Page 28 of A Vampire's Pain
“And let you kill Damon. Yes, what a good way to win Valeri over,” he said.
“Who said I would have killed him?” I asked.
“Damon wouldn’t give her up. Ever. Not without a fight, and since she is his sister, and after everything that happened to her, he will not let her go until he dies. He wouldn’t leave you with any choice.”
I just looked away, knowing he was speaking the truth.
“Wait? What happened to Valeri?” Lara asked.
I could see out of the corner of my eye, Dominic turning to her, and how he gently stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. The two of them looked at each other with so much love and understanding, it made my heart ache.
“It’s a long story,” he said. “And not for us to tell you.”
“How bad of a story is it?” she asked.
Lara must have sensed it wasn’t a happy story from Dominic’s tone.
“A bad one,” Dominic just said, and Lara looked so sad.
I sighed, not wanting to think about it. Once Valeri was mine, something like that would never happen to her again. I promised myself that.
“I’m going to find Ace,” I said and got up.
“Gabriel, give him time!” Dominic yelled after me, as I walked away.
“Fuck time!”
Chapter 12
-Gabriel-
Chapter 12
-Gabriel-
I searched everywhere in the house, except his room. I knew Ace didn’t like anyone to enter. He liked his privacy and for a good reason. What he hadn’t endured … It was horrible and having a place he could escape to, where no one could come, brought him a feeling of safety. Ace really had been the unlucky one of us three.
While Dominic and I had both grown up in rich and, I guess, rather happy families, where we lacked nothing, Ace had not been so lucky. He had been kidnapped when he was just a baby by his wet nurse and brought into a much darker world. One I still didn’t know much about. He kept most details to himself, but it was a surprise he had survived it. His family, though, had died searching for him. He never even got a chance to meet them, but I knew they had searched for him like crazy until it drove them both to their deaths.
I went to his room though, as I had searched the entire house. I stopped right in front of the door, just looking at the brown color. Maybe Dominic was right. Maybe I should leave him alone, but at the same time, I also knew he wouldn’t let me be alone at a time like this. There was just something between us there wasn’t between others. We shared a bond. One I knew he wanted more from, but I couldn’t really give him.
“Ace?”
I knocked, but of course, there was no answer.
“I know you’re in there,” I said.
He still didn’t answer me.
“Come on. Let us talk about this,” I said.
I heard something move on the other side, but no one opened the door.
“I didn’t mean to find her. She was just … there,” I said.
Ace and I had both found ourselves drowning in loneliness. Maybe that was why we had connected so well. Dominic had always seemed so put together. Always been the leader, and the king. He just seemed to stand on more steady ground than the rest of us.
“Come on. Just open the door,” I said.
