Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 88: Bite Me

Chapter Eighty-Eight: Bite Me

For the longest time, Xaphile stood there with his eyes closed, and all Ella could do was wait.

Not sure how to act, she simply waited for his response with her stomach tying itself in knots.

Then his shoulders sagged and he looked at the ground through his lashes.

"Fine," he whispered. "I'll do it."

For a moment, Ella could only stare at him.

"You changed your mind?" she asked, a little bewildered. "Really?

"Don't misunderstand," he muttered, "I don't like this marking business and I doubt I ever will... and I really can't accept your feelings right now, but you're right. If I don't face my fears, I won't be able to move forward. If you say this is important, I'll go through with it on faith alone."

"Why?"

"Because you and I are, at the very least... friends," he reluctantly informed her. "It's hard for me to trust people, and while I admit that you've done a lot of awful things to me in the past, I have noticed a few of the changes taking place in you. It's enough for me to try trusting you a bit."

Ella's eyes narrowed and she slowly stepped forward, looking up at him.

Searching his face.

"You're... not telling me everything," she noted. "What are you holding back?"

He cast a dark glance her way.

"The other reason I'm giving in," he growled, narrowing his own exotic eyes at her, "is because I know the mark can be removed, and as of right now, I don't see another way out of this."

Ella's stomach sank.

"What?" she scoffed. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I have no other choice," he retorted, shaking his head, "regardless of what anyone says now, because not doing it would leave you in obvious danger."

She stiffened, then abruptly looked away, muscles rigid.

A flare of bitterness and irritation swept through her, hot and heavy.

"Oh," she snorted, barely able to keep her feelings hidden. "So, I guess you are using this sacred magic of yours as a tool, then. If coming to this conclusion was so easy, why did you even have such a big problem with it in the first place?"

"Because, simply put, I don't want to do this," he grumbled. "I might have a faery's instincts, but I have a human's mind. I was raised human."

"You're not human anymore, Xaphile. The sooner you accept this, the easier things will be."

"I will always be human, even if it's only in a small way," he snapped, making her flinch; then he took a deep breath and visibly tried to calm himself. "You may have seen my memories, but you've said yourself that it doesn't explain all of me. You don't know enough about me to say I'm not human."

"I know enough to want you to mark me, don't I?" she angrily shot back. "Stop acting like this!"

"And why should I?" he barked, making her jump. "Three months ago, you let a group of people kick the crap out of me and then brutally scarred my back with a metal-studded whip! Forgive me for finding it hard to believe that you could fall in love with me during that time!"

Ella's heart disappeared.

It was almost like she had become a ghost.

She didn't know what to feel, what to think... it all went blank.