Prey

Chapter 63

Doe's POV:

Xander disappeared into the closet a while ago.

Long enough for me to have ordered something to eat, and even with most of the people working the castle helping with the ball, have it delivered.

I'd realized that due to the stress of the ball, I hadn't eaten anything from this morning.

And starving wasn't something any part of me wanted to be doing again.

So, I idly snacked on this small bowl of assorted fruit, rethinking everything while waiting for him to return.

I'll admit, this... wasn't at all how I had expected this night to go.

Not even close.

Against my better judgment, during the hours he was gone I had desperately fabricated countless scenarios for how this night possible could have gone.

I came up with the bad, the worse, and tried to even it out with some good ones.

I didn't dare try to get my hopes up too much for... obvious reasons.

Just so I could try to tell myself that I would be prepared for anything.

That I wouldn't be caught by surprise again.

So when he came back three hours early with that look of complete desolation in his eyes... When he fell to his knees sobbing and blubbering out his words like they alone were more important to him in that moment than breathing.

The raw regret and vulnerability he was handing to me...

I was blindsided.

Nothing could have prepared me for that.

An apology that I'd never thought that I'd hear because I never thought that a vampire could tear itself away from that greed.

I'd thought about it only as a fantasy... as a hope that I had since given up on for my own sanity.

For a minute there, I had convinced myself that I was dreaming.

But the tender emotions that the sight before me pulled out of me... I don't think I could dream those.

My eyes narrowed in thought, gaze stuck on the poor grape I had just stabbed with this tiny fork.

For a second at least, until my eye caught a shimmer next to the bowl on my lap.

Some quick investigation showed me that it was one of the little jewels he had on his suit.

I guess it must have rubbed off.

He's clung to me three times in the past week, and every single time it stemmed from a different kind of desperation.

This time though, It felt like I was the one holding him together.

I just hoped that I handled it properly...

I couldn't tell in the heat of the moment I just spoke from the heart.

I was stuck between being relieved and still fighting that part in me that was cautious.

All while dealing with the anger that steadily rose in me the more he spoke.

Not at him... not entirely at least.

Mostly at the vampire who started this whole thing.

Who strung him along for this long just because she could. Who abused her own species' mindset instead of just telling him that she wasn't interested and ending this whole thing there.