Accidentally Married to…a Vampire?(Accidentally Yours #2)(63)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Andrus turned in Reyna’s direction. “What the hell are you talking about?”

***

Mingled with bloody tears, black mascara ran in thick clumpy rivers down Reyna’s pale face as she cried. If Andrus didn’t hate her so much, he could almost feel sorry for her. “What are you talking about?” he repeated.

“Mate! You idiot.” She chuckled psychotically under her breath. “Three hundred years, and the thought never occurred to you?”

Reyna slowly rose. If he didn’t know better, he’d say there was a look of remorse in her eyes.

“I didn’t want to turn you,” she said. “I fought it off as long as I could. But there was no other way. The legends were true.”

Though her words were frantic and thoughts incoherent, there was a harsh churning in his stomach as his mind began shuffling the pieces of the puzzle.

No. It just can’t be. No! “What. The. Hell. Are you talking about, Reyna?”

Her face twitched. “Did you not hear me? You are my mate, Andrus. My. Mate. And vampires mated to humans slowly go insane if their mate is not turned.”

Andrus shook his head. How could this be possible? Mates were supposed to love one another, protect the other at all costs, have a connection. He hated her with every fiber of his being. He’d dreamed of nothing but killing her for centuries. Surely, this had to be another one of her many delusions. “I don’t understand.”

Reyna’s eyes continued pouring pink tears. She began pulling at her hair. “I can’t think straight. Your emotions…are like cancer!”

Andrus grabbed her shoulders. “You’re lying! You’re f**king crazy! I can’t be your mate, you never cared for me—I saw it in your eyes.”

Her eyes darted wildly from side to side. “No! That’s not true. I did everything to shield you from the truth. And I was prepared to do anything to keep from turning you; this was not the life I wanted for you.”

“But this one was okay? This! You turned me into a vile bloodthirsty vampire. Then you blackmailed me and traded me away to the gods to save your own ass. You betrayed me! Twice!”

“No! It wasn’t supposed to turn out that way. I wanted to keep you human. I only cared about being with you, even if it meant I’d go insane and have to end my life. You were everything to me!” She pounded her fist into the side of her head, her words flowing frantically. “I had Niccolo to keep the order—to keep the Obscuros in check. But when they began taking over, I realized he was gone. The gods demanded I be punished. They demanded I make you into a vampire and hand you over along with my best men.”

Bastard gods. Andrus recalled Niccolo’s story. It was Cimil who had taken Niccolo out of action for three centuries.

That meant the gods caused of the outbreak of Obscuros then demanded action from the queen. In the end, the gods got their own race of soldiers—the Demilords. Was that what they were after all along?

Andrus stood in shock, digesting her words while attempting to sort through centuries of memories tainted by erroneous assumptions. A tiny voice of reason chimed in his head. Reyna was telling the truth.

Bloody, goddamned hell. It just couldn’t be right. But it was. The gods caused this mess. And…Reyna was in fact his mate.

Flashes, moments in time, hundreds of them, shuffled through his mind like a revolting slide show. Images of lying in bed at night, feeling Reyna’s light hovering over him. Irrational feelings and thoughts bombarding him for no good reason. That horrid darkness plaguing his heart day after day. His inability to move on and forget her. She’d never left him. That godforsaken black cloud following him was her. Her darkness.

Andrus tried to take it all in, but it was too much. All this time he figured she’d just thrown him away. That she didn’t love him. In fact, she’d been trying to mask her pain and was going crazy. He felt her insanity, her loneliness and regret. Her hate for the world.

“Why didn’t you just tell me? We could have found a solution.”

She stood, her hair wild about her face, and cupped her hand to his cheek. “Like what? By the time I realized my mistake, it was too late. Fate had decided for me, and the gods had spoken. I tried to bargain. I even offered myself, but they said I had to be punished for neglecting my duties and allowing so many Obscuros to roam freely. They decided I would live an eternity knowing my mate was somewhere in the world—also immortal—paying for my sins and far from my reach.”

“Three hundred years, Reyna. You could have told me.”

“No. There was to be no contact. If I broke my word, the gods would punish you somehow.” She fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around his legs. “Forgive me, Andrus. I tried! I did. The only concession they gave was to allow me to keep my best soldiers to fight the Obscuros.”

Reyna mumbled on and on about how she’d offered up their decedents. Unbeknownst to everyone, she had made it a habit to track her best warriors’ bloodlines. Eventually, she would turn the cream of the crop into vampires. That was how she first spotted Andrus.

“I don’t understand.” Andrus’ brows pulled together.

“Andrus, you and the other Demilords are all decedents of my best warriors. Like the others, I’d been watching you since you were a boy. You are from Niccolo’s bloodline. There are dozens of his ancestors in my ranks.”

Andrus felt like he’d been hit upside his head. Niccolo was his great-great—okay, he didn’t know how many greats, but that…vampire was family? And his men were related to other vampires who worked for the queen? Andrus felt sick. Reyna thought of these bloodlines as her own private breeding stock of warriors. Did her men know she’d been plucking out males from their families and turning them into vampires without consideration for the lives she was stealing away? Reyna truly had no heart.

Andrus gazed into her eyes and realized the truth. Some part of him did still love her. Yes, it made no sense. Yes, it was pathetic and twisted. But…it was what it was.

Maybe he’d known all along she was his mate. It would explain why time couldn’t mend his broken heart and why she occupied his thoughts constantly—except when Helena was near. That was his attraction to Helena; she gave him peace, even if for only short moments. And as badly as he might hope to someday truly love again, it wasn’t in the cards for him. Reyna had been his destiny, and it was time to end the suffering. His and hers. He and Reyna were not meant to be a fairytale. They were not destined for happily-ever-after. But he could still save Helena from the queen and hope time would heal her broken heart after Niccolo turned to ash. Helena might have the chance he never got.