family will want to talk to you, so I suggest you get as much beauty sleep as possible." I subtly performed a spell to get her to sleep. "Goodnight, ma belle âme soeur." I kissed her forehead.

I smiled at her sleeping form. Every so often, I'd trace my finger across her face. Again, the goosebumps made me internally die. I wish I could provide her the warmth she deserved, not ice for affection. I sighed and moved a strand of hair behind her ear. She's so beautiful.

I heard the door opening. I sighed again before getting up. I pulled the covers under her chin and placed a final kiss to her forehead. I turned to see Hailey watching the action. She gave me a pained smile. I mirrored her expression back. She pitied the situation I was in and I pitied Nicole for being mated to someone unworthy of her love.