To Alixandria's surprise, Henry shook his head. "No, Alixandria, that's just what they want us to think. You and I," He took her hand in his very gently. Henry's warm fingers stroked over hers. "For just a second, forget about them, forget about Idris, and think of everything we have been through and tell me..." He took her chin in his hand. "Tell me what you feel."

Alixandria felt her heart ache as she met Henry's warm eyes, the man she had once considered her soulmate. She couldn't help but feel dread at the thought that it was all over...that the man she had spent so many years loving would be out of her life.

What did she feel?

She felt everything, because as his hand softly stroked her fingers, and his eyes, deep with affection and hope, gazed at her, their entire story flashed across her mind.

Running away with him, him helping her heal, getting their first apartment, signing up for college, studying together, taking spontaneous road trips, staying up late into the night talking about their future...

A part of her woke up and was trying to hold on and not let go. How was it that Henry could do that? How could he drown out the pull Alixandria felt for Idris?

Something was wrong here, but she wasn't sure what, because the pull for Idris was still there, but there was something else there for Henry.

She felt a knot both in her heart and stomach because she didn't know what she wanted.

Henry represented her first love, the man that freed her, healed her, loved her...and Idris...

Idris freed her in his own way, her disability shrunk to the back when he was near, she could face her fears, she felt she could take on the world, she felt loved and adored, safe and secure.

"Hey," He wiped the tears that she had begun to shed at the thought of having to live without either man. Where had the courage that had been with her earlier gone?

"Alix, I know this must be hard for you, i-it's hard for me to," he sighed, his gaze dropped slightly, but returned with renewed hope, "but I believe that you and I are fated, or else you wouldn't be having such a hard time making this choice."

Was he right? The choice had seemed so simple before. She loved Idris and she knew she wanted to be with him. She had felt every fiber of her body tell her that he was the one, and though they hadn't been together for too long, every time she had been with him, she had known that he was her future.

Idris made her feel things she hadn't felt in a very long time and if she felt so strongly for him, then Henry had to be feeling the same for his mate.

"What about Amber? If she is your mate...your real mate, why did you choose not to give her a chance, Henry? Why push her away, instead of acc—"

"I accepted my mate long ago...and that's you and no one else."

"Henry," Alixandria sighed, taking a slow deep breath, "I love you... I- I'm thankful for everything you have done for me and what we have built together...but, you have to admit, the last couple of years...even before Idris and Amber arrived, have been much more stressful, different..." Alixandria had never wanted to bring it up before, had tried to ignore the fact that the last couple of years their relationship had slowly dwindled like the wax on a candle.

Yes, they still talked and spoke, and loved and supported each other, but they spent more time apart than together, more time talking as friends than being intimate, and Alixandria had been fine with that...until Idris had shown up and she felt the fire within her spark to life.

Henry shook his head defiantly, "I agree we've dropped the ball on some things, but that happens Alixandria. We grew up, we got busy, we—"

"Grew apart."

"Alix—"

"Just answer me this Henry, do you love me? Or are you just comfortable with the life we built...the life we imagined?"

"Is there a difference?"

"Of course there is Henry! Tell me, tell me, when you were with Amber what did you feel?"

His face contorted in anger, "She is a demon Alix, just like Idris is! What we feel for them is out of our control. Otherwise, would you have looked at Idris without the effect of the pull? Would you have fallen for him so quickly? Would you truly love him after two fucking conversations!"

The harsh tone of his words caught her off guard, she knew Henry had a temper, but he had always done everything to keep it in control, but Alixandria knew it was only the frustration of her resistance, and possibly at his denial...the denial that he was in love with another woman who he could not accept, simply because she was different, and she needed him to understand.

"Would you? Without the pull would you be able to stop looking at Amber the way you do? Would your thoughts about her simply stop? No, you can't say that for certain can you...look at you Henry," She took his trembling hand. "Look at how just the thought of her, just the mention of her makes you quake, and that look in your eyes tells me it's not fear...it's want... it's need...it's—"

"It's a fucking lie! She used me! Lured me! And when I didn't give her what she wanted, she sought out a way to break us up!"

"What?"

"Why do you think I thought I brought you home and not some strange girl? It's obvious isn't it?...she compelled me Alix, she manipulated me, just as Idris has been manipulating you! He probably set her up to it, so both of them could get what they wanted!""

"I-Idris wouldn't do that."

"No?" He chuckled humorlessly, "And how would you know? What memory would you have of him lying to you if he compelled you to forget?"

"I-I don't but I—"

"Then how about we test that!"

"Wha—"

Henry stood up and stalked towards the kitchen where she could hear him rummaging through the cabinets. A moment later he returned, knife in hand as he stood looking direction at Alixandria.

Alixandria felt her muscles tense, her heart began to pound as she looked at Henry's enraged face.

"Henry what are you doing?"

"You know, I thought it was odd when I started feeling better...feeling healthier, and then one day, when I was cooking us dinner, I accidentally cut myself with a knife."He looked at the fingers in his hand, "I went to clean it off and the oddest thing happened," He clenched his jaw tightly, "because even though there was blood, even though I had felt and seen the slice... the wound was suddenly gone...not a scab, not a scar, nothing to show that it had happened." He pointed the knife in her direction before taking a step closer and automatically Alixandria stood up, ready to dive for the door.

"Then I noticed you'd stopped taking your pills." He huffed, "I guess you must've been feeling better too because you no longer needed them, and you haven't needed them since meeting Idris, right?"

Although her attention was on Henry and the knife he still pointed at her, Alixandria couldn't help but admit he was right... shortly after meeting Idris she had begun to feel better. She'd stopped taking her medication days ago and even tonight, as she hung out with Camilla, she had had no episodes as she drank and danced.

Was Henry insinuating this was Idris's doing? How?

"Henry, w-why don't you put the knife down and you can explain?"

"I don't need to explain, I can just show you." He marched toward her with the knife. Alixandria lunged for the door just as it burst open and Idris strode in, taking Alixandria in his arms and meeting Henry with a dark lethal glare.

"Ah, just in time." Henry stopped, his usual warm hazel eyes were burning with fury as he met Idris's face. "It wasn't enough to be a homewrecker, but you actual have to burst into my home, huh?" He chuckled sickly.

"I think you've said enough Henry, Alixandria has been more than kind coming here to explain and if you refuse to understand then you can come talk to me any day...I'd be happy to explain."

Henry smiled and Alixandria shivered as she had never seen Henry look so unhinged in her life, it made her heart ache terribly when she realized just how much pain Henry was in.

"I was just trying to make her see reason!"

"By gaslighting her, by making her feel guilty for not loving you anymore."

"She does love me!" Henry seethed pointing the knife in Idris's direction, "Your just blinded her! You used your demonic powers on her just as your beloved Amber did to me!" His gaze shifted to Alix when her mouth parted in surprise, "Oh, did I forget to tell you Alix...Amber was Idris's long-time lover...and vampires live a long, long, life, but I guess she wasn't enough for him, and he needed a new soulmate—"

"Amber was not my soulmate," Idris remained calm, but the green and silver in his eyes began to darken. If Henry kept pushing, Alixandria was not certain how much longer Idris would stand by and as she looked Henry, she thought the same.

Before her eyes, Henry had become more shaky, pale, and tired-eyed. He looked sick, in pain as he clutched one hand over his stomach.

She had to end this conversation and then she would demand Idris to take her to Amber so that they could talk.

"Henry," She plead into his eyes. It took Henry a moment before his eyes softened from the rage that consumed him. And for a moment all was well. He shook his head, blinking several times as if he had suddenly woken up from a dream.

"Alixandria?"

"Yeah," She smiled, "Henry, we need to—"

"Ahhhrg!"

Henry collapsed to his knees, screaming in agony as he wrapped his arms around his chest.

Alixandria left Idris's grasp and fell beside Henry, "What's wrong with him?" She turned to Idris as he began pulling his phone out of his pocket.

"He's been denying his bond and it's physically causing him pain. I've never seen a bond affect a human this bad...usually it only happens when—" He abruptly stopped his train of thought, "I need to get a hold of Amber." He began to speak to what sounded like Ben behind the line, and as Alixandria tried to sooth Henry, she could hear Idris on the side asking Ben to get a hold of Amber.

"Shhh, Henry it's okay," She soothed her hands over his back as he grunted, his teeth clenched tightly to suppress another agonizing scream. "Henry, you need to accept your bond to Amber. Please, do this for me... if you really love me then accept you bond with he—"

His hand slammed into Alixandria's wrist, stopping his writhing as he pulled her arm and with his other hand brought the knife over her palm, "You are my soulmate Alixandria, and I will prove it to you, but first—"

"Henry!"

"Alixandria!" Idris stormed towards her, but it was too late.

The knife had sliced painfully, from end to end of her palm, so deep the skin pulled apart and blood poured away.

Alixandria's heart burned as tears sprung from her eyes from the pain. She held her hand, watching the blood poor and her vision blurred. Her mind spun so forcefully she thought she might pass out, but the tingling in her hand caught her attention.

The blood had stopped, and her wound began to slowly close. Magically, her skin stitched itself back together.

Alixandria had to blink serval times to understand what had just happened.

The wound had closed, the pain was gone, and there was nothing left to show that she had ever been cut...just as Henry had described from his wound.

Idris was leaning in front of her in the next instant. The whole ordeal had been mere seconds, yet she felt it had taken her mind ages to comprehend everything that had just occurred.

Carefully, Idris leaned down, taking Alixandria's palm in his and looking it over. She heard Henry's chuckle next, as he slumped down the wall Idris had shoved him by the throat against.

"T-tell her," he said pained, clutching his stomach as the agony of deny his bond began to return. "tell her how you've been manipulating her...fe-feeding her your demonic blood." Henry spat before he turned on all fours clutching the ground in agony and a monstrous roar left his mouth.

"Idris,"

"I can explain later Alixandria."

Alixandria felt disappointment tug at her heart strings, but no sooner did worry drown out her need for an explanation. If the look in Idris's eyes hadn't been an indication he was to blame, his words sure were, but Alixandria didn't want to jump to conclusions just yet, because as Idris tugged her to a stand, Henry had begun to turn more savage by the second.

His grunts had turned into animalistic snarls, his bones seemed to move under his skin.

"Alixandria, we need to leave. Amber's scent is near, only she can control him now."

"What's wrong with him—oh!" As she'd finished that sentence, Idris had decided to take her in his arms and storm out of the apartment. "Idris." She pushed when he didn't answer.

"He's shifting Alixandria." He finally looked down to meet her eyes, "I'm sorry, but Henry is shifting."

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