Текст книги "Sin undone"
Автор книги: Ларисса Йон (Айон)
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Текущая страница: 21 (всего у книги 22 страниц)
Twenty-six
For a thousand years, Con dreaded the three nights of the full moon that turned him into a creature feared by humans and demons alike. It wasn’t that he’d hated being the creature, or even that he hated the agony that accompanied the transformation—it was that he’d despised the thirty seconds of vulnerability that came with each change.
Now, as he opened his eyes to stare at the dark sky and rising moon, he offered a silent hello, because night was now his new best friend, and daytime was his enemy unless the ritual was completed. Instinctively, he took a breath, even though he didn’t need to. He put his hand over his heart, even though he knew it wouldn’t beat.
A boot nudged his hip, and he shifted his head on the ceremonial pallet to look up at his childhood buddy, a wiry male whose hair was covered by a blue do-rag. “Hey.” Well, at least his voice still worked.
Aed grinned. “How’s it feel to be on your second life?”
Wincing at the stiffness in his muscles, Con sat up. “Feels like I wasted the first one.”
“Better make up for it with this one, ayech?” Aed’s accent was a blend of Scottish, Danish, and something else that made half of what he said sound like gibberish to Con, who, unlike his old friend, had spent enough time with humans in the modern world to cultivate an accent that didn’t sound like it came straight out of Beowulf.
“Yeah.” Con tested his new limbs, stretching as he sat on the wood and deer hide pallet, but he felt much the same as he had before he’d gone to the night. “Luc. The warg who brought me…”
“He was given safe passage. He’s away.”
Good. Man, that damned warg had notwanted to do as Con asked. Con had been forced to remind him that Luc owed him after the avalanche save, not to mention that Con had been there to help at the cabin, saving not only Luc but Kar and the baby, as well. Still, Luc hadn’t gone easily into it. His last words had been I hate you for this, you motherfucker.
Con winced at a sharp hunger pang in his stomach. “And you were given the honor of seeing to my birth.” A vampire birth. And one that was required to take place on dhampire ground. If Con hadn’t been brought back here before nightfall, his life would have ended for good. No second chances. Which was what had happened to his daughter centuries ago.
With a grunt of assent, Aed crouched, drew a blade across his wrist, and the effect on Con was instantaneous. His fangs punched down, his mouth watered, and a low, famished growl rose up in his chest.
The blood of a dhampire was required for this part of the ritual, was crucial in imparting an extra layer of protection, something that would separate him from regular vampires—an immunity to holy water and the ability to walk in the sun, which apparently hearkened back to the oldest vampire legends. Con would still be susceptible to the other usual vampire threats—fire, decapitation, wooden stakes, but… yeah, who wasn’t?
Con gripped his friend’s arm and brought his wrist to his mouth. It was good, but nothing tasted better than Sin.
Damn.
What was she thinking right now? He wished he’d been able to tell her about the dhampire’s second chance, but all he could do was try to tell Sin, in those last seconds of lucidity, that he would be back. That she was his, but this time, there would be no bonds of blood or magic or chain-link collars.
Now, no longer dhampire, Con would be banished forever from dhampire lands, sent into the night like his brothers before him, like his cousin Aisling, who he was supposed to have replaced on the Dhampire Council.
He no longer had to serve the dhampires, and he felt as if some huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He palmed his chest, where his heart no longer beat, and smiled. Son of a bitch, this was what he’d wanted all along. Why he’d been so reckless with his life. Oh, he’d wanted to have fun, do everything he could do, but fear had never been in play.
Because deep down, he knew that death was only temporary. If he died, he could come back, and then he’d be free of dhampire life forever.
Excellent.
He would now be governed by the Vampire Council, his story that he was turned by a vampire, sire unknown. Even the vampires didn’t know about the dhampire’s second chance.
“That’s enough, there, boy.” Aed gripped Con’s hair and tugged him off his wrist. He licked his own wound to seal it, and then helped Con up. “What now?”
“Now,” Con said grimly, “I go to kill a werewolf and claim my woman.”
* * *
Sin felt like hell and didn’t look a whole lot better.
She hadn’t wanted to leave the hospital, and God, how crazy was it that not long ago she’d done everything she could to avoid the place, and now all she wanted to do was stay?
Her family was there. And it was all she had left of Con. Funny how losing him had made her realize that, bond or no, she was linked to him. He’d owned her heart, and now that he was gone, it sat like a useless lump in her empty chest cavity, a stray organ with no reason to beat.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. There was always revenge.
She didn’t know how long it would take, but she would make Raynor pay for her pain. The thought made her bare her teeth in some twisted, grim resemblance of a smile as she hoofed it along the inky streets on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. His summons had come in the form of radiating pain from the collar while she’d been in Eidolon’s office, where she’d spent the night. She’d never been alone; her brothers had made sure that one of them had always been with her.
It was Eidolon who had been there when the summons came, and he’d been furious, but as he’d walked her to the Harrowgate, his hands behind his back and his face pinched in concentration, she’d seen a spark of wickedness in his eyes that would have chilled her to the bone if she’d thought his mind was working against her.
“Let us know your location,” he’d said. “Take your time getting there, and get Raynor to lay out his genocidal plans.”
“I don’t understand…”
“Just do it.” He’d shoved her into the Harrowgate, leaving her cursing and nearly in tears—again. Not because of Eidolon, but because everything seemed to remind her of Con. The Harrowgate, because she’d been in it with him. The hospital, because he’d worked there. Scrubs, because those were what he’d died in.
Oh, God.
Desperate to not lose him, she’d asked him to complete the bond with her. Instead, he’d killed himself, and she didn’t need to be a brain surgeon to know why. He hadn’t wanted to take her freedom away. She’d been so damned insistent that no one would ever own her again, would never be the sole provider of the one thing she needed to survive, and he’d taken it to heart. He’d made the ultimate sacrifice in order to honor what she’d said.
And she’d never gotten the chance to tell him that the reason she’d wanted the bond wasn’t because there was no other choice. It was because she loved him.
She. Loved. Him.
It was something she’d never thought could happen, and she’d realized it too late. If she could go back in time, to his apartment, she’d change everything. She’d be his, he’d be hers, and he wouldn’t be dead. It was possible, even, that a stronger bond with Con would have prevented Raynor from having any hold on her.
She was such a fool!
Fueled by hatred and regret, she stopped in front of the chain-link gate of the junkyard her collar had led her to. Raynor was inside, no doubt about it. After looking around to make sure no one was watching, she dug the new cell phone Shade had given her out of her backpack and dialed Eidolon. “I’m here. Some sort of auto yard outside Pittsburgh, near the Gerunti Harrowgate.” Sin had no idea why some of the gates were named after demons, but then, she didn’t care. Would be nice to find a Seminus gate, though.
“Good. Be careful.” Eidolon hung up before she could say anything else.
She pushed open the creaky gate and moved between the junked autos. Movement surrounded her, people watching from shadowed recesses and concealed perches. No doubt they were varcolac, patrolling for enemies like junkyard dogs.
She found Raynor near the trunk of a trashed Corvette. Smoke from a cigarette wafted up from his hand, and he smiled as he took a drag. Hatred rolled over her with such intensity that it stung her skin.
“I’m here, asshole,” she snapped.
He blew out a stream of smoke. “Took you long enough.”
“What do you want? And why are we in a damned junkyard?”
“Because I own it.”
She glanced around, took in the rusted piece-of-shit cars, skittering rats, and rotting tires. “You should be so proud.” He slapped her so hard her teeth rattled and her eyes stung, but she refused to react except to say saucily, “You must have heard how I like foreplay.” Except she didn’t. Until Con. Oh, God. Her knees nearly buckled, and she had to lock them in order to stay upright.
“I hope you like it a lot, because with your mouth, you’ll be getting it nonstop.”
“Goody,” she said dryly. “Because I so love a man who needs to prove his masculinity by beating on women. Do you hit children and kick cats, too?”
He laughed. “You’re no woman. You’re a half-breed abomination who’s lucky enough to have not been caught by a Purifier yet.”
Purifiers were demons—of any species—who hunted half-breeds for fun or money or just a twisted sense of responsibility. In the demon world, anything mixed with human blood deserved to die. And she hadencountered Purifiers before. She’d just killed them before they killed her.
“So, is that why I’m here? So you can use this half-breed freak as a punching bag?”
“I’m going to take you to the warg village you visited with Conall. You’re going to infect a few pricoliciwith something that will spread to others.”
Her cheek throbbed from his blow, and she tested a tooth with her tongue. “Are you completely stupid? We went over this before. The last time I did that, the virus mutated. What makes you think this will be any different? You could end up killing your own people.”
Raynor took a drag on his cig, and Sin suddenly wondered if turned wargs got lung cancer. She kind of hoped so. “And I told you: not if the pricoliciare contained. The warg version of Dragaica has just started.” At what must have been a what-the-hell-is-that look on her face, he rolled his eyes. “Romanian midsummer festival,” he said, as if she should know all about Romanian holidays. “Very important to born wargs. In the town you visited with Con, the largest pricolicigathering of the year will take place, and now that immunizations against SF have begun, there is even more reason to celebrate. Nearly every pricoliciin the world will be there.” Raynor paused to take another drag, and Sin felt bile rise up in her throat, scouring it raw with disgust and hatred. “We’ll bar the gate, they’ll get sick, and they will die within the confines of their own walls. The beauty of this is that even though all pricoliciwon’t be destroyed, the race will be weakened, scattered to the winds, and the varcolacwill finally become the dominant warg species.”
“You,” she said hoarsely, “are a sick fuck.”
Raynor shrugged. “Eye of the beholder.” He frowned, and at the same time, Sin picked up the sound of… a scuffle? Muted… and from several directions, but definitely fighting going on. Cursing, Raynor threw his butt to the ground, grabbed Sin’s arm, and dragged her toward the rear of the junkyard.
Out of nowhere, Wraith appeared, blocking Raynor’s retreat. “Hey. Where ya goin’?”
Ray’s hand tightened on Sin’s biceps. “One of your brothers, I’m guessing?”
“Yep. The mean one. Oh, wait, they’re all mean.” She grinned. “You are so fucked.”
Ray snarled at Wraith. “You do realize that if you hurt me, she suffers.”
“Yeah,” Wraith drawled. “Sucks, because I would love to beat you to a pulp.”
All around, the shadows stirred, and from them the rest of her brothers, plus Kynan, Luc, Tayla, and a guy she thought might be a Guardian, surrounded them. “Thought” being the key word, because the tall, blond male looked an awful lot like a vampire, and she didn’t think The Aegis employed the bloodsuckers. Though she supposed that if they could keep a half-demon in charge of an entire cell, a vamp might not be a big deal.
Sin slid her gaze to Eidolon. Next to him were two female Judicia, their green skin eerily luminescent in the moonlight. Then she heard the click of weapons being brought to bear, and damn if she didn’t nearly have a heart attack.
Men in black SWAT-like gear swept through the compound like ants. That would be the R-XR. Here? Working with demons?
“What’s going on?” Raynor practically screamed. “You’re killing my men!”
“Only the ones who fight back,” Kynan said. “The rest are being rounded up. If they’re productive, harmless members of society, they’ll be freed.”
Shade snorted. “Something tells me a lot of them are going to rot in some military testing facility.”
“Release them, and I’ll free Sin.” For emphasis, Raynor jerked her roughly against him.
“Sorry, buddy,” Eidolon said coldly, “but the time for negotiation passed when you put that collar on her.”
“If you touch me—”
“Yeah, yeah, she dies, yadda, yadda.” Con’s voice came from behind her, and Sin whirled—or did as best as she could while still being held by Ray.
“Con?” she gasped.
He moved like a ghost through the maze of vehicles, hand around the neck of a badly beaten male, the one from the warg village and the dhampire grounds. “What, you thought you could get rid of me so easily?”
She smiled so big it hurt, and tears sprang to her eyes, and geez, she was a faucet lately. “How? Oh my God, how are you here?”
Something was different about him. He was still as sexy as ever, but maybe a little paler. And the way he moved… Before, he was like a panther in motion. Now, he was a phantom panther… silent, more sleek and deadly. As if his most potent, most powerful elements had been distilled, leaving nothing but raw grace and an overpowering presence. God, it was so hot. Her sex drive, which had been as dead as she thought he was for the last twenty hours, roared back to life.
“Long story. When I called Eidolon a few minutes ago, he said you’d be here, so here I am.” He shoved the male forward. “Brought you something. This is Valko, if you don’t remember. He’s going to call off Lycus.” Con’s hand slammed into the warg’s throat. “Aren’t you?”
Valko grunted. “No, I’m not. And if you kill me without a formal challenge, you’ll face a death sentence, dhampire.”
“Vampire. And I’m not going to kill you.” Con smiled, flashing fangs that seemed a little larger than before. “I need you alive so you can take any punishment handed down to me, Wraith, and Eidolon for keeping Sin out of Carceris hands.” He glanced at Eidolon. “Volunteers are allowed to do that, right?”
Eidolon grinned. “Hell, yes.”
“I will never volunteer,” Valko snapped, and Eidolon shrugged.
“You will if you want your SF vaccination.”
“I already got it.”
“You got a B-12 shot. Con’s idea.” He slid Con an approving glance. “Good thinking, man.”
“Thank you.” Con’s voice was pleasant, as if he wasn’t gripping an enraged warg in the middle of a situation so tense the air seemed heavy. He shoved Valko to the ground and gestured to Raynor. “Release Sin. This is your last warning.”
“I will not. And if you slipped me a damned vitamin shot, your sister dies with me.”
“You, unfortunately, got the real thing.” Eidolon stepped forward with the green demons. “And I’d like you to meet my other sisters, Omira and Ravan.”
Right… Sin remembered something about Eidolon growing up with Omira, but Ravan had been born long after he left the fold.
Raynor snorted. “Do I look like Captain Kirk? Because I already told Sin I don’t do demons. Especially not ugly-ass green ones.”
Omira laughed, a curiously beautiful sound, given that, really, she wasn’t all that attractive. “My brother was right. I’m going to enjoy this.” She dug inside her leather satchel and drew out a thin, gold rope in the shape of a figure eight. “A charge has been brought against you by… well, all those present. The charge is conspiracy to commit genocide. I do find you guilty.”
“What?” Raynor’s voice was strangled. “You can’t do that! Who are you?”
Eidolon patted Omira on the shoulder. “She’s a Justice Dealer. She can definitely do it.”
Ray’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “No. The Carceris must jail me first, and then—”
“The Carceris is called in only to capture those who have charges pending, who are wanted for questioning, or who must be held during an investigation or trial.” She moved toward him. “Because I heard your plot, I have the authority to be judge, jury… and executioner.”
Someone must have given a silent signal, because her brothers and Kynan rushed Ray, and Con tore Sin from the warg’s grip. He held her so tightly she could hardly breathe, but she didn’t care. Didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he was alive.
“I’ve got you,” he murmured into her hair. “I’ll always get you.”
She’d have melted at his words, but Raynor was getting manhandled, and in response, her arms ached, the joints feeling stretched, her upper arms and legs bruised as the boys took Raynor to the ground. It was obvious that they were holding back, trying to be gentle, but Ray was fighting them.
“If you kill me, she dies,” he screamed, and yeah, that was a concern.
“Just watch,” Con said. “Every member of the Judicia uses restraints similar to what the Carceris has. They nullify all magic and all supernatural and natural abilities. As long as he’s wearing the rope—”
“The bond with him will be severed,” she finished on an excited breath. Somehow, Ray broke away and struggled to his feet, and okay, she was sick of this. “Guys? Hurt him! I can take it.”
Lore wrenched Ray’s arm behind him, and yep, that freaking hurt. Ray’s snarl was cut off, and for a split second, she thought one of her brothers had slammed a fist into his throat. But when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lycus retreating behind a crane and spurts of blood shooting out from Raynor’s ripped-out throat, her breath became a knot of fire in her own throat, and she realized what had happened.
She and Raynor had just been killed.
Twenty-seven
Con wasn’t sure what happened. All he knew was that Sin was dying, even as Eidolon and Shade tried to save Ray, their dermoiresglowing so brightly Con had to squint. Wraith, Lore, Tayla, and Kynan tore off, presumably after the assassin.
“Use the cuffs,” he yelled at Omira, who hastily looped one of Ray’s wrists with the gold twine. But it was too late. Sin convulsed, gave one last gurgled cry, and then went limp. Con’s vampire senses noted the sudden silence at the cessation of her heartbeat, the lack of vibration as her blood pooled in her veins, and terror obliterated everything but the need to save her life.
Gently, he lay her on the ground, and though he knew her fate was tied to Ray’s, he began CPR. Frantic curses and barked orders came from Shade and Eidolon as they worked on Ray, but even from where Con kneeled on the dirt, he could see that the warg was not coming back. Not with the way his head had been shorn nearly off his shoulders by something that looked like a razor-sharp boomerang.
The collar around Sin’s neck popped off, indicating a total disconnect from Ray, but the damage had been done.
Won’t give up. Will never give up.
“Con, we got it.” Eidolon’s glowing hand came down on Sin’s shoulder as Shade’s splayed on her belly.
Con felt Shade’s power going deep, grabbing at the organs and forcing them to work. “Fuck,” he muttered. “I can make them function, but if I stop…”
“They stop,” Con whispered. Sin’s heart was beating, her lungs were breathing, her liver was filtering. But not on their own. “Maybe I can turn her into a vampire. Maybe I can force her to drink.” Even as he said it, he knew he was grasping at straws. Demons couldn’t be turned, and even if her human half allowed for it, the chance of it working on someone who had died was practically zero.
At Sin’s feet, Lore hit his knees, a sob breaking from deep in his chest. “Sin, damn you.” He tore off his glove and gripped her ankle. “This works only if the death is natural, but since the warg’s death was, and with you guys helping…”
“Maybe,” Shade grunted.
Yeah, Ray’s death wasn’t exactly natural, but Con got what Lore was saying. The warg had been killed by a normal weapon. He hadn’t died of a curse or spell or mystical disease. Sin’s death had come via a mystical connection… to a natural death.
Son of a bitch. There were way too many ifs and variables here.
“Save her.” He gripped her hand so hard that if she could feel it, it would hurt. “Please.”
The “please” wasn’t necessary and he knew it. These guys would give their own lives if it meant saving hers. But Con would beg for anything right now.
Beneath his hand, the signs of life were there—she had a pulse, a heartbeat, and her chest rose and fell, but it was all artificial, forced by her brothers. Lore was panting, sweat running from his temples, teeth gnashed together.
“Come on, come on,” Eidolon muttered.
Lore groaned. “So… close…”
Impulsively, Con leaned over and kissed her. It was cliché and corny and Sleeping Beauty on crack, but he needed her to fight. To feel.
Tenderly, he closed his mouth over hers. Nothing happened, but he wasn’t about to give up. He nudged her lips with his tongue, stroked them gently at first, and then more urgently. Something burned in his eyes… tears? Yes, bloody hell, he was crying like a baby, and soon, the taste of Sin mingled with the salt of his tears.
Refusing to break contact, he pulled her into his arms and rocked her, even as he kissed her. Even as her brothers lit up the old junkyard with the power of their gifts.
And then… he felt it. A stir deep inside. She twitched. Once. Twice. And then she gasped into his mouth, and her black eyes flew wide open.
Ear-shattering whoops came from all around, but Con was silent as he tugged her tighter to his chest. He would never let her go again. Never.
Her arms came around him, and though she didn’t say it, he knew she felt the same way.
* * *
Sin felt like she’d gone a couple of rounds with a Gargantua demon. Everything ached, but mostly her ribs and throat.
Throat. Hadn’t Raynor’s ripped wide open?
Groaning, she finally pulled back from Con. Well, she tried to, but he held her so tightly she had to smile. “Con? You’re smothering me.”
“If you were being smothered, you couldn’t speak.” But he loosened his grip enough for her to look up at the wall of people standing around them as Con held her on the ground.
“What happened?”
“You sort of bit it,” Wraith said. The announcement was delivered with a certain nonchalance, but the tension in his expression said he wasn’t as detached as he’d sounded. Aw, big bad Wraith had been worried about her.
Which meant things had been really dire. A sinking sensation made her gut plummet to her feet. “Lore? Did you…”
“Yeah. But if not for E and Shade, I couldn’t have done it.”
Oh, shit. Lore’s resurrection gift came with one hell of a side effect. He’d spend days in bleeding, writhing misery, which was why he rarely used it.
“Lore, I—”
“Don’t.” He crouched beside Con and her, and gave her a smile that held no regret. “We’ve had so much guilt between us, have felt like we owed each other so much. Time to let that go. I did what I did because I love you. You’d do the same for me. Let’s put the past behind us for good.”
A huge sob escaped her, and Con released her so she could throw herself into Lore’s arms. She held him like she hadn’t since before their transformation, since before they learned they were demons. “I love you,” she whispered. “I don’t think I’ve told you that before.”
“You didn’t need to.” He held her for a moment longer, and then passed her back to Con.
“I feel like a football,” she muttered, as she dabbed at her eyes. But she wouldn’t change a thing. Except the subject, away from so much sap. “So, what happened to Lycus? Where is he?”
Wraith snorted. “Between a Chevette and a Mustang. And on the hood of a Thunderbird. And all over the grille of a—”
“Got it,” she said, holding up her hand. Not much made her queasy, but being brought back from the dead seemed to be wreaking havoc with her stomach.
Wraith gestured to Valko, who now sat chained to an old Ford pickup. “I got him to talk. He admitted to getting Lycus to kill you. Guess the pricoliciwere going to forgive his crimes and put him on the Warg Council if he did. They were also going to try to buy him out of assassin service from the new master.”
“Which is why getting my ring wasn’t an issue,” she mused. “He wanted it, but probably figured that either way he was getting a good deal. Asshole.” She hoped the punishment Valko was going to “volunteer” for was really painful. “How did you guys manage to get the R-XR here?”
“Arik,” Kynan explained. “Once we had your location, the R-XR tapped into government satellites to determine how many enemies we’d be up against, and since there were a few dozen, they called in a local team to back us up.”
Tayla snapped her stang into its belt sheath and slung her arm around Eidolon’s waist. “I’d have called in the local Aegis cell, too, but The Aegis is still fired up about what happened in Canada with the wargs. Wraith wiped the Guardians, but Command still knows something went down to cause injuries and the one dead Aegi. Didn’t think it would be wise to give them a shot at revenge.”
“Does this mean Arik is in the clear and can get the hell out of my cave?” Shade asked, and Kynan nodded.
“They couldn’t afford his loss anyway.”
Luc parted the crowd and strode up to Con. With a guttural curse, he hauled off and punched him in the shoulder. “That, you asshole, is because you made me kill you and didn’t bother to mention you wouldn’t stay dead.”
Sin punched Con, too. Same place. Maybe vampires bruised easily. “Yeah. Would have been nice to know.”
“Sorry,” he said sheepishly, and then he kissed her, long and hard, and she forgave him. “I promise to make it up to you.”
“Dude.” Luc stepped back, hands up. “You don’t need to make it up to me.”
“So,” Lore said, as he jammed his hands in his jacket pockets. “I hate to be a party pooper, but I’d better head home.”
Oh, damn. Sin hated what he had to deal with now. “I’ll take care of you. Idess doesn’t need to see what you’re going to go through.” Besides, Sin had nursed Lore through recovery before.
“I agree.” Lore looked up at the cloudless night and sighed. “But you know her. She’ll want to be there.”
Of course she would. Sin would go through the poison pits of eastern Sheoul to be able to take care of Con if he were suffering.
“I have a better idea,” Eidolon said. “Come to the hospital. We’ll all take care of you.”
Wraith gave an enthusiastic nod. “E’s liberal with the painkillers.”
“Yup,” Shade agreed.
“We won’t take no for an answer.” That from Eidolon, who was using his no-nonsense doctor voice, which somehow still rang with compassion.
Lore stood there, emotion playing across his face, probably just like hers. He’d allowed their brothers in before she had, but he’d been alone for so long that, clearly, he still hadn’t gotten used to the way they rallied together as fiercely as they fought.
“Okay,” he said roughly.
Kynan shouted at the R-XR guys to wrap it up, and gestured to Tayla and the Guardian vampire, who joined in the gathering of wargs.
“You guys go ahead,” Sin said. “Con and I will be at the hospital later.”
“You sure?” Shade asked, and Con nodded.
Sin could tell the guys wanted to argue, but they left with Eidolon’s sisters, leaving her alone with Con. Relatively alone, anyway. Kynan, Tayla, and the military dudes still milled around the junkyard, but they didn’t seem to be paying any attention to them.
Con opened his mouth to say something, but Sin spoke first. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have fought you when you wanted to bond with me at the apartment. I should have done it. I should have—”
Con put his finger to her lips. “Shh. You spent most of your life belonging to someone, and belonging to me was the last thing you needed.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “Still, it was stupid. I should have trusted you then. But, Con, you didn’t need to kill yourself. And how didyou become a vampire?”
“I can’t say.”
“Can’t, or won’t?”
His gaze glinted with diamond shards in the light of the moon, holding hers with its intensity. “Can’t.”
Sin’s first instinct should have been to get angry, but he’d asked her to trust him, and she’d have to trust that if he could tell her, he would. In any case, the important thing was that he was here, not dead. Well, sort of not dead.
“So… no more blood addiction?”
“Nope.”
“Do you still have to do the thing with your clan?”
“Nope.”
“But do you still need to feed? Like a normal vampire?” Say yes.
“Yep.”
Her heart gave a happy thump. “Do you need to feed soon?”
His fangs flashed. “Oh, yeah.” The way he said it made her shivery. Melty. Total putty.
“Then maybe we should go?”
“Good idea.” He caught her, hauled her against him. “I love you, Sin. I don’t ever want to lose you again.”
“You won’t,” she whispered. “Because I love you, too. And that’s something I never thought would happen.”
“Then let’s go, and I’ll show you exactly how much I love you.”
* * *
Since Sin didn’t have a home, and Con’s had been destroyed—and because there was no way in hell he was going to take her back to the London flat—Con had checked them into a five-star Manhattan hotel. He booked the room for the night, but after six hours of indulgence—in bed, the shower, the sofa, the floor—they headed to the hospital to check on Lore.
As Sin had predicted, he was in misery. He looked like he’d been tortured for days, but thanks to meds, Shade’s gift, and Idess’s bedside vigil, Sin said Lore didn’t look half as bad as usual.
Which was fucking scary, given that Con had seen roadkill in better shape.
Sin and Con didn’t hang around; no doubt Lore didn’t need gawkers. They slipped out of Lore’s room and headed for the Harrowgate. He planned to take her to an early breakfast, and then they were going to stay at Shade and Runa’s house. It was a temporary arrangement until he and Sin could find a place to live, but Shade and Runa were generous enough to let them shack up as long as they wanted. Besides, Luc and Kar were staying there, too, so the place was already in use.
