Page 55 of Vow of Darkness
There’s no point in denying it now. “I care for your safety.”
“So if you care for me, then why do you treat me this way? Let me see my father. I can still be with you. Just let me have more freedom.”
“No.”
“Why? Gabriel, why control me like this? It won’t make me love you.”
I startle at her words. “Love? Who said anything about love?”
She reaches her hand out to me. “Gabriel…”
“No.” I back away from her. “I don’t need your love. I want you, Aurora, because it’s fun. It’s fun to tear down your innocence. To make you mine. But I don’t need love in my life to be happy. I don’t need your love to be happy. I will make sure you don’t die because I refuse to lose you like I did my family. But it’s not out of love.”
“It’s possession,” she whispers as a coldness enters her eyes.
“Whatever you want to call it. But love is a weakness. It only ends up hurting people. You do not love me, Aurora, so don’t pretend like you could ever have those feelings for me. I forced you into this marriage. Into this life.”
“But you want me to be yours.”
“I do. But it’s different from love and you know that. We both do.”
“Do we?” She looks at me like she can see into my soul and it’s disconcerting. “It sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself of that but you don’t really believe it.”
“You don’t know my head.”
“I know you experienced something horrific in your life and now you’re determined to drag everyone down with you. But I will not let you drag me down into the darkness with you. I will not.” Even now, laying in her hospital bed, having just lost a lot of blood, Aurora still has a fighting spirit.
“Stay here,” I say in as cold of a voice as I can manage. “Rest. I’ll pick you up later.” I leave the room before we can argue more.
Before Aurora can see into my soul and discover all the shame I have.
Aurora
Gabriel takes me back home. After what he told me, everything has changed. I get why he is the way he is now. Cold and distant. Angry and dark.
It’s because he saw his family murdered before his eyes. I’m not sure how anyone could come back from that. But he did and now he’s on a mission of revenge.
Gabriel claims he doesn’t have room for love in his heart but I saw the way he cared for me. He doesn’t want me to die the way his family did. That has to mean something.
It’s something that I have to cling to otherwise I’m not going to survive in this mansion.
Gabriel walks me to my bedroom, like he’s trying to make sure I still don’t run even though I’ve proven I won’t.
“I’ll be fine,” I murmur. “I won’t hurt myself.”
“I don’t trust you to not get yourself in danger again.”
“Need I remind you that I wouldn’t have gotten myself into danger if you hadn’t been torturing that man? Or if you hadn’t made me try and kill him?”
Gabriel looks away from me like he can’t stand the fact that he knows I’m right. Or is it shame? What emotion is he keeping deep within himself?
“Go into your room,” he says gruffly.
I do as he says since the honest truth is that I’m tired from the whole ordeal and I just want to rest.
To my surprise, Gabriel follows me into my room. He pulls silk ties out of his pocket.
“What is that?” I ask.
