Page 25 of Knight’s Seduction
She shook her head. “You know, it’s the craziest thing, but I…believe you. When I’m with you, I feel, different…not a stranger in my own skin, if that makes sense.” Her gaze moved over him. “I guess it’s the angel thing?”
No, it was the mate thing because he’d never experienced anything like this with any of the demi he’d helped, and he was positive no other demi had ever felt that way around him. But she had enough to process for one day, adding that little bomb to the mix wasn’t a good idea. Not yet. So instead, he said, “Yeah, that’s probably it.”
“So what do I tell my parents and David while I’m here?”
Fucking David. “He left you there, ran off and didn’t even attempt to protect you,” Kryos growled out before he could stop himself. “He doesn’t deserve you and he never did.”
Her hands twisted in her lap. “Despite being a coward, it’s cruel to leave him in the dark, assuming something awful happened to me. He’ll be racked with guilt.”
Kryos swallowed down a vicious curse. “That fucker deserves to suffer. He should feel guilty.”
“He’s not some…some, sword-wielding warrior angel. He’s human. He was afraid—”
“Meredith, I’ve seen humans do incredible things for the people they love, terrifying, life-altering things. I’ve seen them give their lives for the ones they care about most.” He curled his fingers into fists, trying to keep his voice even, trying to control his madly beating heart. “Would you have left him if things were the other way around? He didn’t even go for help, Meredith.”
Her eyes slid from him to the other side of the room.
“Do you love him?” he forced himself to ask.
Her gaze sliced back to him. “No.”
He had to stop himself from sagging with relief.
“But he was scared for his life. Not everyone’s like you; he was terrified.”
“You don’t think I feel fear?”
She licked her lips. “I’m not sure what to think.” Silence filled the space between them, several long seconds ticking by. Her gaze dipped to his mouth and he leaned closer before he could stop himself.
Meredith bit her lip and turned away. “So…my parents? What do I tell them?”
This was the part he dreaded above all others. “You don’t tell them anything, Meredith. You leave them behind. There’s no other way, not without putting their lives in danger. Every demi must break from their old lives completely. It’s the only way.”
The expression on her face physically hurt to look at. Pain, acute and raw, stared back at him.
“You can’t be serious,” she whispered.
He held her hand more firmly. “You never felt like you belonged with them, did you, sweets? And you never believed they loved you like they should, like other families loved their children?”
Her lip trembled. “That doesn’t mean they should suffer like that, thinking I’ve been kidnapped and hurt, murdered by those men, because that’s what they’ll think.”
“How long had you been living in that room above the garage?”
Her face darkened, and she dipped her gaze. “Since I was ten.”
Kryos bit back a curse. Her parents never fucking deserved her.
He hated what he had to tell her next, even though it was the truth. “We’ll make sure they know you’re never coming back,” he said gently. “They’ll mourn you, they will. But I’ve been doing this a long time, Meredith. A fucking long time. And the human families left behind, who have unknowingly raised a demi…like you…” He gave her hand another squeeze. “Meredith, the strongest emotion they usually feel after is relief.”
A tear slid down her cheek.
He forced himself to keep talking, to try to make her understand. “If those families haven’t already cast those children aside, they forced themselves to raise them out of duty, despite their…aversion to their own children. The disconnect you felt with them, they felt toward you as well.”
Meredith said nothing, long seconds stretching out, then she blinked, and more tears slid down her cheeks because she knew, deep down, he was right.
Chapter 7
Meredith made her way down the hall to the training room.
