Chapter 9
**MYRA**
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My body begged me to run to Vladimir, and my skin ached to touch his, but I forced myself to stay strong and not give in to temptation. As much torture as it was walking toward him, agonizingly slow, it was what I needed to do to clear my mind.
Why was he here now? It's been a decade, and I haven't heard a peep from anyone in the Solar Moon pack since the day I left. I thought Vladimir would have realized that I wasn't only leaving my pack behind when I left. I was leaving him behind too. Since our first meeting, I've made my opinion very clear that I don't want a vampire mate, and yet here I am ten years later with my mate, the vampire king, standing within arms reach of me.
"What are you doing here, fangy?" I snapped, crossing my arms to hide the goosebumps crawling on top of them.
"Why looking for you, of course," Vladimir replies, smiling widely and showing off those fangs I despise.
He goes to stand up, but I hurry into the booth opposite his. At least we will have a table to separate us. I start to drum my fingers against the table, a nervous habit I picked up over the years, but it helps soothe my nerves.
"Are you alright?" Vladimir asks, concerned by my finger tapping.
No! No, I'm not alright. It took me five agonizing years to find happiness again and then another five to trust in that happiness, and now here you are, waltzing back into my life, disrupting everything I've worked so hard for.
"Just peachy," I reply, not bothering to hold back the eye roll. "Now, really, why are you here?"
"Your daughter's name is Riss, right?" Vladimir asks, not bothering to answer my question. "She's a very spunky toddler; her personality reminds me of you."
"Yes, her name is Riss." I reply, "And you've not even met my daughter, and we've only met once on a very brief occasion. You can't compare us when you don't even know us."
"My heart knows you." Vladimir replies, his hand reaching across the table too quickly for me to see, grabs ahold of mine, "My skin ignites when it touches yours. Your scent sends a hunger…."
At the word hunger, I'm broken from the spell his charm and the mate bond created. Of course, he hungers for me. His kind has hunted down those of my blood for centuries. My parents and all of my ancestors before them were slaughtered by vampires because of their intoxicating blood. If I let him near me, Vladimir would kill me, and now Riss too. His kind was nothing more than bloodthirsty monsters.
"Hunger." I hiss, snapping my hand from his. "Sounds about right. I'm sure you want to drain me dry and leave my shriveled corpse for someone to find."
"That is not what I meant," Vladimir replies, brows furrowing.
"I'm sure it isn't." I mock, "You are just like all the rest of them. No, you're worse than the others. You're their King. You could stop all of this, but you choose not to."
"Myra," Vladimir states calmly, "I am only the king of this region. There are other vampire kings out there. I have rules and regulations in my kingdom. If one of my vampires breaks those rules, then they're subject to death depending on their crimes."
"So you're telling me you aren't part of the Sidorvo family?" I ask, holding my breath, hoping that just maybe, for the first time ever, the universe would bless me with the teensiest tiniest bit of luck.
Vladimir sighs heavily, causing his shoulders to droop. "Yes, I am a part of the Sidorvo family, but." He begins.
"But nothing. Having any relationship with that family makes you dead to me." I snarl, slamming the table as I abruptly stand up.
"Your heart and your mind seem to be on opposing teams," Vladimir states as he too stands. "I can hear how your heart thrums at the sound of my voice. I can smell what my presence does to you. I can…"
"ENOUGH!" I shout, shaking with anger, excitement, or fear… who the hell knows? I know I need to get as far away from Vladimir as possible. He and I, we can never happen. Us being near each other right now would cause my ancestors to turn over in their graves. His family had slaughtered mine, and I would not let his bloodline be the end of mine. "This," I gestured between the two of us, making sure to create more space between us as I did, "cannot and will not ever happen. The moon goddess, the sun god, whoever comes up with this mate bond shit. They got ours wrong. We were never meant to be together. You're an addict, and I am your morphine. Even now, I can see you struggling to control your urges, your monster's desire to drain me of every last drop of blood."
"That is not..." Vladimir started, but I cut him off immediately.
"Don't tell me that's not what's happening here, fangy. I can see the red eyes of your demon swirling between the cerulean blue. I can see how your veins protrude beneath your eyes whenever you inhale my scent. How you force yourself to swallow down your instincts and yet still you almost lose the internal battle within yourself. It's never been nature versus nurture when it comes to our kind. You are the predator, and I am the prey. It is written in our DNA."
"Huh..." Vladimir replies, rubbing his thumb and forefinger across his chin as if he's deep in thought. "You've been broken." He states bluntly, his tone indicating that there is no room for his mind to be changed.
"Of course, I'm broken," I reply, forcing a blank expression on my face, shoving down the real pain just below the surface.
The pain that, at times, is unbearable. The pain, the hurt, the agony, the darkness, the suffocating feeling of hopelessness that I've carried in me for so long that I can't remember what life was like before this parasite attached itself to me, slowly draining my life force. I only know that the little girl outside is the reason I'm still here, the reason my heart is still beating, and the reason I force myself every morning to get out of bed and appreciate the fact that I'm still breathing. The one who saved my life the day I saw that positive test sitting on the bathroom counter.
"No, not a normal broken. Not the broken people think of when you lose a cherished friend, not the type of broken you feel when your loved ones pass away in a tragic accident. This broken is entirely different from grief. When I say you're broken, I mean you've lost your fight. The girl I met that day in the forest alongside the river. That girl was a fighter. The person standing before me is no longer the fierce warrior that she once was. This woman is broken. Her flame, the fire that once burned so strongly inside her, has been extinguished. Her light smothered out. She's no longer a survivor willing to stand her ground against a bloodthirsty vampire king. What happened to the girl I met on the riverside that fateful night?" Vladimir asked.
I gritted my teeth in annoyance. Vladimir knows nothing of who I am. He only saw a small fragment of me that day. The time I spent with him the night of the bombing was comparable to less than a nanosecond of my life so far, and yet he thinks he knows who I am. The worst part of it all is that he's spot on. Vladimir knows me inside and out, and I haven't even bared all to him.
I steel my emotions as I narrow my eyes at him. "You know nothing of who I am, Vladimir." I spit. "The girl I once was, she was nothing compared to the woman I am now. That girl was an innocent player in the game of life, a person who believed she could change the hand the fates dealt her. She was a dreamer. The woman before you, she's learned not to bet against the fates. She's learned that a pair will never become a full house. It'll just be a pair. Don't stand here and call me broken when you have no idea what happened to get me here."
Tears are threatening to spill from my eyes, and I angrily blink them away. Vladimir steps forward, his hand out to comfort me. "Don't," I reply, my voice sounding as defeated as I feel. "Just don't."
"Let me be here for you, Myra. Let me carry whatever burden is weighing you down. Let me be the shoulder you lean on."
"No," I state firmly.
Vladimir's eyes are filled with hurt. I want to step forward and comfort her, but I steel my emotions. It's not me that wants to comfort him; it's the bond that's trying to pull me to him.
"At least give me the chance to get to know you. You promised me at least one date."
"That was a long time ago," I reply, shaking my head no as I do.
"So the Faerie women do not keep their promises then?" Vladimir questions, his eyebrows raised as if he's trapped me.
"This situation is different..." I begin to reply but am cut off by a familiar intrusive voice.
"Ah, the handsome man is right, Myra; a promise is a promise. She'll meet you here tomorrow at 6 pm sharp." Betsy states, smiling mischievously.
"Betsy, I really don't think this is appro..." I begin before once again being interrupted.
"Ah, don't speak to me about propriety, missy. What's inappropriate is a beautiful woman locking herself up away from the world. Go out. Have fun." Betsy replies walking further into the room, a bashful Riss tucked into her side.
"Betsy, I can't. I'm not ready...."