Free Blood Ecstasy (Blood Curse Series Book 8) by Tessa Dawn Page B

ever after?” She was borderline hysterical. “Julien Zechariah Lacusta, surely, even you can hear how insane that sounds. I have a life. I have a job. I have responsibilities! Hell, I run a support group for other desperate women, victims in the exact same shoes as mine. There are five women in my VOSU group, and they depend on me for help, for intervention, for their safety, if not their very lives. I’m not going to turn my back on them. And I’m not going to willingly disappear into some medieval fantasy that these gods—these celestial beings that I’ve never heard of—supposedly created for me.” She licked her bottom lip in a nervous gesture and then purposefully angled her jaw, looking him dead in the eyes for emphasis.  
    Julien relaxed his shoulders and tilted his head to the side in a matching gesture, growing firm with resolution. “You have an impeccable memory, Rebecca, and you don’t mince words. I like that, so let me have a try. Murder .” He echoed the word she had just used. “Is that what you think it is?” Before she could answer, he held up his hand to dissuade her. “Does a lion murder a gazelle? Does a human murder an ant?” He chuckled, and once again, there was nothing even remotely humorous in the sound. “I am Vampyr, Miss Johnston, I know nothing of this murder you speak of.” He leaned forward and held her gaze. “I only know that you are mine— you belong to me —and that which threatens you cannot exist in my world.” He lowered his hand, almost in a gesture of concession. “And no, you won’t…come around…overnight, but there is something in your soul, something in your blood, something woven into your very DNA that recognizes my own, that bends to my voice and yields to my touch. Do you think everything that happened on that bed was compulsion?” He shook his head before he could spark her anger. “Bad example—I get it—but you need to get this: You’re here. It is where you belong. And I will give you the space, the time, and the knowledge to slowly process all this new information, to adjust to this medieval fantasy, as you so poetically put it. I will answer all your questions. I will address all your fears. And I will explain all you need to know. And somehow, in the midst of this process, I will slowly show to you your own celestial heart. But for now, I have only one question, and I insist that you give me the truth.”
    Rebecca blanched, and her eyes filled with mutinous underpinnings; but she didn’t speak a word. She just waited, as if she were actually eager to hear his next words.
    “Suppose I take you back home— to Denver —and we find this Trevor, together. As I’ve said, his fate is no longer up for debate. But suppose we take it one step further, and I do the one thing you most want… and need . I fulfill your greatest desire: to set each strong, independent, yet helpless woman free.” He paused to let the heart of his words sink in. “Yes, Rebecca, think of every woman in your support group, all five of their lives. Now imagine each one, finally free from fear, finally free from a life of tyranny and terror, from hiding in the shadows like a wounded dog.” He sat back and crossed his arms, even as he gentled his voice. “Rebecca, my destiny ; I will kill them all, every last vile, despicable male. And I will make sure your foundation, your charitable cause, has enough resources to continue your work for a hundred years. And even then, I will not keep you from following your heart’s desires—I will not lock you up like a slave. All I ask is that you listen, and learn, and give me two weeks to do the things that I’ve claimed. Now then, speak only the truth: Put aside the human concept of murder, and answer me from the heart. If you could, would you have me extinguish them all?”  
    Rebecca sat back, and she seemed to be holding her breath.  
    Her eyes grew distant, and Julien knew she was weighing his offer, very, very