The Dark City Chronicles ⁓ Book Three
The apocalypse looms ever closer! Steamy romance, heart-stopping action, seductive vampires, magic that defies nature, sprinkles of dark-humor, and, as always, the everlasting bonds of friendship.
Hannah's strug...
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"Are you okay?"
Reid blinked back to reality and found himself in the living room doorway. He hadn't even been aware he'd stalked through the house, having been focused on not letting the burn in his eyes overwhelm him because the last thing he wanted to do was cry.
He must have been drawn to her.
On the couch, tangled in a grey blanket, Rowan's green eyes were wide with concern. "What happened? You look..."
Crazed? That's how he felt. It was as if his life was falling apart before his eyes, and he couldn't do anything to fix it. He felt out of control. Since Hannah had walked into the shop all those weeks ago. No. It all began the morning he found his mother brutalized. He'd become a stranger to himself, never knowing why he had an addiction to self-destruction, but couldn't stop.
No matter how hard he tried.
'She's a distraction,' the voices whispered in the back of his mind. 'She'll keep you from reaching your full potential. From defeating Azrael. From becoming who you're meant to be.'
A warm touch on his face startled him. Somehow, Rowan had risen from the couch, crossed the room, and lain her soft palms against his cheeks without him realizing. He breathed in her enticing vanilla scent while staring into her green eyes.
He wanted to let her presence comfort the raging tsunami of despair he was drowning in, but he couldn't.
"Reid? Talk to me, please."
Reid eased Rowan's soft palms away from his face. "No..." Confusion turned her lips into a frown, and she retook her touch with a few curious blinks of her long lashes.
The television was on low. She'd been watching the soap opera he'd shown to her.
"This—us," Reid rasped. "I can't do it anymore."
"Why?" Rowan asked shakily. The emotion in her green eyes made it so hard not to comfort her he had to clench his hands into fists to stop himself from reaching out.
He tried to even his breathing and failed, his chest rising quicker. "Presley showed me a picture of Eliot."
Rowan backed away with a slight shake of her head. She gripped the edge of the leather couch, laying her palm on her chest above her heart.
Her misery filled the air, worsening the burn of tears he was trying to resist. For a while, neither of them spoke, but Reid wouldn't break the quiet. He needed to hear Rowan's explanation.
"Eliot..." Rowan forced out, her voice shaking with emotion. She met his gaze, her green eyes damp. "When I first saw you... I was drawn to you because you reminded me of him."
Reid's heart ached so fiercely he wouldn't be surprised if he suffered cardiac arrest in the next few minutes. "Is that all we were to you?" He didn't know what he'd do if she said yes. Probably implode from within and never recover.
