words, my heart thundered against my chest, and I wanted to slap him, scream at him, or do something to release the pain his words had caused. I was stuck with him for eternity, and any child I had, he would take. Was I supposed to just accept that? Fuck that and him.
“That dark look of absolute rejection burning within your stare, Remi,” he mumbled softly. “The pain you’re feeling? That’s why I didn’t tell you. I’m a sadistic bastard who enjoys my role, but your pain doesn’t bring me joy. I sort of hate you for it because it tells me you’re a weakness I cannot afford.”
I downed the drink, holding the glass back out for more, watching him hesitate. “You just told me that I’m stuck with you one way or another until the world blows up, and even then, I can’t escape you in our next life. I don’t see it happening soon enough for it to be relevant, so pour me a damn drink, Van Helsing. Tell me about the festival. Or tell me something not horrible about this world in which I was born.”
“Your dress is finished. I allowed it to be silver to symbolize your house. You’ll wear the only silver ribbon as well. When you choose a partner, you tie it around his wrist, and at the end of the night, if he chooses you, you will be his for twenty-four hours to procreate. Most can’t create life anymore or have lost the ability because of what they’ve become. As you know, Beltane is the only time of the year that immortals are fertile. Therefore, any children born to immortals are off-limits in feuds, since breeding is such a rare occasion.”
“Unless they’re Silversmith children? In which case, you’d take them from me,” I countered harshly, watching his throat bob at my reply. “That was an asshole thing to say.”
“But true,” he admitted without removing his heated stare from mine. “They’re off-limits again, though. That shouldn’t have happened. Rage, grief, and fear create monsters. They don’t think before they act, and when they do, it’s done harshly and without care to those they harm. We didn’t start out as monsters, Remi. We became the monsters to prevent a war, unlike anything the mortals would have ever seen. Us giving into our demons allowed us to prevent the humans from perishing to a greedy bitch who wanted too much. Had Roslyn gotten her way, she’d be the immortal queen of all the houses. But her greed wouldn’t have ended there. She’d want the entire world. Roslyn was tired of hiding who and what she was. She wanted it all. She’d do something so horrid and then cry for forgiveness afterward, and everyone always forgave her.”
“Almost everyone,” I whispered, sipping the cup. “Someone needed to stop her,” I admitted, sipping the whiskey while lifting my eyes to hold his stare. “Evil is evil, and sometimes it is blood. Roslyn sounds like a psychotic, murderous bitch. I’ll pick a beta, because if I have a child, no one is taking it from me, Rhys. Not even you. As I said, I take pride in the things I create, and if I create life, I will assure it is perfect, and I will raise my children myself because that’s important to me.”
“I figured you would want your child, Remington. You’re the kind of woman that men look for as a mate. You’re smart, beautiful, and there’s a loyalty within you that not many people can even begin to understand. I went through your files from E.V.I.E. last night. You entered under an alias, Remi Cordova, and earned the entire division’s highest marksmanship scores. You marked higher than pure born witches in magic skills, and yet you chose to make weapons. You could have done anything you wanted within E.V.I.E. and gone straight to the highest-ranking level of hunter, but you chose not to do so. Why?”
“Because your bloodline cursed mine, and that limits me. I’d have put others in danger, and that wasn’t something I could allow. Sometimes we have to accept our faults, see our limitations, and understand what they mean for others and ourselves. I know mine, and I know what they mean for others. I can’t expect others to save me all the time. So, I stayed where I could help E.V.I.E. the most. I am a good shot, powerfully blessed with magic, and I can hunt down my enemies. The thing is, to do