I thought you loved me. I thought I loved you! How could you?" I shrieked as Collin failed to answer me. His lips pressed tightly together, as he struggled to speak, and more silence lingered between us. I smashed my fists into his chest harder this time, wanting to hurt him.
He grabbed my wrists gently finally, saying, "Ivy, it wasn't like that. The blood does have that effect - it can make you enamored with me - but you liked me before all that happened. It wasn't like that. It wasn't. Please believe me..." He dropped my hands, and held my face to make me look up at him. His bright blue eyes were terrified. The bond was overwhelming me with fear...he was afraid he'd lose me.
I pushed him away, feeling like his words tore a hole in my stomach. Unable to accept what he did, I asked, "When? Why don't I remember it?" Collin stepped toward me, reaching for me, but I stepped away. I wouldn't let him come any closer. His touch, his voice, his scent - they could all be used to manipulate me.
Eric moved towards us, shoving his hands in his pockets. I'd forgotten he was there. When he spoke up, he surprised us both, saying, "It was the night you almost died, Ivy. When I found you in the woods, I could smell it. His blood was on your lips. It wasn't Jake's." Shock silenced Collin and I. Eric wasn't supposed to remember his previous life, but he remembered that. He remembered all of it. Before I could ask anything else, he kept going, moving closer and closer to me. "He gave you a little blood that night, to save you of course." Eric looked at Collin, with a lazy smile on his face, "And maybe you gave her a little later, when she didn't recover from a vision the way you wanted. You told her that you threw water on her, but water didn't affect her - but blood would. Anything like that happen, Ivy?"
My stomach was sinking as it twisted tighter and tighter. My heart was racing, hammering inside my head. The more Eric said, the larger the crushing fear that Collin was using me this entire time grew. I looked at Collin wondering if I knew him at all. He had doused me with water one night when I had a vision. I was soaking wet when I came to. He said he had to pull me out of a vision, and that he was worried something had happened to me. It was possible that he fed me more blood that night. I was unconscious and didn't actually see what he did. Did he? Did he feed me his blood to pull me out of the vision like that? Remembering back, Collin looked terrified. Was it possible that he did it? Looking into his face, I wanted him to deny it. I wanted him to say it never happened, but he didn't.
The bond swirled memories at me, memories laced with regret. Some of the thoughts were mine and some were his. I pushed through the haze trying to latch onto what I knew from the night Jake attacked me. I died. I felt my soul trying to leave my body. Most of it was devoured, but I suddenly wondered why Jake stopped. The memories from that night were so cloudy. Was it possible that Collin had demon kissed me, too? Repulsion and shock made my mouth fall open as fear ripped through my body.
"Ivy," Collin pleaded, "don't listen to him. He's lying. That's not what happened. I would never..." he reached for me, but I backed away from him. My mouth was hanging open and no matter what I did, I couldn't push past the shock. Why would he do this to me? Why would Collin use demon blood like this on me? If his words were true, if we liked each other before, why did he do it?
Eric strode between us and cut him off, "You'd never... what? Never want her to know the truth? Never want her to know how much you wanted her, when she didn't want you. Blood kinda changes that, doesn't it? Now she can't stop thinking about you. Now she wants you even if she doesn't know why." Eric looked back at me. I couldn't speak. Every inch of my body felt like it was going to rip apart. When Eric smiled at me, I