Author's Note: Okay, y'all, don't be mad at me for this super tiny chapter! I'm going to update later on in the day, so there will be more. It's just that Chapter Twelve will be a big chapter, and if I combined it with this one, then it would be longer than the other chapters by a good deal. And I'm a little OCD when it comes to needing my chapter to lengths to be around the same size! So, enjoy, and please review (plus thanks to the people that have been reviewing, y'all are so awesome)!

Chapter Eleven

"No," I say, firmly, because I know it's not true. I know it. The voices tell me it's not so, and I tell myself it's not so, too. Because that's not it. I didn't love him. I've never loved him, this human-looking monster before me.

It's not right.

It's all wrong.

"You fancied me," Jace says, the maniacal light growing in his eyes because he likes this. He likes to see me squirm. "You followed me around the village we lived in like a lost puppy. You blushed like a little girl anytime I said hello. You were completely smitten."

I'm shaking my head, the voices saying, NO! and my own voice saying the same.

No, no, no, no.

It's not him I loved. I loved someone else. This is not the same person.

Memories of a bright smile and work reddened hands flash through my mind. Memories of laughter and secret smiles and stolen, innocent kisses. The memories are not of Jace at all.

"No," I say, again.

"Yes," Jace replies unwaveringly. "Just because you say something isn't true doesn't make it so, sweetheart."

"No!" I scream and go to hit him, but he already knows my plan and stops me. In the blink of an eye, I'm lying flat on the bed, with his heavy, burning hot body pinning me down, his hands holding my wrists above my head. I'm helpless once again.

"Remember what I said about drawing blood the third time?" he asks, his voice rumbling in his chest, and I feel the vibrations of it everywhere. He squeezes my wrists, making me whimper softly. "I'm just dying for the opportunity to show you what I meant."

"GET OFF ME!" I yell so loudly that my voice goes hoarse. I'm insane, trying to bite him, thrashing, kicking—anything to be free—but it's of no use. He's too strong, too heavy, and I can't do anything but lie underneath him until my senses are back and I can whisper, pathetically, "Get off."

This time, he listens. He rolls gracefully to his feet, watching me as I sit up stiffly and rub at my wrists.

"I didn't love you," I say once more.

"Maybe not love. That could be a bit dramatic." Jace shrugs. "But you did have a crush on me, a crush that was big enough that I managed to distract you from tossing me into that hellhole you concocted for my siblings so that I could escape. And then you had to lock the door, even though I wasn't inside, because my siblings would get out if you didn't."

I look down at my bright red wrists and wonder how I could have ever been tricked by him. How could I ever have even had a crush on him? Surely, that must be a lie. He was beautiful, yes, but any fool could see the ugliness of his soul underneath.

But I did know I didn't love him. That sentiment was too real to ignore, and I felt myself relax just slightly.

"You said we lived in a village together," I whisper, still looking at my wrists because I can't look at him anymore. "How did no one know what you were? You don't exactly hide it well."

Jace chuckles slightly at that but then sobers as he says, "My siblings and I were once human, Cassia. We haven't always been like this."

I can't help myself, and I do glance up at him now. "What happened to you?"

"Our father made a deal with a demon," Jace murmurs, looking down at his hands briefly, inspecting them for something I don't know. "The demon's freedom from hell for his children's immortality. Of course, the immortality came with side effects—our little demonic gifts."

"And the demon was freed?" I ask in a hushed tone.

Jace looks up at me, his eyes flashing bright gold once. "No. You made sure that it wasn't. You arrived just in time to keep it from being unleashed, but you weren't quite fast enough to keep my siblings and I from being turned immortal."

"I tried to stop it," I say.

Jace nods. "Yes. And you failed."

The memory of the failure comes back to me, and with a deeper sense of longing and pain than I think possible. I wish I could remember more, but the voices in my head become loud again, distracting me from trying.

"What became of your father?" I ask a little hesitantly.

Jace's eyes are in the past, squinted, and he's frowning, remembering things I cannot. Then he blinks, clears his throat, and doesn't look at me as he says, "That's none of your concern. Now, get up. We're leaving."

"Where are we going now?" I inquire, dread filling my stomach.

"To see a friend." Jace grabs a dark leather jacket from the back of the hotel's desk chair and slides his arms into it. "And to get some answers. This time, you're not going to get away with killing yourself. This time, I'm going to get what I want."

And he says it so convincingly, that, horrifyingly, I begin to believe him, to wonder if what he says will come true.