SEDUCTIVE PREY

SUPERNATURAL TAG TEAM

After our little tryst down lovers lane, I lay in Ethan's arms while he showers me with kisses. I've been wanting to ask him for a favor, but I've been afraid of what he might say or how he might react. Plus, we're never alone. So, it's now or never.

Reaching up to cup his face while his glacier-blue eyes drink in every detail of my body, I caress the pad of my thumb over his cheekbone. Working up the courage.

"I want you to turn me." I finally just blurt it out. "...I want to be like you."

Ethan goes preternaturally still while I wait with bated breath for his answer. Then his temples flare – the only sign I get that he doesn't like my request one bit – and his whole demeanor changes.

Gone is the joy in his eyes.

Gone is the attention and affection.

And gone is his desire to look at me.

Sitting up, he swings his feet over the edge of the bed and heads for the shower without a word. So, I follow him. And find him with his head under the stream of the shower allowing it to beat down on his head like he's trying to wash away my request.

"Ethan." I climb into the shower with him.

Turning to face me, he has the most haunted look in his eyes. "Why?" He asks me.

"I told you. I want to be like you."

He narrows his eyes at me like he doesn't believe a damn word I'm saying.

"What's the real reason, Alison? And don't give me some bullshit about being like me, because we both know that isn't it. I know you... please don't lie to me."

In the many years we've been together, he's only used my full name a handful of times. And they all correlate with him being cross with me.

"Fine," I nod. "I don't like feeling helpless or useless. At least if I were like you, I could-"

Before I can even finish my sentence, he abruptly shuts off the shower and leaves like I'm not still covered in soap.

Rather than go after him, I finish showering first. And when I walk into our room, Ethan is sitting on the foot of our bed waiting for me with that same haunted look in his eyes.

"You've been a lot of things to me Ethan, but rude has never been one of them." I glare at him. Frustrated and offended by his behavior.

"Do you know why I love you?" He asks me.

"Because I'm cute, funny, and you're sort of destined to love me like a fat kid loves cake?" I try to lighten the mood with a bit of humor.

Ethan laughs like I hoped he would, but then his expression turns serious again.

"I love you because you're different in every way I crave. Because you're strong, your resilient, and you have heart. All qualities that will make you an amazing future queen and mother to our children. Even though it may make you a shitty wife."

Frowning, I'm not sure how to take the backhanded compliment.

"There better be a point to that statement." I narrow my eyes at him.

Again, he laughs.

"My point is that if I were to turn you as you ask and make you like me, it would take away everything I love about you. And I don't want that." He admits.

"So, you'd rather I just die when all of this is said and done? Because he's going to kill me. I know he is."

"I won't let that happen." He says it like it's the truth.

"Satan isn't your normal run of the mill bad guy, Ethan. He's the original. And he's powerful."

"So am I, love. So am I. And my father will be coming back with us to the states to help us."

"Is this your way of telling me you're not going to turn me?" I get to the point.

"No... I'm not. And I forbid you from asking someone else to do it." He levels me with a look.

Every time he puts his foot down like that, I just want to rip it off and beat him with it. Because he's not just asking me not to... this was a compulsion.

Yet another weakness exploited for someone else's gain. And I have no way of protecting myself from it. He grabs me by the hands and tries to pull me close, but I back out of his grasp. The one thing I hate more than someone trying to kill me, is someone trying to control me. And he knows it.

"I'm sorry." He apologizes. "You can hate me if you like, but my first reaction will always be to protect you. Even from yourself."

He's caging me.

And yet another memory slides into place.

One of déjà vu, because Ethan and I have been here before. Just before I disappeared on him, he started to lock me away like a princess in a tower to protect me. Making me resent him more than I ever thought I could. Especially since I love him so much.

"This is why I ran before. I resented you for taking away my freedom, and I am begging you not to do this againEthan. Don't make me resent you after we've come so far."

He visibly recoils at my words and shakes his head as if he hopes to shake them from existence.

"Resentment works both ways, Ali." He tells me. Looking me in the eyes. "If you think you're the only one who harbored feelings of resentment, you're fucking wrong." My brow raises to my hairline at this omission and the intensity in which I felt his words. "You abandoned me because I wouldn't bend the knee to your will. And while I love that you are as head strong as you are, you were wrong for what you did. So, hate me if you want to. But I'm still going to protect you with everything I've got, even from yourself, because I don't want to fucking lose you."

Well damn.

I don't know what to say after that. And I had no idea he felt that way.

Clearly, emotions between us are running high and we need to switch gears. Only, I can't. Because every reason he just gave me for needing to keep me safe is the reason why I want him to turn me.

"Then you should turn me." I insist.

"What?" He blanches. "No."

"Ethan-"

Before I can get the rest of my words out of my mouth, he shuts me down by saying, "This conversation is over."

Then he vanishes from my sight with the finality of his words hanging in the air like a warning.

"He's not wrong, you know." Eden enters the room right on cue.

They're like a supernatural tag team.

"Were you eavesdropping, or did he send you here?" I flop down on the foot of the bed, annoyed.

"Both. I've never heard Ethan raise his voice before. But you've always had a way of pushing his buttons."

"I'm not trying to."

"Doesn't change the fact that you are." She crosses her arms over her chest. "Ethan has postponed his ascension until after he deals with the threat to you. Then he'll have you, your attitude, and the entire Vampyric population to deal with. So, cut him some slack Ali. It's in his nature to protect the people he loves with everything he's got. Even if it kills him. And if you put my brother in a position to die for you because you're too stubborn to let anyone help you, then in the words of Taylor Swift, you and I will have bad blood."

Eden leaves me with that parting thought, and I lay back on the bed to stare up at the ceiling.

I hate this.