She'd known all along. She'd never really expected him to feel the same way. Sure, it kinda hurt. Sure, he'd changed her in such a way that she'd never be the same.
But what bitterness could you hold towards the man you loved?
Well, person. Creature? He always called himself a monster, but she wouldn't. He was too beautiful to be one.
She tugged the blankets up over her bare shoulders and watched him.
The windowsill was his favorite place after a night like this. He never wanted to lay with her. It was never like her dreams. The ones with her prince charming; her one and only. He would charm her and hold her and murmur irresistible talk of his love for her in her ear.
Not him. She'd tried with everything she could to blame it on something else.
Oh, she had indigestion.
Oh, he was giving her anxiety.
Oh, she was scared when he looked at her with those piercing lavender eyes.
No, lavender wasn't the word. They were sharper. Harder.
Amethyst.
Cold stones surrounding the pupils. Pupils of something not quite human.
But when he would look at her and her heart would flutter and her chest would tighten, it didn't matter what she tried to blame it on. She felt for him.
Loved him. Completely and totally.
She wouldn't tell him. It's not like he returned it, and it wasn't like she expected him to. She was no treasure, no trophy. Just an average girl. She didn't even have her alchemy under control. What use was she, really?
She knew. She could feel her lip blossoming where he'd bitten so roughly. He enjoyed the sight of her blood, so she allowed him to see it. His happiness was her happiness.
His gaze never faltered from the outside. But tonight he turned and caught her eyes. There they were, the amethyst depths she lost herself in. The ones she pretended saw her the way that her soft sapphire eyes saw him.
She didn't know if he was angry when he caught her staring but she smiled.
He made her do that, you know. Made her smile.
He grimaced. She'd never seen him really smile. The first night he'd taken her had been terrifying. His sadistic grin was fresh in her mind, as were the wounds on her back and legs.
But when he'd returned, she hadn't found that she feared him. She felt drawn.
And now he had her by the throat. He threatened her. For smiling, for feeling, for existing. He complained that the sound of her heartbeat annoyed him and was too loud.
Of course it was. It beat for him.
She gasped. His grip was tightening. There was something in his eyes she hadn't seen before. She couldn't place it. Or, wait. No, it couldn't be...
Fear?
A strangled noise escaped her throat, an attempt to murmur the sin's name. Her vision was blurring. What was so different about tonight?
He dropped her to the floor. Something was punctured. She felt the hot crimson pouring from her throat and swelling into her mouth. She coughed it through her lips and it dribbled over her cheek.
He pushed her shoulder with his foot to roll her on her back. She couldn't make him out clearly any more. The pain and the loss of oxygen clouded her vision.
He took a lock of her hair in his hand and pulled her face an inch from the floor. He was on his knees, she guessed, since he placed his mouth to her ear. She could barely make out what he whispered to her.
But he eyes widened. And her last breath caught in her throat. And then she was gone and her body lie empty and soulless on the floor of her apartment.
Her ghost would remember it forever. And as it gazed at the scene of her, watched him place a kiss on her slowing cooling lips, a light snatched her from the world she knew.
The phrase was the one she'd waited for, though slightly different from what she'd hoped.
"I fear I love you, human. And I don't like to be afraid."