All Souls' Night - Renee Rose Page 0,103

any moment. “Please come back to the club.”

She shakes her head no against my chest.

“Sweetheart, if you don’t, I will be forced to wipe your mind. Please, don’t make me do that.”

“You could just let me go,” she murmurs into my chest, but her arms relax and move around me as she presses herself closer to me.

“You know I cannot. I don’t want to lose you, not now, knowing that we are meant to be together.” I sigh and lay my cheek on her head. “If you don’t feel the same, I will wipe your mind and let you go.”

“I do feel the same, Aaron.” She looks up at me with hurt in her eyes. “I just cannot live looking over my shoulder, wondering where the next attack is going to come from.”

“I promise you, Siannon is on her final warning. The king will not allow her to harm you again. We have rules; Lucius will make sure they are enforced. And I swear I will not leave your side again. You will be safe.”

“You do realize that she endangers you all much more than I ever could.” Her lips tremble as she speaks, and her eyes are still watery pools of agony.

I clear the tears from her cheeks. “I know. I know you would never share your knowledge with anyone. And if I could, if I was stronger, I’d let you go. I’d let you get far away from me, from the club, from Siannon, but I can’t, not without wiping your memory. I truly do not want to do that. I want you, Clarabelle, I want you to be mine. I swear on everything that I hold dear that I will protect you.”

She rests her forehead against my chest, looking down at my feet. She doesn’t say anything, she just stands there, sniffling in my arms.

“Please come back to the club.”

She sighs. “Okay.” The word is so soft, I almost miss it. She pulls back and looks up at me. “You’ll stay by my side? You won’t let her or anyone else hurt me?”

“I swear it,” I reply.

Chapter 10

Aaron leads me over to his car and helps me in as if I am the most fragile, important person in his world. If it weren’t for everything else going on, I’d have thought it sweet. Now I wonder if it is merely because I might run otherwise. He carefully buckles me in and then closes the door.

As he slides behind the wheel, he looks at me and asks, “Are we okay?”

I nod. It was never him that I had a problem with, just Siannon, and maybe Eldridge. He scared me too, though I don’t think he would kill me. “Yeah.” I gaze out of the window. “I still don’t understand how she’s gotten away with so much.”

Aaron obviously knows immediately who I am talking about. “Siannon is a criminal among our kind—”

“Your kind, you mean.” I glance at him. I know it is a petty dig, but I am still hurt and upset at how I was treated in the club. I sigh when he doesn’t continue. “I’m sorry, I—”

“No. You’re right. Siannon is a criminal among my kind, among vampires. Her actions have been outlawed for nearly a century, but she is and always has been cruel and devious.”

My brow wrinkles and I purse my lips. “How could you be with someone like that? How could you stand to be in a relationship with her?”

Aaron looks away this time, through the windshield. He’s yet to start the car. He sits there staring; the look in his eye tells me he is far away in his memories.

“Aaron?” I lay a hand on his arm.

His cheek twitches up and he blinks, looking over at me. “I hate to say it, but it was a different time. My father was the same, cruel and devious. I suppose she felt… familiar. I saved those I could from her, just so you know. I attempted to break things off with her shortly after we started our affair; that was the first time I left her. She tracked me down, made promises—which she broke, of course. We’ve been in this loop ever since then. I leave, she tracks me down, makes promises she doesn’t intend to keep, and then I am left picking up the pieces, saving the lives of those I can. I wanted it to stop.” He turns back to look out the window. “I came here to Arizona about thirty years