Chapter 6

Elena's POV

The moment the silver bullet grazed my arm, I caught the smell of scorched flesh.

My gown was torn open.

Blood welled quickly from the wound and ran down my arm, dripping.

The deep red of my skirt was already vivid enough, yet where the blood fell it bloomed into a small patch of something darker.

Screams rose all across the hall.

The guards finally rushed in.

The hunter was pinned to the floor within moments, and the alarm passed.

Everyone was backing away. Only I stood in front of Adrian, my arm aching to the point of numbness.

I'd thought I had already let him go.

But the moment I saw that silver bullet streaking toward him, I couldn't rein in my own instinct.

Ten years.

Some habits, it turned out, were truly frightening.

Even after I'd decided to let him go, my first reaction was still to protect him.

Adrian stood behind me.

He wasn't hurt.

That bullet might never have reached him at all.

He was the vampire Prince's heir, far faster than any human.

And still I'd thrown myself in front of him.

It was like an utter joke.

“Elena.”

Adrian finally spoke.

His voice was heavy.

I turned to look at him.

There was shock in his eyes, and a thread of anger he couldn't suppress.

The next second, he stepped forward and seized my wrist.

His grip wasn't hard, but it sent a sharp jolt of pain through the wound.

I winced faintly.

Only then did he realize I was injured, and he loosened his hold a little.

But the first thing out of his mouth wasn't to ask whether it hurt.

“Why would you do something so reckless?”

I froze.

Adrian stared at me, his face gone bitterly cold.

“I'm a vampire.”

“There are guards here.”

“What were you, a human, thinking, rushing in like that?”

I looked at him.

The candlelight in the hall wavered, casting his face as handsome and composed as ever.

A laugh rose in me out of nowhere.

My lips moved, but no laugh came.

The wound hurt too much.

And my chest hurt too.

I looked down at my arm.

The blood was still flowing.

Where the silver had grazed me burned fiercely.

To a vampire, silver was a fatal weakness.

But to a human, so long as it missed anything vital, it was just a wound that needed dressing.

Next to the illness slowly devouring my life from the inside, a cut like this was almost nothing.

“Sorry,” I said softly.

For an instant Adrian's expression went blank.

I lifted my head and gave him a smile.

“It's only a scratch.”

“It won't get in the way.”

It wouldn't keep me from getting through this last banquet and walking quietly away with the divorce papers in hand.

Adrian looked at me, stung by my manner, his brows drawn tight.

He seemed about to say something.

But from the other side of the hall came the stifled crying of one of the women.

I followed the sound with my eyes.

Not far off, a young couple clung tightly to each other.

The husband a vampire, the wife a human, just like us.

When the attack came, that vampire husband had pulled his wife into his arms almost before it began.

And even with the danger past, he still hadn't let go.

He bent to kiss her forehead, murmuring comfort to her over and over.

“It's over now.”

“Don't be afraid. I'm right here.”

The human wife's hands were still shaking.

She buried her face against his chest and wept without restraint.

But no one laughed at her.

Her husband only held her tighter, the way you'd hold a treasure lost and found again.

I stood there, and my eyes stung sharply all at once.

So someone really could be loved like that, even here in a world of vampires, even among the nobility.

So a human wife, no different from me, could be shielded by her vampire husband on pure instinct.

The irony of it hit me hard.

I'd loved Adrian for ten years.

To be a wife worthy of him, I'd handled the Council on his behalf and sent away his lovers for him.

I'd even thrown myself in the path of that bullet a moment ago without a second thought.

And yet, seeing me bleed, his first reaction was to ask why I'd been so reckless, why I'd shamed myself as his wife.

I lowered my head and laughed.

At first it was just a faint sound.

Then I couldn't stop it at all.

The tears came welling up with it.

I laughed until my arm shook, the wound splitting open a little more, blood dripping onto the carpet.

Adrian frowned.

“Elena.”

I ignored him.

I watched that couple in each other's arms and laughed until the tears spilled over.

All these years, it wasn't that I'd asked too much of a vampire noble.

I'd simply set my heart on the wrong man from the very start.

“Pull yourself together.”

Adrian lowered his voice and turned to block me from view.

“There are still guests here.”

At those words, my laughter slowly died.

Of course.

There were still guests here.

The wife of the Prince's heir couldn't lose her composure.

Couldn't cry.

Couldn't come apart.

Couldn't embarrass Adrian in front of so many nobles.

I raised a hand and wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes.

I did it gently, careful not to smudge my makeup.

“Have a maid bind this up quickly, that's all I need.”

“I still have to go reassure the other ladies.”

Something in his face caught; he opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

I didn't wait for him this time.

I turned and called a maid over to press the wound closed.

The cut the silver had opened hurt badly.

With every loop of the bandage, the pain blacked out my vision.

But I still didn't sit down.

I was afraid that if I sat, I'd never get up again.

Once it was dressed, I changed my shawl to cover the bloodstained part of my gown.

Then I went over to the frightened women.

“It's all right now.”

I heard myself say gently.

“The guards have sealed off the hall.”

“Anyone injured will be taken for treatment.”

“Please rest in the side hall for now.”

They looked at me with panic in their eyes, and reliance too.

To them, I was probably still the flawless wife of the Prince's heir.

Wounded, and still able to step forward and steady everyone.

I repeated the same comforting words again and again.

Arranged for hot tea to be brought.

Had the servants fetch clean shawls.

Warned the shaken ladies to keep away from the shards of silver.

I did all of it well.

Even the Council members cast me approving looks.

Once, I'd have stolen a glance at Adrian.

I'd have wanted to know whether it had made him think me sensible, obedient.

Today I didn't look.

Because I no longer needed him to look at me at all.