“No. Stop it!” I cried, reaching.

Jason stood, clutched David’s shoulders, then jammed his knee upward, backing away as David fell to bound hands.

“She will do it because I tell her to, and then I will erase you from her mind. She’ll never even know you existed.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” David pushed up and turned his head to look at Jason, wiping the blood from his lip with his knuckle. “She is bound to me—she will never forget.”

“That’s where you are wrong, brother.” Jason lifted me to my feet by the arm. “She is bound to me; I tainted her spirit before you even tasted her blood. She will forget you.”

“What did you do to her,” David roared. “Ara?” He softened. “Ara, did he touch you—please, what did he do to you?”

“Nothing.” I shook my head. “He never—”

“You may remember a dream?” Jason hinted. “A long time ago—of Mike—making love to him?”

“What’s that got to do with—?”

David dropped his head.

“In your mind,” Jason said, “when you made love to Mike, you became bound to me. Your mind is confused—tangled up in the spell.”

“I don’t understand.” I looked at David, who kept his gaze to the ground.

“I cast that dream, Ara. It was I you were with, under disguise of your best friend.”

I gaped. “So, it wasn’t a dream? It was like…” like the meetings we had?

“Precisely.” Jason grinned.

“That’s why I can’t get over Mike?” Shock forced tears into my eyes. “You—you touched me! I remember. I remember the dream.” I gagged, my body forcing down the vomit. “Oh, God. Oh, God.”

He wore his wicked smile like a trophy.

That’s why I trusted you in the first place, wasn’t it? Not because you’re good—because you bound me.

“Yes,” Jason said, his smile dissolving.

“David?” I looked over at him; his eyes closed tightly, his shoulders hunched. “David, I’m so sorry—I didn’t know. I thought it was just a dre—”

“Stop talking!” Jason covered my mouth; I tugged at his fingers, hard.

“Get off her. Don’t you touch her,” David yelled through his teeth, remaining on his knees.

Why won’t he get up? Why won’t he just use his power to stop Jason?

“He can’t,” Jason mused, holding me closer to his face, his cool, honey-scented breath brushing across my lips. “Not even if I do this.” I shook my head, my cry muffled as Jason thrust his lips to mine. David did nothing. He just watched, his eyes filling with hatred as Jason sucked the bleeding gash on my lip—delighting in my agony. “You see?” Jason pulled away abruptly as I cried out, pressing my hand to my lip. “He’s weak—always has been.”

I fell to my knees and stared at the man by the fire. “David? Why?”

“I’m sorry, Ara.” He looked down, defeated. “I should’ve protected you, I—”

“You don’t care for me now,” I concluded. “Now you know what I’ve done—now I’m bound to him.”

“No, Ara, no. It wasn’t your fault. You did nothing wrong, mon amour. It was a dream—just a dream. You we’re still a vi—”

“Enough!” Jason yelled and grabbed David by the hair, forcing me by the elbow to the ground in front of him. My hands fell against David’s bound arms as I steadied myself—feeling nothing of the crack my knee wore; all pain masked under the joy to be within inches of David’s breath once more. I drew in his sweet, orange-chocolate scent, wanting to fall against him, let him hold me—let him make everything all right again—take away the pain. Just to go back to that night, and in my dream, tell Mike no. Say what my heart wanted me to say. All of this. All of this is my fault. I trusted Jason. I let him into my world and he betrayed me. He made me feel things that weren’t real. Why didn’t I tell David about him—about the dreams I was having?

I ruined my life; I ruined David’s.

“Yes,” Jason said. “You did, and now, you will kill him.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I won’t.”

“Enough!” Drake interjected. “Jason, get this over with.”

“Not to worry, your majesty.” Jason smiled, keeping his eyes on me. “She will do it, if not because I tell her to, then from the hunger, the thirst for his vampire blood.”

Thirst? Is that what that is? The burn, the edgy aching in my teeth, the rapid beat in my heart that had me picturing things I shouldn’t picture in this place.

“See that?” Jason gripped the base of my neck and moved my lips close to David’s bleeding nose. “It’s blood. Smell it.” He forced David’s head against my lip as we both struggled to break apart. My tongue moved over my lip. “Go on—taste it. You want it so bad, don’t you? You can feel how smooth it is in the back of your throat—how one lick would stop the burning there.”

I shook my head. My mouth watered, the smell of his sweet blood saturating my nostrils, pulsing the hunger through my fingertips and teeth. But the desire to kiss him was so much stronger than the hunger.

“I love you, Ara. I know you can do this.” David’s voice stayed calm.

“No.” I looked down.

“Just do it. For me—because you love me.”

“That’s not a reason to kill?”

“Then do it to save your life—for me, because what he will do to you if you don’t will be far worse than my death, sweetheart.” His voice broke, his eyes filling with tears. “Don’t let me die with that thought. Please?”

“He’s going to hurt me anyway, David.”

“Ara, you don’t know this...” he moistened his lips. “But the punishment for disobedience is—”

“Enough!” Jason said. “Bite him.”

I ignored Jason and looked into David’s black, reflective gaze—seeing the hollow-eyed girl glaring back. My knees shook under me. “I love you too much to kill you.”

“Then fulfil my last wish; let me die by your hand—not his.” David’s bound hands reached up, his fingers touching my chin. “It will be the last time your lips meet my skin, the last time I feel your breath, the last time you taste my blood. Please, Ara.”