Forget Ever After Read Online Free PDF Page A

months,”
she said at last. “I’ve missed you so much. At times I thought I
would simply die without you. But I kept going, because that’s what
you’d have wanted. I stayed in school, because it wasn’t just my
dream, it was yours, too. I’m going to do it, Liam. I’m going to be
a doctor. For me and for you. That’s the one certainty that kept me
sane all this time. And I’d rather have this certainty and…and not
be with you, than believe in forever, and risk losing my love for
you.”
    Silence fell again on the small room as her
words died. She was beginning to wonder whether she ought to leave
when Liam moved, fast enough to pull a surprised gasp from her, and
threw a possessive arm over her.
    “I owe you an apology,” he said. “I’ve believed
since we met that I was the strongest one out of the two of us. I
was wrong.”
    She tried moving into his embrace, tried to say
something, but he tightened his arm for a second and shushed
her.
    “Sleep, love. There’ll be time to talk
tomorrow.”
    Lena knew him too well not to hear the barely
concealed lie in his words. There would be no talk, of course not.
They had said everything there was to say. Lena would not sacrifice
a long dreamed of future, and Liam could not return to his past.
She tried to remain awake and figure out a way to share each
other’s present, but, mentally exhausted, she drifted off into
sleep without finding an answer.
    Liam’s embrace had never felt so warm.

    * * * *

    The quiet rustling sounds of Lena getting
dressed woke Liam, but he managed to keep his eyes closed and
remain still. They had had a lovely night, full of memories, of the
love they had once shared—and still shared, he now knew.
    He didn’t want to spoil the experience with
awkward goodbyes, half-voiced apologies and promises they could
only break. He didn’t want his last memory of Lena to be of her
leaving him. She had given him his answer, and he knew he couldn’t
change her mind. Deep down, he wasn’t sure he even wanted to. As
she had said, the risk was there that she might not love him upon
being changed. He would rather let her live her life and know he
was still in her heart than force her to join him in the night, and
maybe lose her completely.
    He had not chosen or even wanted to be a
vampire, but there had been nothing left for him to do when he had
awakened, craving blood, save for accepting what he had become. He
had learned how to survive, following his Sire’s directions because
it felt like the right thing to do, missing Lena more than he
missed the sun. And now that he had found her and lost her again,
for the first time since awakening a vampire, he felt angry at what
had happened to him, at the limitations and hunger that were now
his. For the first time, he felt lonely, having lost his Sire, his
clan, and now his last threads of hope that Lena might join him.
For the first time, he regretted being what he was.
    She was dressed now, or so he thought, and
judging by the sound of her heartbeat she was standing on the other
side of the bed. He wondered what she was doing, and almost opened
an eye to know. Was she watching him, maybe, etching in her mind
the lines of his face, as he had done before letting sleep claim
him hours before? Part of him hoped that she was, a very selfish
little voice that wanted her to miss him every bit as much as he
would miss her.
    The sounds of her steps were muted, then the
door opened softly, and she was gone.
    Opening his eyes, Liam blinked several times,
and denied even to himself that it was tears he was blinking away.
He had seen the woman he loved after months of missing her, had
held her, made love to her and heard her give a precious
declaration of love and acceptance. He was a lucky man, and an even
luckier vampire.
    Still, that didn’t make the pain of losing her
any less.
    With a groan, he rolled onto his stomach,
flinging an arm toward the pillow she had used and pulling it to
him. He buried his face