ARIELLA'S POV

I struggled under his grasp, trying to free myself from the vampire but his grip was very tight and firm. This was really it, he would drink from me until I was dead and nobody would even know about it.

"Let me go!" I growled but it was of no use to him. I hated this monstrous creature very much and I hated myself even more for submitting to his kiss.

"I said, let me go!" I barked again and this time, I was swiftly dropped to the ground, it was only then that I noticed he had brought me to the garden at the back of our high school. Due to the grassy ground, I suffered no injury and promptly raised to my feet.

"I'm not letting you go until you listen to what I have to say," his tone seemed as though he was demanding and at the same pleading for me to listen to him.

"Go ahead and kill me," I shrugged still glaring at him disgustedly.

"That was my plan all along but you....I don't know what you did but I just can't hurt you much less end your life," his response was clearly a lie.

"You can't hurt me? But you already did by killing my friends, you already did by threatening the peace of my town and you already hurt me by making me break the heart of a guy that'll probably never hurt me," I let my shattered heart speak for me.

"It was never part of my plan to kill Austin but...,"

I didn't let him finish his sentence. The son of a devil still had the nerve to talk after what he did. I clenched my jaw, "Austin had a bright future in MBA but you kill him and his dream." I wailed, remembering Austin's plan to surprise Rachel on Christmas by going on a cruise ship. "He was going to go on a cruise ship with Rachel on Christmas but you took that away from them. Why?"

"Do you have any idea of what it means to lose a loved one?" I don't know why I asked such a ridiculous question. It was clear this vampire beast had no feelings so how on earth would he know the pain of pain of losing a loved one?

"That's a pain that I'll never get over. Every day, that very pain hovers in my life like a slow poison and that's why I'm like this," his words took me aback. Momentarily, I almost believed that he had a heart but I killed the incredulous thought just as quickly as it came in.

The anger inside me burnt even more and I just couldn't help but lash intensely at the vampiric demon before me. "You're a monster, a devil, the demon that killed my happiness. How can you say that you know what grieving pain feels like when you don't even have the heart to spare innocent lives? If you really do, then you won't wish it on anyone else. I'm sure you must kill millions of people for no reason, how the fuck can you sleep at night? For every person you have killed, thousands of lives are deeply affected so Sylaq Steel, you're much worse than the devil himself."

Silence stumbled up on us, I couldn't even inhale the fresh scent of the plants around us because my nostrils could only sniff the blood of Austin from the devil's hoodie. Although his green eyes revealed remorse, pain, and guilt, I still wasn't gonna believe that he was hurt by my words.

"You're right, I was everything you called me and even more. Trust me, I've been called worse but I've never been hurt by their words. Yet, your words sting and I feared that the stings will linger forever in my heart," he said. "The plan was to make you fall for me, fuck you and use you as a canvas for my fangs and claws to create an artwork on so why the hell couldn't I execute project Ariella? If it's not for this compelling feeling that I'm feeling right now, you would have been long dead," he snarled dangerously but I steadied myself abruptly.

"You've got no right to say that. You've got no right to feel that but if what you're saying is true, then I pray that you'll never know happiness and you'll constantly be hurt for eternity," I had never cursed anybody before now but he deserved it.

"How did you even hide your fangs, claws aren't vampires supposed to only come at night but you......how come the sun doesn't affect you," I asked. It's not as if his answers would change anything but I still wanted to know how he fooled us all. How, how he fooled me.

SYLAQ'S POV

Everything Ariella said was dam right, I had killed so many people because I wanted everyone to know my pain. The people who were responsible for Lexie's death were already destroyed by me so then why was I prolonging this revenge? If I wasn't a vengeful vampire, I would have fallen in love with Ariella and perhaps, we would have been happy together but of course, I let the beast in me ruin any chance of my happiness.

What I was about to do was something that I thought I could never do but sometimes life just put us in uncontrollable situations such as this one. She needed to be happy again, her smile defined her and I couldn't stand the fact that I was the one who snatched it away from her. The wise thing to do was to make her forget me completely. I just had to let her go now or else, I would risk losing my heart to her.

"Believe it or not I've never been sorry in my life but this time, I truly am sorry for everything." I just hoped that she could see the sincerity in my apologies. She shook her head in disbelief, obviously doubting every word I said. I continued regardless, "Maybe one day, you'll get to know everything about vampires but I won't be able to answer your questions at least not now."

I didn't get a word from her, I was only welcomed by more deadly glares and shrugs.

I took a deep breath, moved close to her, and went on with my reasonable decision. "from here on, you will forget everything about me, you will not even remember that you've ever met Sylaq Steel. You'll forget that I ever existed in your life and you'll go after what makes you happy. Who knows maybe in the future, we would see each other again and things will be very different between us but as for now, it's goodbye."

Compulsion was the only way that I could fix everything so I just had to hypnotize her to delete her memories of Sylaq Steel from her life.

"Ariella Reas, May we meet again,"! I kissed her forehead and walked away from her, I walked away from the school, I walked away from Dobana, and above all, I walked away from the life of the only girl to whom I might have felt connected.

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