Kathy Love - I Only Have Fangs For You

"We'll see," Daniel said, although he didn't sound remotely convinced. Then the vampire disappeared. Not to shadow, not to mist, or even into a bat. He simply disappeared, which Sebastian had never seen a vampire do. Sebastian paused over that, but only for a fraction of a second. Like he gave a shit about the SPAMM freak's shifting abilities. All he cared about was what he'd heard come straight from Mina's mouth.

He stepped out from the shadows, and Mina jumped.

"Sebastian," she said, her voice full of relief. She took a step toward him. But Sebastian's expression must have stopped her.

"Sebastian?"

"Who was your friend?"

She frowned at him, and he knew she intended to deny the other vampire's existence. More rage filled him.

"I have to agree with your friend. You really are willing to go the extra mile for the Society, aren't you?"

Lightning fast he was against her, pinning her to the wall.

Mina made a small squeak at his speed, at his roughness, but she remained still in his hold.

"Sebastian, please, you have to listen to me. I can explain." Mina's voice was pleading and he could feel her fear. This time the fear didn't affect him. Maybe that was an emotion she could turn on and off at will. Another way she'd controlled him.

"I heard enough, Mina," he ground out. And not once had he heard her defend him. She hadn't said that Sebastian wasn't a threat. That the club wasn't used to hurt humans. Not once had she told that freak vampire to go back to the Society and tell them that she was now on Sebastian's side.

"You know," he said, "I remember wondering why you agreed to that bargain I made so easily. Perhaps I am narcissistic after all, because I just decided it was because you liked me. You know, deep down." He said the last two words in a way that sounded almost dirty. Mina shifted against him.

"But you were very clever, weren't you? You saw an opportunity and jumped on it. Literally. And through a way you knew would work. I'm never one to turn down a willing woman."

"Sebastian, please. Stop," she said, trying to break away from his grip, but he held her easily, her wrists over her head against the wall. The position held chest to chest, his face only inches from hers.

"Please, what? Please screw you?" He moved so his knee was between her legs, parting them. "Please bite you? What other trick do you plan to offer to maintain your control over me? To make me not bite humans? To make me shut down my club?"

"Sebastian, I just told him that so he wouldn't go to the Society. So the Society wouldn't send someone else to hurt you." Her blue eyes pleaded with him to believe her.

He didn't. "Why would I believe that, Mina? After all, you were willing to do anything to see this place closed earlier. Fire. Police. How do I know you didn't stage the attack the other night?"

She gaped at him. "Why would I do that?"

"To get the patrons scared. To make them think twice about coming here."

"You know I didn't do that!"

Sebastian shook his head, looking down at the first woman he could recall allowing himself to care about. He heard the adamancy in her words as she'd talked to Daniel. Was that an adamancy to protect Sebastian? Or was it panic not to destroy her hard work?

"I don't know anything anymore," he admitted.

"Yes, you do. You know that I trusted you to make love to me. You know you were my first. You know about my past. You are the only one who knows that whole story. I never told it to anyone but you."

He glared at her. "Hell, people light themselves on fire for their causes. They run suicide missions. Losing your virginity for your cause was hardly a hardship, baby. And as far as your past, who the hell knows if that was even true. You could have told me anything, right?"

Mina shook her head, her eyes still pleading with him, even through the hurt he saw there.

"But I told you I love you."

He snorted, even though her words ripped at his insides. Oh yes, she had said that. And he'd believed her.

"Like I said, you could say anything, couldn't you?"

"Sebastian, I didn't just say that. I do love you."

He growled deep in his throat. He didn't want to hear this. He couldn't.

He pressed her wrists tighter to the wall. His body pinning hers. "If you love me, then let's have that little bite you offered earlier. Were you really going to do that for the cause too?"

He smiled, showing his full fangage.

She stared at his fangs, a strangled noise coming from her throat. "Sebastian, please, you are scaring me." Her voice crackled, and tears began to roll down her pale cheeks, her eyes huge with fear.

He made a strangled noise of his own and pushed roughly away from her. He turned unable to look at her. To look at her wounded eyes.

"Sebastian, please." He felt her hand on his back, and he whipped around. He didn't want to feel her touch again. Ever again.

"Leave now, Mina, or I swear to God I won't be held accountable for what I do."

She stared at him for a moment, then nodded. He watched as she fled through the club. And even though he'd told her to go, somehow her leaving solidified what he believed. She'd played him for a complete and utter fool.

Mina didn't remember leaving the club. She didn't remember how she reached her apartment building. She only recalled sinking down on the concrete steps, crying.

She'd told Daniel those things to protect Sebastian. To stop Daniel from going to the Society and convincing them that Sebastian was a bigger threat. Her only thoughts had been to protect Sebastian.

Sebastian hadn't even listened to her. He'd been convinced she'd been doing everything for the Society. How, how could he believe that after what they'd shared? Hadn't he known, felt, everything she'd felt for him was real? She wasn't doing any of this for the damned Society. She didn't care about the Society. She only cared about Sebastian.

Anger started to replace her heartbreak. Hadn't he made the "no biting" bargain to begin with? Hadn't she tried to deny her attraction to him? How could he believe those things to be her manipulations? She felt like since she'd met Sebastian he'd been controlling her. She hadn't minded that control, because she had learned to trust him-to love him. And he didn't trust her one tiny bit.

He certainly doesn't love you, she realized. He couldn't think the absolute worst and love her.

She pushed up from the steps and headed into her apartment. The place was empty as usual. Tonight she wished Lizzie was home. She needed a shoulder to cry on. And she no longer had Sebastian's.

She raised her chin. She needed to start this minute forgetting about him. If he couldn't trust her, then they'd had no future anyway. Which she'd known all along. The end had just come sooner and with much more anger than she'd imagined.

She wandered into the kitchen. Lizzie had left her a note on the table that said she was going to the lab, if Mina should happen to come home. She also had her cell phone with her should Mina need anything. Lizzie also hoped everything was okay.

"No, everything is not okay," Mina announced to the empty room.

She considered calling Lizzie's cell, but thought better of the idea. What would she say? She hadn't told Lizzie what was going on, purely because she hadn't physically seen Lizzie since things had gotten more involved between her and Sebastian, and it had all seemed a little too strange to explain over the phone. The story was even weirder now, and too much to tell in a phone conversation.

As if taking offense at that decision, the telephone mounted to the kitchen wall rang, the sound loud and jarring. Mina moved to answer it before another grating ring echoed through the apartment.

"Hello?" she said.

"Wilhelmina? It's Daniel."

She paused, her first thought to hang up the phone. But then more anger filled her. "What do you want, Daniel?"