Darling by Claudia D. Christian

vampire’s
proud shoulders sagged. It was all she needed to convict him. He
beseeched, “Darling, you are my love. It is not as you see it—I
swear.”

    Cassandra covered
her face. She wanted to die. Everything she believed was real, her
very existence, it was all a cruel lie. Lenore was right—Cassandra
was wrong in trying to gain a vampire’s love.

    If this is what he
would do to me now, what would he do if he wanted to really hurt me?

    Lord Constantine
rested his palm on her back and murmured his love for her,
continuously swearing things were not as she believed them to be.
Cassandra nearly vomited.

    “Do not touch
me with that disgusting hand! Did you have the decency to wash
yourself before you came back to me or do you carry the stink of your
whore all over you now, Constantine?”

    “It is not how
you see it.” He repeated it louder, impotent and useless
beneath the weight of her scorn.

    “Do not tell
me what I see, you lying, traitorous vampire! I hate you,
Constantine! Do you hear me? I hate you! I wish I had never been born
if that meant being here with you!”

    “Take back
those words, Cassandra.”

    “No!”

    Lord Constantine
yanked Cassandra off her feet and sped into the castle. The mammoth
doors flew off their hinges. Destruction followed them through the
receiving hall, up the grand staircases, and into her rooms.

    Cassandra pushed at
him in vain. She screamed for Lenore, begging her guardian to take
her away from Lord Constantine. She yelled how she never wanted to
see him again. She pummeled his face with her bloodied hands.

    Lord Constantine
crouched to the ground, holding onto her as an anchor in danger of
disintegrating if he loosened his grip for one moment. “What
must I do for you to forgive me? Tell me, Cassandra.” He
repeated it over and over until his darling screamed herself hoarse.
Cassandra finally lay still in his arms, limp and broken from
betrayal.

    “Darling,
please forgive me. I never wanted to hurt you. I swear it!”

    “But you did,
my lord. You did.”

    He took stingy
comfort in her use of “my lord” even as her raw whisper
branded him. Lord Constantine shook his head as if to escape the
searing pain. “Cassandra, you are my only love.”

    “No. I am but
a responsibility to you. A burden. You spend all your personal time
with your mistress because she is your joy. I am a mistake. I should
not be here.”

    “Stop it!”
The vampire cupped his human’s face and forced her attention to
him. “You belong here with me, darling. My feelings for you
have never wavered, have never been in doubt. I love you, Cassandra,
more than you could ever know.”

    “And I loved
you more than anyone in the world. I loved you so much, Lord
Constantine.” Her lips curved into a dead smile. “I do
not love you anymore.”

    “You lie.”
His fangs flashed. He looked capable of murder, especially with the
blood from her hands drying on his face. “You cannot tell a lie
to a vampire and hope to keep it.”

    Cassandra sagged.
She wished to disappear. “You are a cruel master to have. You
will not even allow me to lie to myself.”

    Guilt softened the
hard edges of his face. “Darling, listen to me. That woman was
food. Nothing else.”

    “You treat
your food very well.”

    Lord Constantine
cursed softly. “Please do not doubt me, Cassandra. I have loved
you your whole life. You cannot think I would ever put another before
you.”

    “You touch
women like her but not me. If you love me then you must love her
more.”

    “I am not a
human, darling! Do not put human morals on me!”

    “Then must I
adopt a more vampire way of being, my lord? Will you let me have any
handsome man I fancy? Will you look the other way, secure in my
feelings for you, as I spread my legs for him?”

    Lord Constantine’s
handsomeness became distorted by the vicious predator laying in wait
beneath his pretty skin. A terrible growl built deep in his throat.

    “Ah, so my
human morals