Vowed (The Vampire Journals, #7) - Morgan Rice Page 0,28

anyone else was up here. A part of him immediately recognized the voice, but another part refused to believe it could be possible.

Caleb’s heart stopped as he turned and saw her. Sure enough, it was her. Standing there, not ten feet away, facing him. Looking as intense and passionate as she always had.

Sera.

Caleb was speechless.

She took a few, deliberate, steps forward, smiling crookedly.

“Miss me?” she asked.

Caleb started to answer, then stopped. He had no idea what to say. He was at a total loss for words. How could she possibly do this? Appear here, and now, at this time and place? When his wedding was just hours away?

Then again, he realized he shouldn’t be surprised. She’d always had a way, as long as he’d known her, of appearing at the worst possible moments, of ruining anything and everything good in his life.

He felt his frustration building.

“You don’t have to answer,” Sera continued, getting closer. “I can sense it. You miss me terribly.

But you don’t have to worry any longer: I’m here now.”

She took a few more steps forward, and then reached up to lay a hand on his shoulder, putting on her most seductive look.

Caleb took a step back and let her hand fall in the air, not wanting to be touched by her.

“What are you doing here?” he asked coldly.

She slowly shook her head.

“That’s the Caleb I always knew,” she said. “Still playing hard to get. Still afraid to let your feelings for me be known. But that’s okay. I know how you truly feel.”

“You must leave, Sera,” Caleb responded. “I’m sorry that you came, but you are not welcome here. This is our time now. Caitlin’s time, and my time.”

Sera scowled.

“Don’t say her name in front of me,” she spat. “She doesn’t count. You know that. You merely turn to her because you cannot have me. I know that you long for me.

“I’ve arrived, before your wedding day, to save you from what you don’t really want. This is your chance. Your last chance, before you make the biggest mistake of your life. Come back to me. To our home, to France. We will start a new family. We will be happy, like we’d been before.” Caleb shook his head, amazed at how deeply she still lived in fantasy, especially after all these years.

“I am truly sorry,” he began, “but I have not loved you for centuries. I thought I made that clear. I’m not playing a game. I’m not playing hard to get. I sincerely do not have feelings for you anymore. So I ask respectfully that you leave me now. And that you do not return.”

“Then you admit you had feelings for me once?” she asked.

Caleb thought about that. “Once. Centuries ago. Lifetimes ago.” She smiled. “That’s all I needed to hear. If you had feelings for me once, you can have feelings for me again. After all, I have not changed.”

“But I have,” Caleb answered. “I’m not the Caleb that you once knew. I have grown, and changed. Caitlin has changed me. I love her now. I really do. And I will marry her. I look forward to marrying her. And nothing that you can say or do will ever make a difference.”

“And what about our son?” Sera snapped, practically in tears. “Jade,” she snapped again, using the name as a weapon. “Have you so conveniently forgotten about him? Does he mean nothing to you?”

Caleb felt tears well in his eyes at the thought of his son. He missed him dearly, every day, but nothing he could would bring him back now. He’d finally come to peace with that.

“I’m sorry, Sera, but Jade is gone. Nothing we can do will ever change that.” Caleb turned and began to walk away, realizing that nothing he said would change her mind, and hoping that maybe she would just disappear.

But moments later, he felt a cold hand on his shoulder, and felt it yank him, spin him back around.

Now, she was scowling, her face transformed by rage.

“You dare to disrespect me?” Sera asked. “Me? The one that you have loved for centuries?” She looked Caleb up and down, as if he were an insect. “How far you have fallen. Now you are just a pathetic creature.”

“Are you finished?” Caleb asked.

Her face deepened with rage.

“No. I’m not finished. I will never be finished. No one rejects me. No one! ” She was practically spitting the words, like a madwoman. “Today, you have made the greatest mistake of your life.