The Vampire And His Lady (Silver Hills #2)

Chapter 9

Rage. Pure rage flooded through Thornwood when he locked eyes with Genevieve Crane. A rage that was reflected duly in her own.

It was Elisabeth who spoke first, charging down the hallway like a mad bull to grab her cousin and pull her away from him. Diana blinked uncertainly, shocked by it all.

"Stay away from my cousin, you bastard!" She shrieked, sending a wave of magic towards him that caused him to stumble backwards slightly. He knew that her magic directed towards anyone weaker could've floored them.

"Elle," Diana hissed, flushing bright red as she often did. "Thornwood has been helping me."

Genevieve scoffed. "Helping you. Oh yes, I'm sure he's helping you from the goodness of his heart. No ulterior motives there!"

Elisabeth released her grip on Diana to spin around and glare furiously at the dark-haired witch. "You shut your mouth. Don't act like you're not loving the drama."

Genevieve rolled her green eyes, but stepped back into the living room anyway.

Thornwood was a storm of emotions. His eyes flickered between Elisabeth- who looked ready to rip his throat out any second- and Diana- who was trying particularly hard not to look at him.

They fact that, not only had Elisabeth returned early, but that she'd brought half the council with her made Thornwood feel a killing fury. It was the type of anger that surged through him before he slaughtered villages or punished disobedient vampires.

It was an anger that had been building ever since he had laid eyes of Diana Thorpe again. From the minute she stumbled into that crypt where he had lay for centuries, he'd been repressing how bitter he was that it couldn't be like it used to be. And it reminded him of the morning he had stumbled upon her dead body, hundreds of years ago, and how he felt how cold her body was and saw the terror on her frozen face, and knew that in her last moments she'd been crying out for him.

He couldn't live with the knowledge he had failed to save her, so he hid away in a coffin and let the world pass by. Only to be woken up from that sleep to see her face again, like some strange sort of cosmic karma. For her sake, he'd not been jealous or mad about Henry Buxley, but God he resented him. Every time he touched Diana, or even made her laugh, it felt like a million daggers dancing on his soul. The worst bit was when they shared a secret glance, a clandestine moment, and Thornwood realised he'd been shut out from her life completely.

It was all of these emotions swirling together in a maelstrom that caused him to grab the front door and rip it off it's hinges.

Elisabeth swore loudly and threw something at him whilst his sharp nails embedded in the door. With one swift movement, he tore it apart.

Thornwood was proud of himself for a split second, before he saw the fear in Diana's face. Afraid of him. He'd once promised that she'd never be afraid of him.

"Victor!" Elisabeth choked out, too shocked at that point to be consistent in her rage. "What the hell!"

Genevieve staggered back into the hallway to see what was happening. When she saw the two fragments of door clutched in Thornwood's hands, she let out a witches cackle.

"Don't let her convince you she didn't deserve it," Genevieve told him.

Reality was coming back to Thornwood, and more than anything he regretted making Diana feel uncomfortable. It had been reckless behaviour, caused by the sudden change in environment. Back home he was free to be as violent as his nature demanded, but in Buxley Cove it wasn't quite as easy to de-stress.

His mood wasn't improved when he saw who stalked out from the living room next.

"Are you incapable of wearing a shirt?" Thornwood snapped, watching as Diana's eyes widened at the sight of the muscular dark-haired man standing in front of her.