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Worse, she could
still smell the blood. She could recall the exact angle of broken bones and
list each cut and bruise that had flayed open our mother’s pale skin. Six years
later, the nightmare would repeat itself when my father was murdered.
    I shook off the memories. “She has enough horrible things
locked inside her brain. I won’t add any more, not on purpose.”
    “You’re right.” Roy ran a hand through his crazy hair.
“There is some news about Julian I think you should hear.”
    My chest grew tight at the mention of his name. Over the
years, he’d morphed into some private demon who existed solely in my head. No
one around me dared mention him. Not when he’d so cruelly changed my life and
then broken my heart in a way it had never fully healed. “What about him?”
    Roy stuck his hands into the pockets of his wrinkled
corduroy pants. I watched emotion fill his eyes. He swallowed and I traced the
bob of his Adam’s apple.
    “It’s come to my attention that he’s spent the last seven
years imprisoned at the vampire queen’s mercy. He allegedly broke free the same
night you and Micah vanished.”
    I pressed a hand against my stomach. “The queen? Are you
sure? Seven years would mean—”
    “Among other things, that his abandonment might not have
been planned. Tread cautiously where he is concerned, Ella, I fear he doesn’t
have your best interests in mind. Let’s not make the same mistake twice.”
    I rose from the ground and met my uncle’s eyes. “I let
Julian cloud my judgment for two years before I discovered what a bastard he
was. Trust me—I won’t make the mistake of trusting him or anyone else
with my interests ever again.”
    Roy stepped close and cupped my cheek. “It pains my soul to
see you so jaded. You’re only twenty-five, Ella. Not every man you meet will
break your heart. Love is a precious gift if given to the right person.
Remember that.”
    Unable to speak or to process, I nodded and did the zombie
shuffle to the stairs. I pulled myself up the staircase of the old house my
great-grandfather had built. My fingers glided over the smooth, wooden railing.
I was afraid if I let go of the banister I’d fall.
    I’d had sex with Micah, my self-acclaimed sworn enemy,
multiple times without a condom. Julian was back and already stirring up the
hurts I’d struggled to bury for the last several years. What in the hell was I
going to do?
    Shower. I walked blindly to the bathroom. Putting one foot
in front of the other was all I could manage. I made it inside the bathroom
without running into Hannah. One look at me and I was terrified my sister would
somehow sense the small kernel of relief I felt at knowing maybe Julian hadn’t
left me on purpose.
    In order to avoid the oblong mirror over the sink, I rested
my forehead against the closed bathroom door. I didn’t want to look. Like the
coward I was turning out to be, I closed my eyes and walked blindly to the
bathtub. I didn’t open my eyes until I was safely behind the thick green
curtain. I pulled off Micah’s shirt and threw it over the shower rod.
    The ice-cold water hit me like a thousand needles. I gasped.
Pressing a hand against the wall in front of me, I struggled to draw in a
breath. After I was clean, I let my shoulders slump, giving myself over to the
confusion.
    I never knew what hit me.
    Julian pounced and a barrage of emotions slammed into me.
    Ripping pain seared through me. I grabbed onto the slick
shower curtain in a poor attempt to keep from falling. Plastic ripped. Metal
rings scattered and hit the floor with a clinking echo. My knees hit the
porcelain basin with a reverberating crash. Every bone in my body experienced
the jarring impact. In defense, I curled into a ball. How did you protect
yourself from something you couldn’t see?
    Water dripped into my gasping mouth and I sputtered. My back
bowed in agony. With a savagery I hadn’t known Julian capable of, my sire tore
through my mind. With each memory,