I waited and finally he spoke.

“I didn’t even know he had been changed,” he said, and a sob burst from his throat. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

I shifted onto my knees and held him as he cried. “You do not have to tell me,” I said as he shook in my embrace.

“No,” he said, taking a deep breath. “You need to understand.”

Again I waited, and when he was able to speak, he continued.

“I did not know Daroc had been changed, and when he came to me, he was aroused and he touched me and caressed me and worked me into a frenzy. I liked it, wanted it—wanted him. I had not been ready for this before. We had never…” He paused. “It seemed right and then it wasn’t. When he bit me, I screamed and pushed him away. He took a chunk of my flesh with him. I ran, naked, into the night, and Daroc chased after me. My screams drew the attention of other villagers. Their intervention cost them their lives.”

I held my breath as Sorin described this horror.

“When Daroc caught up with me, I was barely conscious. He sobbed over me, he told me how sorry he was, and…he didn’t let me die.”

I did not know what to say so I stayed quiet.

“I do not wish to hold it against him. It’s just that I will never forget.”

“How could you?”

It was trauma, and it had happened when he had least expected, when he had likely been feeling emotions that far exceeded anything he’d ever felt in his life. At least I would have a choice when it came time for me to be changed.

“He hates himself for it, you know?” Sorin said. “And it has informed everything about our relationship. He treats me as someone he is responsible for, not as a lover.”

I mourned for him, and Daroc too, though I did not think either would want it. So much about their dynamic and personalities made sense now. Daroc, quiet, stoic, angry, likely blamed himself for everything. Sorin, soft, funny, energetic, was just trying to hide his pain.

“Why do you stay? Why do either of you stay?”

“It is not as if I do not love him,” Sorin said.

Silence followed and I struggled to remember how we had even gotten here.

He took a deep breath. “I did not mean to burden you with my problems.”

“It is not a burden.”

Once again we were quiet, and after a moment, Sorin looked at me, changing the subject, likely not wishing to entertain any questions about what he had just told me.

“Do you remember how it felt when you first shifted?”

It had started out fine. I had not minded the fever or the desperate sex with Adrian. It was everything after that I hated.