Chapter 31
Stefan returned minutes later. Lorena was a Renegade. Her people had attacked his home and killed his employees. People who had lived with him most of their lives and he hadn't been there to save them. Lorena was going to be the scape goat for the Renegades and they were going to pay.
He hated her with every fibre of his being for what she had done to him. And he hated her ability to look innocent when her heart was evil. Like those of any Renegade. She was a Renegade. He was no fool. He had no doubt that she cared about him in her own way, even viewed him as some sort of messiah.
She was obsessed with him but that didn't make her any less evil in his sight. Familiars were worse than the vampire Renegades and he knew this first hand.
Lorena stood watching him, nervous. And she had every reason to be nervous.
"Why are you doing this to me?" she asked.
"Doing what? Have I harmed you in any way? Have I abused you or beaten you up?" he asked her.
"No, but I can feel your hate."
And she could feel it, scorching her skin like flames of fire.
"I hate you. What else do you expect to feel around me?" He stepped close, towering over her like a tyrannosaurus. He was about 6"6 and to her 5"3, his height was intimidating. He made her feel like a midget. She took two steps backwards, bumping into a wall.
"I haven't hurt you. Yet." He told her. "But you are so going to pay."
"I have done nothing to you."
"You think the past seven months has been a joke?" He growled, baring his fangs.
"No. I – I didn't say that." She stammered, pressing into the wall, her eyes wide with fear. "I – I gave you that poison to save you from the constant torture you were being subjected to. How was I to know the effect it would have on you?"
His eyes were burning flames and if it was possible, she would have crawled into the wall for safety.
"You pumped chemicals you had no business dealing with into my body and you have the audacity to tell me that you didn't know the effect it would have on you. You assisted you father in the lab and in the process killed some of my people. You and your father made me watch it happen, knowing that I was helpless to do anything about it. You think that doesn't make you guilty? You act all innocent but I know you for the monster you really are. And you are going to spend the rest of your miserable youth tending to my needs."
"What- what are you going to do to me?" she asked, her eyes bulging out like saucers with fear.
She could imagine a lot of things he could do to her: beat her up, rape her and kill her.
"I intend to do a lot of things to you, the last of which is death. There are many ways of dealing with a monster and death is the easiest of them all but I do not intend to make it easy on you."
"I am not a monster. Everything I did, I did out of love. For you. For my family. The Enforcers killed my madrecita and I have been paying for it all my life. My siblings were also killed. Now all I have is my father who can't get over their deaths. I have every reason to hate you and your people but I cannot hate you. You are my true mate and I love you very much. I took a big risk by trying to help you. By giving you my blood, I have declared myself an enemy of my people and I shall be haunted down like the Enforcers."
He gave her a look which said that he couldn't care less.
"Because of my love for you, I no longer have a family."
"Tell me what bothers you more: Not having a family or not gaining daddy's affection after all you have done for him?" he asked nastily.
Her face grew a beet red.
"You have no right to judge me. I have been through a lot and you..."
"And I am supposed to feel sorry for you?"
That hurt.
"I don't need your pity, Stefan." She told him.
"Good because I won't give it."
"If I didn't l didn't love you so much, I..."
"You haven't the slightest idea what the word 'love' means."
"I won't bother arguing with you. You owe me your life. You should show appreciation by letting me go."
"So you can return to your fellow Renegades and plan my demise?"
"Don't be ridiculous. Sergei would have my head and he would make sure that I feel every bit of it. My constant visitation amused him but I do not have any doubt that he would have my head the way he did Marina."
Marina!
The thought of her still moved him despite her betrayal. She had betrayed him and he hated her for that. But he still longed for her. He was partly to blame for her betrayal. If he hadn't raped her on their wedding night, she would have reacted differently. He was quite sure of that. She had been troubled and he had been unable to help her. He should have wiped the memory of Sergei from her mind. Big mistake. He had lost his true mate as a result.
"She was not your true mate. I am." Lorena growled, letting him know that she had read his mind.
He had been so distracted that he hadn't seen nor heard her move. With a thought he slammed her against the wall, the force literally stealing her breath away. He glared at her as she struggled to her feet, his glare so hot that it physically scorched her.
"Stop it!" She squealed.
"Stay out of my head, familiar." He warned her tersely. "Or so help me, I'll give you a brain aneurysm."
"I can't help it if I can read your mind at will. That goes to show that I am your true mate."
He covered the distance between them and placed both palms against the wall on either side of her, imprisoning her. She could feel his warm breath against her skin, giving her mixed feelings of fear and lust. She wanted to reach out and touch him, to mould herself to his strong body, his clean musky scent intoxicating her. She wanted him, here and now.
He cursed softly when he saw the desire in her eyes and read her thoughts.
"You make me sick," he growled out. "Why are you so desperate to be mated with me? An Enforcer? Is it because you are fast approaching menopause or are you there already?" he added nastily.
"You-"
"Your biological clock is ticking really fast. You're what? 37, 38? My, you are an old maid aren't you? You are a few years away from the dreaded forty years. In a few years' time you will be an old product covered with dust on a shelf. You will lose your appeal and men will only have sex with you if you pay them for it."
Her hand moved quickly before she could think to strike him hard on the face.
"I'm thirty three,' she snapped.
Stefan didn't so much as flinch.
"Whatever! The truth does hurt, doesn't it? You will give yourself freely to me because you think that it would make me sweet in you? That I would be compelled to claim you as my mate?"
"You don't understand. I have been in love with you since I was sixteen. Long before we physically met." She whined, trying to make him understand.
"A likely story and soon you'll be telling me that I have haunted your dreams since then."
"Si! Don't you understand –"
"Understand what? That you will do and say anything to make me feel differently about you? Are you so desperate to get laid that you would give yourself to a man who can't stand you? Is it because your precious padre isn't here?"
Now that hurt.
"You are being cruel. If you would only take your time to know me-"
"Why should I? I already know everything I need to know about you. You are a bloody familiar. A deceitful, dreadful ghastly creature who has an ulterior motive for trying to attach yourself to me. Yet I can sense your desire for me. I can perceive your arousal as we speak. You want me to make love to you, give you pleasure like nothing you've ever experienced."
She couldn't help the moan which escaped her lips.
"Shame on you, Senorita Banderas," he murmured against her ears.
"You bastard!" she swore hotly. "I wonder what I ever saw in you."
"Do you? You were drawn to me even when I was looking ghastly and malnourished."
"Si! And you should have known that only a woman in love would have reacted to a man who looked the way you did."
"I will never love you. I will never care for you and I certainly won't ever give a damn about you, Lorena Banderas. No matter how much you desire me."
"Bastardo! Imbecile! Idiota!"
"Such colourful words."
He lowered one hand to her leg and slid it up her thighs beneath the night shirt she had on and she asked helplessly.
"I hate you." she ground out through clenched teeth.
"My, my. What a confused creature you are. You were just declaring your undying love to me just moments ago."
His hand went higher and her breathing increased.
"You are so aroused and for an Enforcer; an enemy. Sergei would truly have your head. I am almost tempted to make my cousin's day."
"Please."
"Please stop? Don't stop? You have to be more specific than that."
"Why are you doing this to me?"
"Why not? You are so easy. You are burning up, Familiar and I haven't even touched you. It would be so easy to make you my sex slave, to make you into my revenant and keep you under a perpetual state of arousal. All your desire would be to please me."
Her hands gripped his shoulders as his fingers moved against her inner thighs.
"Keep your filthy hands off me!" He commanded fiercely, baring his fangs.
Her hands immediately dropped to her sides, her fingers clenching into fists as she tried to fight the emotions he was arousing in her. Stefan's other hand went up her flat stomach beneath the night shirt. Her breath caught in her throat.
"Let go of me this instant."
"I am not through with you yet," he told her.
He crushed his pelvis into hers, stirring new feelings inside her. In the back of her head, her emotions were going mad into a frenzy of confusion. A part of her was panicking, feeling thrills in places she had never expected. She ground her hips into his, and then recalled that he didn't want her touching him.
He pushed the night shirt over her head and tossed it aside exposing her body.
"You are heavily endowed for one so little," he said.
"Please stop this madness."
He prevented her from covering herself.
"I haven't even started. This is what you wanted isn't it?"
He looked down and smirked as he looked at her underwear.
"Sexy panties" he said. "Could it be that you were hoping I'd come around today or perhaps, you intended to seduce me or the first Shadow to come into your cell today?
She raised a hand to slap him for that insult and he caught her wrist in a hard grip.
"The next time you attempt to lay your filthy hands on me, I shall get rid of them."
"You just insulted me," she complained.
"What? I know that you want me. You make me sick but you shall serve your purpose."
"You do not understand...."
"Enough!"
She was about to protest when she felt his fingers against her sensitive flesh. It tore a moan from her lips. She arched her body helplessly, allowing him to touch her. He felt her tremble. Her fingers clenched into fists at her side as she struggled against the urge to touch him.
"Madre de Dios!" she cried, arching against him.
"What are you doing to me?" she cried.
He felt her body tighten. She was almost there and then he let go of her. Her eyes opened and she saw him staring at her with disgust.
"You make me sick," he told her as he walked away. "Better put your clothes back on. You look like a little slut."