“Fuck you!” Julian slammed his hands on either side of Lily's head. “I am not him! I don’t act like Ian, I don’t lie like Ian, and I’m not weak like Ian.” A low growl rumbled deep within his chest. “My name is Julian Douglas and you would do well to remember it.”

Lily’s pulse thumped in time with her panic. The monstrous fury in his eyes threatened to incinerate her. But she still had to ask the question. “Why can’t you accept who you are, Julian? Why did you have to separate yourself like this?”

His claws dug into the mattress, easily ripping through the synthetic material. “Why couldn’t you?”

Lily clearly heard all the other unspoken questions.

Why couldn’t you accept me? Why did you constantly look for Ian in my every word, every smile, and every deed? Why did you keep hoping Ian would come back even while you loved being with me?

Defeat pressed in. “Just go, Julian. Go back to your mansion by the lake. Go back to your money. Go back to your world. Go back to Vickery Hill.”

Her tired directives infuriated Julian past endurance. He yanked her chin back to him and snarled, “You have no idea of what my life has become since you left! None! Don’t you dare tell me where to go!”

“Yeah? Well at least you can go back, Julian! I can’t! Ever! You don’t know what it’s like to lose your family, your dignity, to be turned out of the town you grew up in…the town you protected…to have the Spirit abandon you…to have the Spirit use you…to be nothing more than a tool…to do what I’ve done…”

Julian wanted to rub it in her face. He wanted to speak of all the nights he spent, pressed between death and despair. He wanted to watch her eyes well up with tears, knowing she was the cause of ultimate fall. Instead, he squeezed her and whispered, “Please forgive me. I’m not always in my right mind…I hate so much…and you pay the price…I’m sick and we both know why…but I can’t live without you. You’re my life, Lily. I need you.”

She sobbed in response.