Compounding Traumas (Artemis University Book 6), стр. 49
“Slow down,” I whispered, waiting until he nodded. I pulled away and led him over to a nice plush area of grass to sit down. “What does Mel mean there was more to what you thought? You knew there was more to rare game hunting. You thought rare supe hunting. That screamed you knew, and they hunted fairies.”
His eyes went wide. “No, no, agra. I didn’t.” He blew out a long, slow breath. “You need context for this to make sense.” He waited for me to nod. “I don’t like my family. I’ve barely spent any time with them from the moment I could get out of the house. I even qualified for scholarships for a high-tier supe boarding school. I’ve barely spent any time with them since then.”
I digested that a few moments. Okay, so most of what he knew or learned was before twelve or mid-thirteen. Again I nodded.
“What I knew, and what is always said, is our family used to be rare game hunters. That was before I was really even born, so they don’t talk about it much. I’d heard a bit of this and that about humans setting down protections and it being that much harder. My dad works for a large game butcher now. It makes sense. My brother was groomed to take over, but is a logger, and Granddad does that now too.
“There were a few times that Granddad got pissed drunk and would talk about the good days and hunts. It was the words he would use that wouldn’t match up. It hit me when I was ten that he spoke like they were people, not animals. And in my ten-year-old mind, I thought rare supes then. I had no basis for that, no real information. There was one more time since then and…”
“What?” I pushed when he went quiet and looked off in the distance.
Tears filled his eyes and he yanked off his glasses, roughly wiping them when they overflowed. “It was the one time I fucking respected them. It was right before I left for boarding school and—I thought—they were such—they hate the councils and all their bluster and corruption that I thought, I believed—”
“You thought they were vigilantes,” I whispered, putting it together and saying it so he didn’t have to. “You thought it wasn’t ‘rare’ as in lions and tigers, but as in councilmen and maybe bad royals and Alphas.”
“Yes,” he choked out. “Gods help me, but yes, that’s what I thought. I’m so, so sorry, Tamsin. For a moment I respected them. I actually thought—”
“Oh, Darby,” I whispered when he broke down. I didn’t know how to gracefully pull him to me to hug and comfort him, so I crawled onto his lap and threw my arms around him.
He clung to me and let it out. “There’s no way my ma and Gram didn’t know. My whole family is so dirty. I’m sick that their blood is in me. I don’t even know what to do, agra. And he took you. He hurt you. I want to kill him. I want to brand him and drain him for what he did to him. I want to kill all of them for being part of why I lost you. I love you with all of me. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted, and he took you from me.”
That made me cry too. All I had ever wished for was to be wanted like that. Now I understood what Mel had been trying to tell me, even pushing for.
“Please believe me and take me back, agra,” he begged. “I can’t do this without you. I can’t keep going on without you anymore. Everything is so empty without the light you bring to my life. I’ll do anything to get you back. I need you.”
And I needed him too. With all the crazy in my life—lots I brought upon myself and I fully acknowledged that—Darby was the strength and stability that cut through it and figured out how to push me forward.
“No more secrets,” I choked out.
“Then there’s something I need to tell you that you’re not ready to hear,” he rasped, his throat raw.
I flinched. “You’re still addicted to my blood?”
“No, I could give two shits about your blood,” he chuckled, giving me a sad smile when I lifted my head and couldn’t hide my confusion. “It’s a sign a vampire’s found our mate. You matter much more to me than your blood ever could. That’s a fucking miracle given what your blood is to vampires, but I want you, not your blood.”
“Oh,” I breathed, my eyes bugging out. “So how do we find out?”
He sighed. “It’s not like shifters or dragons. It’s not a set thing. It’s more… It’s really more compatibility and yin and yang. Witches and warlocks, it’s the ability to easily combine magic that highlights a good match, or souls that will join together for soulmates. Shifters—their animals give them a leg up to find their mates. Dragons too. I have no idea on fairies as many aren’t—you’re a comitessa.”
I worried my lower lips. “No more secrets.” I cleared my throat when he gave me a curious look. “I think I was born of a light fairy and a dark one.” I nodded when his eyes went wide. “I think that was why I was snuck out of Faerie. Someone could have found out during the war if my parents died. The fae dogs, who are