She gasped and glared at him. “Knock it off, Elijah. You may not be a mortal, but you’re no monster.”
Elijah scoffed at her words and looked away from her probing eyes.
“Sabrina, you’re forgetting one fact,” Isaac interrupted. She swung her gaze back to Isaac and arched an eyebrow. Isaac continued, “If you become a vampire, we couldn’t be together. I’d be your enemy. We’d be apart forever, or damned and hunted down if I went to you. It’s no way to live.”
“You’ll be damned and hunted down for pairing with Elijah as well, which doesn’t bother you. So why not be damned and be rid of Louisa’s threat in the process? I wouldn’t be a weak human, and we could be together forever.”
Isaac let his breath escape in a hiss. “No. Absolutely not.”
Sabrina crossed her arms and turned her attention back to Elijah. “If you won’t do it, Elijah, I’ll find some other way to make it happen. I won’t sit by and let Louisa hunt me down and kill me. I will fight.”
“You will not!” Isaac yelled.
Elijah interrupted once more, insisting. “Isaac, you need to get her inside. I know Louisa is nearby, and we don’t want to risk tempting her any longer. Go argue in the house, where I don’t have to listen.”
Isaac nodded his head and grabbed Sabrina’s arm.
She pulled back and drawled, “Yes, let’s hide the poor human girl. We wouldn’t want her to stub her toe.”
Elijah hid his smile, feigning a cough, while Isaac growled.
“Knock it off, Sabrina.”
She glared at him and spun to Elijah. “Elijah, please….” His eyes softened, and Isaac picked her up in his arms.
“Don’t even think about it, or I’ll kill you right here and now.”
“Do you promise?” Elijah taunted.
“Absolutely.”
He turned his back on Elijah, and ran home.
***
They were back at her house in seconds, and she opened her eyes to see him glowering at her.
“This is unacceptable.”
“No, my becoming a vampire isn’t unacceptable. Me staying a human, however, is,” she insisted.
He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. She knew he was frustrated, but no longer furious, since no storm brewed outside. He clutched her to his chest and kissed the top of her head as he sighed.
“Sabrina, I’ll keep you safe. I promise you, if it’s the last thing I do, I’ll kill Louisa.”
She whispered, “I can’t accept the risk. I won’t allow it to be the last thing you do.”
“You becoming my enemy will solve nothing. It’ll just serve to keep us apart. If you are a vampire, and I follow the rules I, myself, enforce, I can never see you again. If I go with you, knowing you are my enemy, I sign both of our death warrants. A leader can’t just do as he pleases and expect his followers to stay in line. The chances of them discovering anything about me and Elijah are a lot lower than them finding out I’m in love with our enemy. You might as well kill me now, and save me the pain.”
“We can still be together. It will have to be in secret. But still, it’s possible. We could find a way.”
“Stealing away at midnight for a romp in the forest? Not my style, thank you,” he said sarcastically.
She rolled her eyes, and replied, “So you’d rather screw a seventy-year-old woman?”
He looked at her in confusion. “What in the world are you talking about?”
“I’m going to get older. You’ll always be twenty-seven.”
Laughter filled his eyes, and she knew she had lost the battle. “I’m sure you’ll be a delicious old lady.”
She growled. He nibbled her ear and laughed harder. “I won’t allow you to become my enemy because you’re afraid of a few wrinkles. There’s always Botox,” he joked.
“I’m going to die sometime. You realize that, right? If I remain human, eventually you’ll have to hold my hand as I die. It’s inevitable. It might be in a few days’ time when Louisa gets her hands on me, or it might be in fifty years. But regardless of when it happens, it will.”
Pain flashed over his eyes as he contemplated her words. It became obvious to her he’d never thought of this unavoidable fact.
“Yes, of course. And there’s nothing I can do but make sure you live a full mortal life. I can do no more,” he maintained.
She glared at him and bit her lip. He looked into her eyes and pulled her into his arms again.
“This will pass soon, and Louisa will be gone. Now isn’t the time to be making rash decisions.”
“Now is the perfect time to make decisions,” she insisted.
They both knew they wouldn’t agree on this issue. He would keep her safe, and human, at all costs. She remained determined to keep him alive at all costs. They shared a common goal, yet had different plans on how to achieve victory.
They were on opposite sides of the river, and neither would step foot onto a boat to cross to the other side.
There was nothing more to say.
***
“Hello,” she murmured.
He smiled at her, his eyes both cynical and self-depreciating in the purple-strewn darkness. “I had to speak to you. I have to explain our conversation in your house. I haven’t had a chance to tell you why I killed Amelia.”
Sabrina tensed, and stared at him in confusion. “You didn’t kill her. Louisa did.”
Elijah looked away before turning back and holding his hand out to her. She put her hand into his, and they wandered to a fallen oak tree to sit.
“I don’t understand, Elijah. I saw Louisa stab Amelia with your dagger.”
“No, you saw Amelia with my dagger sticking out of her chest. My dagger I kept by my side, always.”
“Of course it would be by your side, how else would she get it?” When he stared into her eyes, she comprehended the meaning behind his confession. “Oh.”
“I killed her. I took her life—”
“You did it out of love, Elijah. You have no idea how much pain she felt.” Sabrina shuddered. “She’d have thanked you if she could. I promise.”
He stared at her and swallowed heavily. “How I wish I could believe you. It haunts me, the look on her face as she stopped breathing.” He put his head on his knees and moaned.
Her heart twisted at his words, and she put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I got put inside her head. She loved you even after the stabbing. The last thing she thought of, the last thing she saw, was you.”