harder.” His forehead rocked against hers. “Every time I lose control, I am damn near paralyzed with fear afterward, wondering how you’re going to react to it.”
She shrugged. “By loving you.”
A faint amber glow lit his eyes but failed to conceal the very fear he spoke of. She could read it clearly and knew he was afraid to believe that.
“Tell me what happened,” she encouraged him gently.
Releasing her, Cliff backed away a step and drew something small out of one of his pockets. “Here.” He pressed it into her palm.
Emma stared down at the unadorned jump drive. “What is it?”
“Surveillance footage.”
Her heart sank.
“I want you to see it for yourself.”
“Cliff—”
“I need you to see it for yourself.”
Swallowing hard, she nodded and led him over to the sofa.
Cliff said nothing as she shoved the knitting paraphernalia aside to make room for him. Though he glanced at it curiously, Emma offered no explanation. She was too nervous.
Face grim, he sank down on the cushion beside her and waited patiently for her to open her laptop and insert the drive.
It only bore one file.
Vowing to keep all expression from her face, Emma opened it and let the video play.
The hallway down on what she assumed was sublevel 5 filled the screen. It wasn’t all that different from the one on her floor if she discounted the heavy-as-hell doors that secured the vampires’ apartments. Cliff emerged from one such apartment. Clearly agitated, he headed up the hallway.
“Where were you going?” she asked, voice muted.
“I was looking for Doc Linda. I was going to ask her to give me a milder dose of the sedative so I could sleep, but I couldn’t find her.”
A man who was about Emma’s height and a little on the portly side exited the elevator and walked toward Cliff. “Is that Dr. Whetsman?”
“Yeah. I’m about to ask him if he’s seen Linda. He lied and said he hadn’t, but I caught her scent on him and saw blood on his sleeve.”
In the video, Cliff grabbed the man’s arm and brought it close to his face.
“What are you doing?”
“Confirming it’s her blood.”
Oh shit. Cliff’s eyes flashed bright amber as he attacked the man. Violence erupted in the hallway.
It was hard to watch. Not so much the Whetsman part, because he had hurt Linda. And Linda had been good to Cliff. But the rest…
Cliff was such a sweet, gentle soul, more prone to laughter than to anger. To see him snarl and tear through those guards with such fury and ferocity…
And they shot him soooo many times.
It took every ounce of control to keep her eyes dry and her expression blank.
On the screen, Cliff attacked Whetsman again in the network’s lobby, then dropped to his knees and collapsed.
The sofa cushion beneath her sank a little as Cliff moved to halt the video, but Emma stayed his hand. “Let it finish.”
Todd, bless him, was shouting at some guards who had made a move toward Cliff’s unconscious form. John, the brother in charge of security on the ground floor, joined him and helped Todd hold the others back.
Then Mr. Reordon skidded around the corner with a semiautomatic rifle in his hand and ran up to them with three more guards.
“Do you know what they were arguing about?” she asked. Had anyone told him?
“Yeah. Some of the guards wanted to shove me out into the sunlight because I’d injured so many of them.”
“And Mr. Reordon wouldn’t let them.”
“No.”
“Neither would Todd or John or that guy there or that one.” At last she met his gaze. “Because they know what I know—that you’re a good man, Cliff, who’s worth saving. And they haven’t given up on you.” She stroked his tight jaw. “I haven’t either. And I never will. I love you.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed in a swallow. “You can still say that after watching me injure so many?”
“Yes.”
“And you can say that knowing I’m going to do it again?”
She shook her head. “You aren’t going to do it again.”
When he opened his mouth to protest, she touched a finger to his lips.
“You’ve had other psychotic breaks. Did you hurt anyone while you were in the grips of them?”
“I hurt Stuart once.”
“A fellow vampire who healed within minutes and didn’t hold it against you.” Cliff had told her about that. “Did you harm any humans? Or gifted ones? Did you attack any of the guards?”
“No.”
“These were extenuating circumstances, honey. You thought Whetsman had killed Linda, your friend. If I thought Whetsman had killed Cynthia, I would’ve