Vitality (Vitality Series #1)

Chapter 43 Stay

Ava did try to eat; she was starving. Unfortunately, queasiness wouldn't allow much. Layton had built a fire nearby and finished her stitches. She calculated every move, every breath... Ava needed answers from him, so though every touch, every look, his mere presence continued to derange her, she did her best to contain what boiled inside, drowning her and the last bits of her hold on sanity.

He bent towards her breast and the firelight danced on his locks, which were hanging loose. She caught his scent, which hadn't changed; she tilted back, swallowing and trying to keep her eyes from swelling. She even eyed a flick of his eyelid and long lashes falling against his cheek as he worked on her chest. His deceitful gaze rose lazily to hers knowingly, but with a calm inquisitiveness, and she rolled hers away.

"You were the sole target of last night's attack." Layton's low and steady voice came too welcoming through the hard silence. His fingertips ran along the edges of her bandage. She had been slowly pecking away at her food with determination until then. She put it away. It was one thing to walk into a nest of creatures, but a whole other to be at the center of their focus.

"Because of what I did at Lithium?"

"They meant to kill you. They wanted you dead." He shook his head. "Ashland is my child. He cannot kill you under my orders. Plus, he does not want you dead."

Ava realized she was still sitting in front of Layton. She moved to the side and looked the other way, digging her hands in the sand. "What do you mean, child?"

"I made him into what I am, giving him new life. He is my child. As is Verina and Gabriel."

"And your children have to listen to you, like good little kids?"

He shifted himself to put his elbows on his knees and brought his hands together. "If I order it, they have to abide by it as they have to abide by the blood running through their veins. It is absolute."

"He was going to eat me when I fought him... or change me."

"He meant only to turn you. But you raised such sweet hell, he got carried away."

Ava stood up, and he had her wrist in his hand before she even knew she was standing. Her breathing was rapid, her blood on fire. He hadn't moved; he sat still and lethal until he raised his black pits of hell slowly up to her.

"Unless you turn green when you're angry and transform into some beast I'm unaware of, it is unwise of you to waste yourself on that anger. Take a seat."

But nothing yielded. Her focus blurred, and her wrist burned.

"Someone else sent them," he offered, but his fingers still bit into her, and his relentless eyes did not sway.

Just as hers would not, but she took it for what it was, a meeting halfway — she sat on the log and whipped her hand from him.

"I can only think of one person who would have such great intentions for one little... you, who is outside of my ruling."

One little human. She looked at him and he looked at her.

Ava would never be able to swallow the fact that they could not die, and they were about as indestructible as the centuries-old rock forming the cliff behind them, and more so. And then, she had to wonder just how long he had been like that. How he looked now was how he'd looked for God knows how long, and how he'd go on looking forever, never changing, and far past when she would be there. Even the memory of her would die first. She wondered how many memories of his had died. Could he even remember the humanity that he may have had once?