Her admission ripped the wind out of his sails. He opened his mouth to speak, choked a little and swallowed before finding his voice. “Not even then.”
A shudder wracked her, legs turning unsteady. “Because I won’t do it. I can’t. I can’t.” She shook her head vigorously, words spilling from her mouth in a jumbled torrent. “Not even if you killed them. Not ever.” His eyes started to glitter, his nostrils flaring. “You’re…you’re mine. I’m yours. I can’t do it, Elias. I could never—”
In a blur of movement, he enfolded Roksana in his arms, crushing her to his chest. “Shhh, mate. My beautiful Roksana. Everything is going to be all right.”
Being held by him was the ultimate anchor and she clung, soaking him in. “I’ll tell my mother about the video,” she said against his throat. “About what really happened that night. I’ll tell her you weren’t involved and request she no longer demand an eye for an eye.”
Roksana wisely left it unspoken that she would beg and barter with Inessa. That she would offer servitude if necessary to keep Elias from being eliminated. It would be her penance for spending three years punishing him for a crime he didn’t commit. If Inessa demanded she walk away from Elias altogether, she would do it to spare him, except he needed his mate’s blood to survive now. They couldn’t be apart. What was she going to do?
Elias must have sensed her panic because his arms tightened, lifting, her bare feet leaving the floor. “We’ll face her together.”
“No.” She tried to wriggle free of his grasp, but Elias’s arms were forged in steel. “She will wield her stake and ask questions later. You could be killed before we have the chance to explain!”
“The same could happen to you!” he raged against her temple, his big body shaking. “Don’t ask me to allow the woman I love more than life itself to put herself in danger. We go together. We do everything together from now on, Roksana. I’d rather be dead than separated from you, don’t you understand that?”
Tears that would no longer be held at bay blurred her vision, her lungs seizing with so many emotions she couldn’t name them all. Happiness, dread, disbelief were chief among them. “I lay my transgressions out in front of you and I get love in return?”
“Yes.”
This. This was unconditional love. And she was beginning to believe she’d been looking for it in the wrong place all along. Then and there, clinging to her vampire for everything she was worth, Roksana vowed on her own honor that she would not let that faith be misplaced.
She would keep it safe and sound.
Keeping them safe came first, though…and that would be much more difficult.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Please remain seated at all times,” Tucker called through the open window of his black Impala as Elias and Roksana emerged from the vampire hold. Exhaust sputtered out into the night air, creating a gray, twisting cloud that matched the one coming from their chauffer’s cigar. “Tucker is not responsible for lost or stolen property or anyone’s inability to appreciate a good fart joke.”
After a quick shower and a change into one of Ginny’s vintage dresses—and another round of cookies for the human—they were leaving for Coney Island. Saying goodbye to her friend had been hard, but not as hard as she’d imagined it would be upon arriving. She’d been mired in doubt and guilt this time yesterday. Now her path was clear. Her decision to approach Inessa and plead Elias’s innocence was a thousand-pound weight gone from her shoulders, even though she knew the negotiation would not be easy.
The trial would be worth it.
Elias loved her.
Roksana was carried toward Tucker’s car in a warm safety net and it was a scary, beautiful imprisonment. She didn’t want out. Lord no. But knowing she couldn’t escape nudged her flight or fight instinct, as much as her heart tried to subdue it. As much as she wanted to give herself over entirely to Elias, without a single reservation, the tell-tale heart of guilt still ticked away under her floorboards. All those hours her mother had spent training her, coaching her through the worst grief imaginable…and she’d once again arrive a failure in Inessa’s eyes. If it wasn’t for Elias’s steadying presence, her calm would have deserted her.
Elias’s palm curved protectively to the base of her spine, his thumb brushing casually across the valley of her bottom, causing her intimate muscles to flex.
Okay, calm might be an exaggeration.
“Shotgun,” Roksana said, a little breathily.
Would she ever not sound out of breath after tonight?
I’d rather be dead than separated from you, don’t you understand that?
The magnitude of what transpired between them in the gym had discombobulated her. There were so many unknowns yet to solve, but sex was not one of them. She’d been anxious to bring the focus back to the physical burn between them. Almost desperate to do so.