War of Hearts (True Immortality) - S Young Page 0,54
fluttering in her belly she tried to squash.
“What?” She frowned.
“Tell me,” he said, his voice soft. “Tell me everything, Thea. Your side of the story.”
Thea chuckled, the sound bitter and hard. “And have you not believe me? No thanks.”
Conall’s expressed hardened. “Do you think I wouldnae rather pretend you’re the bad guy and he’s the good guy? I do that, I hand you over, I save my sister, and I can forget this whole bloody nightmare.”
Hurt she hated she felt suffused her. “Well, you do that, Wolf Boy. I’m not stopping you.”
“I’ve seen your back, so I’m no longer buying that. There’s no fucking way you will let me turn you over. I dinnae know what your plan was here, with me, but it wasnae to let yourself be handed over to a man who did that to you.” He leaned toward her. “Here’s what I do know. You saved my life because I jumped in front of those bullets in Wrocław. You didnae need to do that because we both know I didnae technically save your life.”
“You thought you were saving my life when you did it.”
“Exactly. So you still believed you owed me.” He cut her a dark look. “You broke my neck to get away from me … but you didnae kill me. And we both know you should have.”
Thea’s irritation mounted as she grew increasingly vulnerable. “Point?”
He ignored her snippiness. “You were trying not to kill those vampires in Prague and it nearly got you killed.”
“Not true … I was trying not to at first and then I killed one before you got there.”
“They would have all been dead if you’d made the decision to kill them from the get-go. Instead, they almost killed you.”
“But you saved me.”
“Did I?” Conall eyed her suspiciously. “Were you really in danger, Thea?”
She swallowed hard and looked away. “I thought there was a point to this?”
“Aye. You went back for that wee lass … why? Because she reminded you of you? When your parents died?”
Thea whipped her head around so fast, she felt a burn score up her neck. How did he know that? She glared at him. “Stop it.”
He shook his head, and she hated the pity in his eyes. “You risked us to save that family and then you pushed me out of the way of those bullets. Now I tried to convince myself that it was all a manipulation, to get me on your side—”
“It was,” she hurried to cut him off. “It was, Conall. I pretended I needed you as a bodyguard. We both know I don’t.”
He smirked wryly. “Too right. I’ve never felt so emasculated in my life as when you pushed me in that barn.”
She rolled her eyes. “You decapitated a vampire with your bare hand. Hand.”
“That is true.” He mused. “That makes me feel slightly better.”
Despite herself, she laughed.
His expression intensified. “Why do you not want me to be on your side?”
She shrugged. “Two reasons: What happened to me is so fantastical, no one would believe me, not even you. I’d have shared all the horrible crap for nothing. And second …” She looked deep in his eyes, seeing only his determination for his sister. “It won’t change the fact you need to turn me over to save your sister.”
Conall shook his head slowly. “I cannae tell you the future, or what will need to be done to save Callie. And I realize you dinnae owe me anything, but I’m also beginning to think Ashforth is the real enemy here. That was the point I was trying to make. I’ve had doubts about the man from the moment we met but all I cared about was saving Callie. Meeting you … I have good instincts, Thea, and I’ve been fighting them.” He rested his arms on his knees and dropped his chin in weariness. “I have to know what this man is capable of and I need to know who I’ll really be turning over to him to save my sister.”
Tears filled Thea’s eyes, and she looked quickly away so he wouldn’t see. “Why? What will it change?”
“It depends on what you tell me,” he said, his words soft. “But I’ll tell you this. I dinnae have it in me to hand over an innocent woman to her abuser to save my family. Callie wouldnae be able to live with that either.”
Hope was a dangerous thing. Thea had discovered that the hard way. She’d given up on feeling it for so long that