“To a pixy, you live like a king,” I snapped, feeling my heartbeat quicken.

“The familiar bond is broken. We can start over—”

“No.” I shifted from him, feeling the betrayal again. Damn him. “You can’t be part of my life anymore. You’re a thief and a liar, and I can’t love you.”

“I can change,” he said, and I groaned with disbelief. “I have changed,” he said, so earnestly that I thought he might believe he had. “When this is over, I’ll go back to Cincinnati. I’ll get a noon to midnight job. I’ll buy a dog. Get cable TV. I’ll stop it all for you, Rachel.”

His hands went out and took mine, and I looked at my fingers cradled between his long pianist hands, damaged and raw, but sensitive, enfolding mine as his arms had once protected me, kept me alive when I was bleeding my life out.

“I love you that much,” he whispered. My head pounded, and he brought my fingers to his lips and kissed them. “Let me try. Don’t throw this second chance away.”

I couldn’t seem to get enough air. “No,” I said, voice low so it wouldn’t tremble. “I can’t do this. You won’t change. You might believe you can, and maybe you will, but in a month, a year, you’ll find something, and then it will be, ‘Just one more, Ray-ray. Then I’ll stop forever.’ I can’t live like that.” My throat was tight and I couldn’t swallow.

I pulled my eyes to his, reading in his shocked expression that he had been about to say that right now, that he still wanted to walk away from this with money in his pocket. That he may have meant everything he’d said, but also wanted to convince me to put my, Ivy’s, and Jenks’s life on the line for money. He was still running his damn snatch, even while knowing that if the statue wasn’t destroyed, it would put my life in jeopardy.

Betrayal bubbled up, making my stomach clench. “I have a good life,” I said, feeling his grip on my fingers loosen. “It doesn’t include you anymore.”

Nick’s jaw clenched and he drew back. “But it includes Ivy,” he said bitterly. “She’s hunting you. She’s going to make you her toy. It’s always the thrill of the hunt for vampires. That’s all. And once she gets you, she’ll drop you and move on to someone new.”

“That’s enough,” I said, my voice harsh. It was my greatest fear, and he knew it.

He smiled bitterly. “She’s a vampire. She can’t be trusted. I know she’s killed people. She uses them and abandons them. That’s what they do!”

I was shaking in anger. Kisten’s bracelet hung heavy on me like a sign of ownership. “She only takes blood from people who freely give it. And she doesn’t abandon them!” I shouted, unable to keep my voice down. “She never left me!”

Nick’s face went hard at the accusation. “I may be a thief,” he insisted, “but I never hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it. Even by accident.”