Falling to Ash by Karen Mahoney Page B

side so I couldn’t reach. ‘Put me down!’
    He shook his head, granite-faced, a vengeful god woken before his time. I knew I’d pushed him too far, but I really didn’t care.
    ‘Theo, let go of me!’ I struggled more violently, grabbing his wrist with both hands and trying to wrench myself free.
    He shook me pitilessly. ‘Be still.’
    ‘Get off me,’ I said, hating that I’d begun to cry and couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down my face.
    Theo watched me without expression.
    ‘Please,’ I said, not caring in that moment that I’d done the one thing I had promised myself I’d never do: beg.
    He released me without warning and I hit the floor – hard. I couldn’t get my feet under me in time, despite my superhuman reflexes, and I sat where he dropped me.
    Wow. Could my life
suck
any more?
    ‘Get up,’ he said.
    I didn’t move. There was an empty space inside me that even blood couldn’t fill.
    ‘Get. Up.’
    I raised my chin and met his eyes. ‘I hate you.’ He could kill me for that, but so what? How could things get any worse?
    He took a step toward me and I flinched. Theo saw me do it and his eyes widened in something close to shock.
    ‘Moth . . .’
    ‘Leave me alone.’ I hardly recognized my own voice.
    ‘Marie, I am s—’
    ‘I said,
leave me alone
. Didn’t you hear me? Leave me with some dignity, for God’s sake.’
    He laughed, an awful sound filled with bitterness. ‘God? Your so-called
god
doesn’t want you anymore, little one. Better to stay close to those who do want you.’
    ‘Don’t say that,’ I whispered.
    ‘You have a new Family now,’ he said. ‘Get used to it.’
    I pulled my knees up against my chest and wrapped my arms around them. I couldn’t bear to look at him anymore.
    And then he did something that I would never have expected. He had that about him – the ability to take me by surprise just when I was getting good at hating him. He knelt down in front of me, unclasped my cold hands from around my legs and held them in his own. He could have continued to play the scary vampire. He could have punished me for my behavior, like he would do with any other member of his Family. Instead, he offered me one last drop of kindness.
    He took both my hands in one of his, placing the other beneath my chin and forcing me to look at him.
    ‘Surely you understand why I can’t let you go. Surely you are not so naïve.’
    I licked my suddenly dry lips, not wanting to meet his eyes but unable to look away. ‘You can’t be seen as weak. I know that.’
    He shook his head slowly. ‘More than that, my little Moth . If I cannot keep you by my side, then you will be considered a risk to the entire Family.’
    ‘I would never tell!’ I glared at him. ‘Never. I can keep secrets, Theo. You know I can.’
    The mask finally dropped and I caught a glimpse of the exhaustion on his face. ‘If I can’t control you, they will force me to end you. Do you understand?’
    He looked old for the first time since I’d known him. It scared the crap out of me.
    I shivered. ‘You mean . . . kill me.’
    ‘The Elders believe that is what I should have done already. It was a weakness to turn you in the first place, when what I should have done was to let you die and simply covered up any evidence of vampire involvement.’
    I felt numb. ‘What don’t they like about me?’
    His hand caressed my cheek, but I could hardly feel it. ‘It isn’t personal.’
    ‘Not
personal
? They want me dead!’
    ‘This is not about you. It’s about me and my loss of control. About what message that sends to the Family – and the Elders.’
    I knew what he was saying was the truth. Vampire Families are important for a number of reasons: they offer protection and control. The Master of a Family is responsible for ensuring his or her vampires don’t go on a rampage among humanity. Being a member of a Family ensures that everyone is accounted for. We needed to stay hidden to survive –