Stalked by Seduction and Shadows (Eternal Obsession, #1)

by Maggie Sunseri

But this girl—she was the red and orange of autumn leaves in the looming, dark woods. She was the flame of life that burned on and on, the warmth I would never feel again, the embers that had dimmed when I’d forsaken my humanity for an eternity of ice and death.

Maybe I’d be punished in the underworld for all of eternity for my selfishness, for the darkness inside of me that pulsed with greed and desire. But until then, I would live. I would burn.

I wanted to gaze inside the powerful, haunted, beautiful mind of which I had only ever caught glimpses. I wanted to pry her open and drag her hidden pieces out into the chilly autumn air. I wanted to hold her trauma in my palms and study it, find where the tears began so I could help her mend them. I wanted to know her void and how compatible it was with mine.

In another life, I’d make clothing. I’d choose the finest, most exquisite fabrics, transforming a sketch into a living, breathing piece of art—then I’d style them to people’s bodies to bring out their best features.

I didn’t envy vampirism, but I sometimes envied immortality. All the books I’d have time to read, the people I’d meet, the skills I’d learn, the places I’d go, and the different versions of myself I’d get to be.

I wanted her to keep burning with all the hope and grit and defiance in the world.

“I wanted to kill them, for making you scared.”

She was the brightest thing in this club, this city, this island, and beyond. When I was near her, I remembered what it felt like to face my own death. She’d roused me from the longest, deepest slumber, painting my world in color again after centuries in the shadows.

They couldn’t know I’d pulled Scarlett away from them because I was horribly, irreversibly, fucking insatiably obsessed with her.

She didn’t know it yet, but she was mine.

Her safety and comfort were priceless to me. She’d understand this very soon.

Or at least, she used to belong to no one. Now she belonged to me. All of Aristelle could gaze upon my Little Flame for all I cared, but just one touch, and I’d make sure they fucking burned.

I didn’t know how to receive the love I needed. Maybe that was why it always existed out on the horizon—in other lands, in people I hadn’t met, in a future that was always one step out of reach. Because great love was this thing that existed only conceptually, only in the abstract. It wasn’t something I ever truly thought I’d have, deep down.

“Because you have a big heart,” he said with a cold, sinister smile. “And seeing your lovers lose appendages or disappear off the face of the earth might make it crack a little. I don’t want to see you hurt.”

I would want her forever. I already feared the hole inside of me she would leave behind.

The horror of her eventual loss was far greater than the more immediate, pressing concern.

Maybe in another life, a man could take me to the opera and want nothing from me but my affection and my company. But that wasn’t the lesson this world had taught me.

:(

She had no idea how tightly wrapped around her finger I was, how hopelessly devoted I’d become to making sure she was protected, fulfilled, and satisfied at all times.

“And yet you burn. Despite everything you’ve endured, all the pain and the loneliness and the grief and the betrayal, you burn fucking blindingly, like you can’t help but be anything less than radiantly alive. In you I see hope that never dies, and some might call it weak or naive, but I think it’s the most beautiful thing about you, this radical choice to be open and warm in a world that is overwhelmingly cold and brutal.”

“Use your words, baby,” Rune said, his voice a low rumble as he held his face close. “What do you desire?”

“You don’t believe in your own perfection yet, but one day you will. I’ll make sure you see yourself the way I do even if I have to destroy the entire realm to do it.”

😭💘

“There are many people in this world who would love nothing more than to clip your wings. Stop doing it for them. Soar instead.”

The human side of me knew that Scarlett was mine, and he wanted to claim her in this life and every one of her lives after, for all of eternity.

“Don’t you dare give up, Little Flame. Or I swear I will fight Helia herself to drag you right back down here to live in hell with me.”

Her eyes brimmed with tears. The sight of it had my chest splitting, my breath lodged in my throat. I could witness the most gruesome, unspeakable maiming of flesh and not bat an eye, but the first sign of Scarlett in pain cut through every shield I’d ever erected over my cold, dead heart.

The way she stared at me like she didn’t want me to leave her was something I didn’t know I’d craved. It made me hesitate as I backed away. Her faith in me was miraculous, and I cherished it more than anything else before her.

“You are here, in this room, with me. And there’s no safer place in this world for you.”

“There is no competition in trauma. None of it is ever better or worse than any other. Trauma is not what happens to you. It’s what happens inside of you as a result of what happens to you.”

“I will always take care of what’s mine.”

If she were a siren, I’d be her helpless sailor already dead and sinking to the bottom of the sea.

“This isn’t good,” I said softly. Adorably disoriented, Scarlett stared up at me through her thick lashes. “What?” “You’re so fucking pretty when you cry.” I shook my head.

“You’re demented.” “Thank you, baby,” I whispered.

IM OBSESSED WITH THEM

“Scarlett, I would drink your darkness, bathe in it, pull it into me while I held you inside my own.”

Books raised me, shaped me.”

I was falling, hard and fast, and just like singing, it felt like soaring.

“You deserve so much more than what life has handed you, Scarlett. Don’t accept the half-love that you’ve grown accustomed to. Only accept the full, staggering devotion that you deserve. It’s what we all deserve. To feel wholeheartedly chosen, desired, secure, and nurtured. Anything less is theft.”

I retracted an inch. “Better have been me you were dreaming of.” “You can’t control my dreams, Rune,” she said, always the brat. “Like hell I can’t.” I thumbed over her jugular.

“Scarlett, you are the only thing that feels different in a world that never changes.”

“There is no deserve when it comes to love. There are no conditions or stipulations. You just love.”