Series: The Un Series by Izzy Sweet
Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Stomping with every step, Raphael carries me somewhere without another word. And I know the only reason he’s stomping is to show his anger and displeasure over the situation.
He’s a vampire. He doesn’t need to make any sounds when he moves. It’s part of what makes a vampire so dangerous to humans.
From the smell alone, I know when we’re back in our room.
It smells like us.
Our natural scents mixed with sex and blood.
He must have left the door open because he keeps both arms locked around me when he walks in.
Kicking the door shut behind him, he carries me into the room, and I cling harder to him. Afraid he’s going to drop me and walk off.
And I don’t know why, but right now I can’t bear the thought of being separated from him. I need him in a way I can’t put into words or understand…
If I knew how to do it, I’d crawl my way inside him and stay there.
Forever.
Finally bending over, Raphael sets my butt on the edge of the bed and his arms loosen.
He tries to pull away, but I refuse to let go of him.
“Alena,” he says sternly.
I don’t want to make him any angrier, but I also need to touch him.
Sighing, Raphael stills for a moment, as if thinking. Then he begins to lower down to his knees.
I open my tear-filled eyes and peer at him in surprise.
Why is he kneeling before me?
Shouldn’t I be the one kneeling before him?
“No,” he answers, reading my thoughts.
He’s probably been reading my thoughts this entire time, yet I still can’t read his.
His eyes meet mine for a split second then flick away. “Because I’ve blocked you out.”
I feel like he just stabbed me in the chest.
He did it on purpose?
I thought it was because I was still healing and hadn’t regained the ability yet.
“Why?” I ask.
His jaw clenches then relaxes. “It wouldn’t have been good for you to know what I was thinking.”
“So, you’re allowed to read my thoughts, but I’m not allowed to read yours?” I press.
He doesn’t answer and continues to refuse to look at me, staring off into the distance.
And I have no idea what he’s thinking.
My shame quickly begins to turn into anger. How dare he shut me out but keep helping himself to me!
“How dare me?!” Raphael says angrily and finally looks me in the eyes. “How dare you put yourself in danger like that!”
Grabbing me by the face, his hands cup firmly around my cheeks. “You could have died!”
“I didn’t—” I try to argue back.
“Ambrose warned you! And Asher ordered you! He fucking ordered you!” Raphael shouts at me, but it’s not a shout of anger.
It’s a shout of pain.
“Do you know what would happen to me if I lost you?!” he goes on.
I’d shake my head if I could.
His stare fills with torment as if just imagining my death is unbearable. “I’d die from the sheer pain of it. My soul would fucking disintegrate in anguish!”
My throat tightens and my eyes swim with tears.
Choking up, he rasps, “I love you, and I can’t exist without you. I wouldn’t want to exist without you.”
Opening up the bond on his end, he not only lets me feel all of his emotions, he pushes them on me.
He shares his anger, fear, torment, and anguish.
But he also shares his love for me.
A love that has been growing for centuries. The seed planted the moment his human life ended and his vampire existence began.
It’s tormented him more than anything, but he’s always cherished it.
The moment when his soul tried to connect with mine, while I was still being kept in chains and drugged into oblivion, the love made him sick, so terribly sick, but still he protected it.
Still cherished and wanted it.
And when he finally found me, finally held me in his arms, he knew true joy for the first time in his life.
But that joy didn’t last.
Because the Prophet tainted it.
Yet even that wouldn’t stop him.
He’d give anything and everything for me.
Including his own life.
And it almost came to that…
Just to be in this moment.
On his knees before me, pouring out not his heart.
But every part of his soul.
I gasp from the sheer strength of his love flowing through me.
And feel something small and bright I’ve kept hidden deep inside light up in response.
“You fill the void inside me,” Raphael murmurs. “I need you, Alena. Without you, I am hollow and empty. Without you, I am incomplete.”
Leaning forward, he presses his forehead against mine and closes his eyes. “I need you alive and near to feel whole.”
Closing my own eyes, I weave my fingers in his black hair and hold him close.
Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I finally admit what I’ve been denying since the Prophet showed me part of this moment during the Judging.