Dusk has settled over the world, ushering in vampires from every house, and where the creatures of the dark roam, the mages of light rise to meet them. Some fight for their house, while others struggle with what lies inside of themselves, but all fi...
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"I didn't do it to hurt you," Listette spoke to the grasses, and Ares focused on the sound of her voice with his eyes closed. It was light and sweet, even though she was denying him her eyes, which meant she was trying but just shy. It calmed his agony as she spoke further. "You did not seem happy when you were around me, and I didn't want you to keep at it just because you felt obligated. I just wanted you to find happiness, and I knew my place as a slave."
"Your place is by my side, and it always has been." Ares closed the space between them, and Listette's breath caught as he slipped a hand around her stomach and pulled her back into his chest to embrace her. Under the shade of the leaves, he pressed his lips to the side of her forehead and squeezed her tighter with each moment she accepted his touch without objection. "I was never unhappy to be by near you, however I did suffer any pain you felt. As my mate, your pain is mine just as your happiness is. I would have never found it without you, knowing you withered alone in the barracks each day and night."
"I didn't realize you were watching me that closely still." Listette mumbled into his arm as she leaned her face against the white silk.
"Not personally, because you paid too much attention. Idus and Russ did here and there, and theirs that they trusted would do so when you noticed them too much." Ares admission of watching her all these years had a light blush coloring her face, but she tilted her chin up with a smile that calmed him. Normal humans might consider that stalking, but Listette was not familiar with the term or society's world.
"I do not have a network of spies, but I watched you too." Listette's smile had him relaxing back into the grass and leaning on the tree behind them. "I saw you smile for the first time in years with your master's mate and their children, and I liked seeing you happy, but it always fell away if you noticed me."
"I'm sorry." Ares tightened his hold on her as pain swarmed his chest. What she said was true, but it was not because he'd been unhappy that she'd joined them. Ares had been afraid that Listette would resent him for feeling any happiness when she yet suffered.
"You don't need to apologize, Ares." Listette using his name without title or anger had his fangs lengthening with a hunger for her blood that he kept bridled because it would frighten her. Humans did not understand that vampires fed for comfort just as much as hunger, so they did not see it as a soothing gesture. "I never blamed you. Not for anything. All you did was love me."
Tears dripped from his face onto the shoulder of her dress, but Listette said nothing as she found his fingers with hers and held them. It was his turn to cry on her, but she could not understand how profoundly those words lifted a weight off of his heart. It was his fault that Vincent had targeted her, yet his mate held no fault against him. With his agony growing, he was near panting against her neck that lay so close to him, and he'd have to push her away soon to avoid biting her in his grief and happiness.
"You can have my blood, Ares." Listette's offer had him lowering his lips to kiss the skin of her neck, but it was the light chuckle as their skin connected that had him sinking his fangs straight into her throat.
