Crimson Bond: A Young Adult Vampire Romance (The Crimson Accord Series Book 3) by Amy Patrick

Author:Amy Patrick [Patrick, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford South Press
Published: 2021-03-18T18:30:00+00:00

16

Not Even You

Reece

My heart thrashed inside my chest, thrown into a frenzy by Abbi’s sweet, terrible confession.

“You can’t love me. I’m Bloodbound.”

“That doesn’t change how I feel,” she insisted.

She’d moved to sit up, staying in her own bed, thank God, but facing me only feet away. I could literally feel her enticing warmth and passion from here.

“It was the pendant—my blood,” I suggested. “I should never have given that to you.”

“That did make me feel close to you—and it saved my life after I was shot—but it’s not what I’m talking about. I do love you. I always have.”

Inappropriate joy warred with justified shame inside me. “You wouldn’t say that if you knew everything I’ve done. You wouldn’t love me—you’d hate me.”

“Are you talking about the people you bit? About turning your family?” she asked. “Reece, I already told you that doesn’t matter to me. No one who understands what it’s like to turn could blame you for that—me least of all.”

She scooted even closer until our knees were nearly touching. “Not only did I turn Josiah, my actions resulted in him wiping out his family. So technically, I’m worse than you are.”

I closed my eyes, letting out a heavy exhale. “That’s not true.”

“It is.”

She came off the bed and reached for me. I stood, catching her hand in the air, preventing her from touching me or coming any closer. If she did, I’d never be able to get through this.

“No, Abbi. It’s not. You’re not the one to blame for those people’s deaths... I am.”

“What? Reece, you had nothing to do with—”

“Just shut up and listen to me, okay? Please?”

The sounds of my labored breaths mixed with her shallow ones.

“After I left my hometown, I went looking for you,” I said. “I tracked you from the accident scene back to your village. Then I followed your scent to the farm.”

“You were there?”

I nodded, though it was doubtful she could see me. Her hand was still in mine, but it had gone slack.

“I was desperate to find you, and I kind of hoped I wouldn’t, too. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I did see you again—I thought you were still human at the time,” I explained.

“I still hadn’t tried animal blood at that point, and my thirst never seemed to cease. It felt sort of tangled up with the last emotion I’d been feeling as a human—extreme desire—for you.”

Abbi let out a quiet gasp, but she didn’t speak, just let me continue damning myself.

“I went to the barn, stood there looking up. I could hear you breathing, hear your heartbeat. I hadn’t decided yet whether to go up and talk to you—I was afraid I might hurt you—and then a wagon pulled into the drive. Your friend Josiah was in it with an older couple. I ran and hid behind the house.”

“That was the night they died,” she said in a reverent tone.

“That’s right.” And don’t I know it.

“I don’t remember everything about that night, but I remember watching and listening as you climbed the tree and went into his room.

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