Dark Obsession (Vampire Royals of New York #3) - Sarah Piper Page 0,49

a wicked gleam in his eye, he whispered, “Are you certain?”

“I… I’m…” Charley closed her eyes, momentarily disoriented by the sudden shift in his mood, the air crackling between them. “Dorian, I… Yes. Just fucking do it. I’m—”

A sharp, unmistakable pain pierced her skin, and she cried out and opened her eyes, crimson blood dripping from her wrist.

Still gripping her tight, Dorian glanced up from the bite and met her gaze. His eyes were the color of the sunset, wild and unbidden. Behind a dark and desolate smile, her vampire bared his fangs, blood slick on his lips.

“Is this what you want?” he demanded. “To live your life as a monster?”

Tears welled in her eyes, but it wasn’t from the bite or the arguing or even the very real possibility that he might not turn her.

It was because he was still punishing himself. Because he still thought he didn’t deserve happiness or love.

There were no words to encapsulate how she felt about him in that moment. So she pulled out of his grasp, slid her hands into his hair, and kissed him.

Hard. Deep. Bruising.

When she finally pulled away, her mouth was coated in blood, her heart threatening to beat out of her chest. “I’m not afraid of you, Dorian Redthorne. When I look at you—whether you’ve got fangs or a smile or a broody scowl—all I see is the man who has my heart.”

He lowered his eyes and shook his head, the fight draining from his muscles. “You may choose not to see the monster when you look at me, Charlotte, but that doesn’t mean he’s not here.”

“You’re wrong.” She took his face in her hands, forcing him to meet her gaze again. When he did, his eyes were back to their golden glow. “I do see the monster. I see him as clearly as I see the man. It’s who you are, Dorian. And that’s who I love.”

“Is this truly how you want to live your life?” he asked. “Consumed by an endless hunger, knowing at any moment you might snap? That you might catch a stranger on the street—an innocent person, a child—and end their life in a blink, all because you’re having a bad day?” He twined his fingers into her hair, and a tear slipped down his cheek, his eyes filling with anguish. “That you could kill the very person you love more than life itself?”

“Is that what it’s really like for you?” She touched her fingers to his lips, a knot of sadness tightening her throat. “No peace? No love? Not a single shard of light in all that darkness?”

“Charlotte, I…” He closed his eyes and kissed her fingertips, but didn’t answer her question.

“This is my choice, Dorian,” she said. “I’ve thought it through. And I’m asking you to help me—to turn me. If you say no, I—”

“You’ll what? Ask one of my brothers?” he backed away again, the smoldering embers of his earlier anger igniting once more. “One of our enemies, perhaps? I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding a suitable sire. Vampires will be lining up for miles for a chance to sink their fangs into you.”

Charley wanted to be pissed—to lob a few insults, to lash out as sharply as Dorian had.

But all she felt in her heart was disappointment, and a profound sadness that he just couldn’t see things from her perspective.

“No, Dorian,” she said softly. “I was going to say… If you don’t want to turn me, I’ll respect that as your choice, and I won’t go through with it. I don’t want anyone else to do it—it’s you, or it’s no one.” She touched his face one more time and smiled, despite her sadness. “Whatever you decide… It doesn’t change how I feel about you. Nothing ever could. You have to know that.”

His eyes softened, but he didn’t say a word.

Charley stretched up onto her toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek, lingering just a moment before turning away and walking out of the room.

She didn’t wait to hear him speak his final answer.

She’d already read it in his eyes, and it broke her fucking heart.

Chapter Eighteen

The rose garden was covered in a layer of fine black ash—all that remained of Dorian’s epic bonfire. Someone—Aiden, he’d guessed—had hauled away the smoldering remnants of the dining room and boarded up the shattered glass doors.

Beneath the blackened ruins, the roses bloomed anew, their perfect beauty unmarred by his tempestuous rage.

And there, standing upon the charred cobblestones, cupping a blood-red bloom