Page 86 of When Night Falls

I decide this is a bad idea, and start to shake him off me, but before I can, he's ripped from my skin, a loud groan escapes his mouth as I turn to see Rivian throw him up on the table. The vampires occupying it scatter away.

"Rivian!" I shout, not knowing what the hell is about to happen.

This is what I wanted though, right? To see what he would do. Game's over, now I know.

"Rivian, stop!" Rivian doesn't listen. He simply pulls the man up to his feet and brings his face close to his.

"Is there anyone who will mourn you if you go missing?" Rivian asks him, and the poor guy just stutters as he wiggles his feet inches off the ground.

Rivian has him by the collar of his shirt, showing just how fucking strong he is as this man dangles from his grip.

"What? No, I-"

Rivian shakes him and shouts the question at him again. This time, he does it while staring straight into his eyes and I know he's compelling him to tell him the truth.

"No. No one will mourn me if I go missing." The man's answer is monotone but Rivian seems satisfied with the response.

"What's the worst thing you've ever done?" The question Rivian asks next seems childish and I don't quite understand what the purpose of it is until it hits me.

Cause a threat or has victims.

Those are the only things that can be explained away for the death of someone and not go against the treaty.

"Rivian, don't do this." I step closer but I'm scared to get in the way.

"Answer the question!" His growl vibrates in the air around us, taking over the bass of the music and quieting my racing heartbeat.

"I killed my sister's cat a few years ago." His confession seems tenuous as he weeps for forgiveness but it's all that Rivian needs to justify what he's about to do next. Adrenaline pumps through my veins. It's laced with fear and guilt and . . . intrigue. He'd really go to these lengths to enforce the fact that I am his?

I stand back as my future husband rears his hand back, spreading his fingers wide before plunging into his victim's chest. The man is still dangling in Rivian's grip as he groans in pain and screams to be let go. But his cries for help stop the moment Rivian wraps his hands around this man's heart and rips it clean from his chest. I gasp, falling back onto the railing and feeling extremely nauseous at the scene playing out in front of me.

"You thought you could lay your slimy hands on my wife and get away with it?" He spits at the human dangling in front of him, his grip seems to get stronger on his shirt. I can see the veins in Rivian's arms bulge as he squeezes the man's heart in his fist, the audible squelching sound that comes from it causes me to cringe when I notice drops of blood pooling at Rivian's feet.

I did this. I led this man to his death because I doubted Rivian's loyalty to his own words. I fucked this up and now his blood is on my hands. But why, pray tell, is the only thingstanding in the forefront of my mind is the fact that Rivian called me hiswife?

It sent chills down my spine when the phrase left his lips, regardless of what he was doing when he said it. I've never felt more accepted in my entire life like I have when he spoke those two little words just seconds ago.

My wife.

Rivian dumps the man's lifeless body back onto the table and tosses his heart back at him as he lands. He doesn't turn to look at me, but I know he hears my sniffles, my cries. I fall down the floor, my dress bunching up uncomfortably as I do, but I don't care.

Why did I let this happen?

I open my eyes slightly to see Rivian cleaning off his hands with a white cloth. I wince as he turns to look at me and I can see the dark smoke clouds in his eyes blending back into his normal green irises.

I hate to admit that even in the midst of crying and feeling guilty for causing this man's death, when his eyes do that, when they change at the sight or scent of blood, it turns me on, and I feel a wetness pool between my legs. But I don't let that feeling take over when I look back at the dead body mere feet in front of me.

Rivian reaches his hand out and offers it to me. I don't take it right away.

"Don't be afraid, little one," he tells me as he lowers to his haunches.

"I'm not-" I sniffle. "I'm not afraid. I'm…" I try to figure out how to tell my vampire fiancé that I allowed this man to touch me because I wanted to make him jealous.

"I did this. I wanted to see how you'd react. He was innocent. He-"

Rivian cuts me off as he lifts me to my feet, one hand holding me up by gripping my waist, the other holding my face in his palm.

"Lucynda, this man was not innocent. He said he killed his sister's cat, but that was not the truth."