A New Meaning to the Night

Chapter Nineteen: Huge Mistakes

 "Are you suicidal?" Damien shouted, shoving her into her house in Lucky and slamming the door. "Have you lost your damn mind?"

Sam whirled around and crossed her arms with a glare. "Have you? Fisher could have someone following us right now and you just dragged me to a house protected by a spell so that unwelcome immortals can't cross."

"When he finds out who you are, he's going to kill you."

"So then we make sure he doesn't find out," she said evenly. "We're not going to get anywhere if there's no one on the inside."

"And you think you're the one who should be doing it?" he spat. "You're the one he'd kill given half a chance. You're the one in danger.

"Maybe I should remind you about who came to me about this," Sam's gaze turned icy. "How you both seemed convinced that I was the key to taking him down because I was the girl whose father he had murdered. I didn't volunteer.

"My mother has managed to get the witches to stand with the rebellion, and that's fantastic. Since you've dragged me here, I'll pay a visit to one of those witches and see what I can learn. We won't get support from Slayers unless we can stand a chance ourselves, and even then, it's a high hope that they'd get involved with political vampire affairs. If we hope to do anything, we need more than just the four of us and Henry. If we want to get any information, we need to be in the palace."

"That doesn't mean you have to be in the palace," Damien growled, stalking towards her. "That doesn't mean you need to be risking your neck immediately, with no hesitation."

"If we won't risk our own necks, how can we expect anyone else to?"

"Sam..." Damien let out a frustrated breath and turned away from her, running a hand through his hair. "You're walking a fine line. You don't know what he's capable of."

"And he doesn't know what we are capable of," Sam replied stubbornly. "I can get us support from within the palace. Very few of them are happy with the way things are, and if I'm gaining support from them, and Henry's gaining support from within the troops...that's going to help us."

"It's not going to help us if you're dead. None of this is worth it if you get killed in the process."

"It is if we win."

"Not to me."

She stared at him for a moment, a glimmer of something in her expression, but then it disappeared and she replaced it with a hard look. "I told you, I'm not staying. Nothing's changed, Damien."

"What are you afraid of?" he demanded. "We were together for eight months and you were perfectly happy."

"For eight months, we were both human. We weren't going to be around for eternity, and I was going to be able to have some semblance of a normal life. For eight months, we weren't about to risk our lives to take on the king of vampires. For eight months, no one was lying to me to protect me from myself." He saw the bitterness again and could've kicked himself. Reaching for her, she stepped smoothly out of his reach and walked back toward her room. "I'm not going to change, Damien. And I won't be controlled."

He followed her down the hall, anger replaced with defeat. "We don't want to control you. I don't want to control you. I only want to keep you safe."

"Because I'm incapable of keeping myself safe," she said, leveling him with a look. "I'm not a defenseless little girl, Damien. It's something all of you need to remember."

"I know."

"So trust my decisions. Trust that I'm doing everything I can to help the cause and keep myself as safe as possible."