Free Kenyon, Sherrilyn - Dark Hunter 06 - Phantom Lover by Unknown Page B

lower than any of the insults the others had ever dealt him.
    "I should have known," she whispered, "someone like you pretended to be could never really want someone like me."
    V'Aidan winced at the pain in her voice. "Erin, don't say that. You are the most wonderful person who has ever been born."
    "Is that another of your lies?"
    V'Aidan closed his eyes. There was nothing he could say to make this right. He'd been wrong from the very beginning.
    All he could do now was make sure no other of his kind hurt her.
    "M'Ordant!" he called, summoning his brother to him.
    The Oneroi appeared between Krysti'Ana and Rec'Sord.
    V'Aidan took a deep breath. "I will go with them peacefully if you will keep them from her."
    "It is my job, is it not?"
    V'Aidan nodded. It was the job of the Oneroi to help. It was the job of the Skotos to use and destroy.
    He turned to look at Erin, but she refused to meet his gaze. Judging by the tears she fought, he would say he'd done his job very well this time.
    His last view of her was when M'Ordant wrapped his arm around her the way he yearned to.
    Krysti'Ana and Rec'Sord grabbed him to take him home.
     
               
    "I'm sorry, Erin," V'Aidan whispered as they shimmered from her realm into his. "I'm so very sorry."
    Erin didn't move. She knew V'Aidan was gone. She'd heard the sincerity of his apology as he vanished. But inside she was all raw emotions. Raw betrayal. She kept seeing the horrible dragon in the cave. Feeling the scaly talons on her.
    How could that be the same man who had made love to her? The same man who had made her love him?
    The betrayal of it lacerated her heart. Why? Why had he made her believe in him?
    "I don't understand any of this," she said to M'Ordant.
    "Sh," he said, brushing her hair back from her face. "Krysti'Ana and Rec'Sord wanted you for their own, but V'Aidan got to you first. When she found out he'd beat her to you, she was livid."
    "But how did he find me?"
    "Something in your subconscious called out to him. He was only supposed to give you a single nightmare and move on, but he didn't."
    "And Chrissy?"
    "When she couldn't take you from him, she called in her mate, Rec'Sord. I was alerted shortly thereafter to protect you. I told V'Aidan to leave you. He refused."
    Her head swam from M'Ordant's information and from the pain and hurt inside her. "Why did he refuse to leave me?"
    "I don't know. I guess it's just what he is. The Skoti suck the hopes and dreams out of others. I suppose he got a kick out of playing the hero with you. Building you up so he could hurt you more."
    Erin felt so foolish. So betrayed. How could she have been so blind?
    The eyes, she thought with a start. She should have realized the eyes were the same color.
    Was she really that desperate for a hero that she would accept a demon in disguise?
    Suddenly, she felt ill.
     
               
    Heartbroken, she headed home, wanting to forget she had ever heard of V'Aidan.
    ERIN sat alone for the rest of the day, thinking, remembering.
    "You should be a writer." V'Aidan's kind voice echoed through her head.
    It wasn't the demon she remembered as she sat on her couch, clutching a pillow to her middle; it was the man. And as she sat alone in her apartment, she realized she would never again see him.
    Never be able to share her day or her thoughts.
    Most of all, she couldn't tell him her dreams. V'Aidan might have started off by feeding from her, but in the end he had given her so much more.
    He had been her friend as much as he had been her lover.
    The loss tore through her.
    But what could she do? He was back in his world and she was in hers. It was over.
    There was nothing left.
    In the end, the Skotos had won after all. V'Aidan had drained all her happiness, all her hopes, all her dreams. What was left was an aching, empty shell that wanted nothing more of this world or the other.
    As the days went by, the pain of betrayal began to lessen and Erin remembered more of her