Page 148 of Blood So Brutal

“Would it?”

“No,” the children answered in unison.

“That’s right. You love them—not because they deserve it, but because they’re just like us, just trying their best to survive in this world. And we all know how hard that can be sometimes.”

Chills erupted down my arms. Damn, I really needed to listen to this man more often.

Something tugged on the arm of my shirt, and I turned to find a small girl standing beside me, gawking up at my wings.

It was Abigail, the young girl we saved from the forest.

“Here,” she said, handing me a plate of food. “This is for you.”

I knelt and took the food from her. “For me?” I asked. “That is very kind of you, Abigail. Did you get your own dinner already?”

She nodded, her teeth shining behind her big smile. “I did. Two plates, actually.”

“Two?” I gasped dramatically. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell if you won’t.”

She turned to run away, but I stopped her. “Hey! Where do you think you’re going?”

“Bedtime,” she answered. “Miss Peggy says if I get plenty of sleep every night, I could have my own vampyre wings when I’m your age!”

“She did? Well, you better listen to Miss Peggy, then. Go on.” I watched her run down the street, looking away only when she made it inside Peggy’s building. She became one of the caretakers around here. We all worked together, everyone doing their part to rebuild this place.

I glanced around the fire, taking in the smiling faces, and actually let myself relax.

“It’s crazy, isn’t it?” Jessiah said from behind me, clapping me on the shoulder as he approached.

“What is?”

“The fact that we spent our entire lives in that damn castle and nothing has ever felt more like home than this.”

He was right about that. I was always on edge with Asmodeus. I was always being watched, being used, manipulated.

But not here.

“It is nice. Strange, but nice.”

Silence fell over us, but it was a peaceful silence. Jessiah and I were closer than ever now. He was my right-hand man, the one I turned to for everything. And the fact that he, too, thought this place felt like home made my chest tighten with happiness.

“You better get home,” he said after a while. “I saw Rummy and Huntyr stumbling through the streets about ten minutes ago. Any more late rooftop nights, and I might have to teach Rummy how to summon her own wings.”

My heart ticked at the sound of Huntyr’s name.

“Yeah,” I said, turning toward the tower. “Good luck with that, brother.”

I left the fire, left the others to enjoy their dinner and company.I had a wife to get home to.

Itook my time climbing those stairs to the top of the tower. We rebuilt much of these fallen lands, but Huntyr still insisted that this is where she wanted us to stay. This was home to us, atop this same building that overlooked all of Scarlata.

Though there were much nicer buildings to live in, this place was ours.

Our bond technically broke when I died, when Era brought me back and gave me these wings. It was different from the first time, when both of us died during the Transcendent and the bond stayed untouched. We still needed it back then. Era still needed it.

There was no longer a need for us to connect our magic.

But even so, I could feel Huntyr in the bedroom, our connection growing stronger as I reached the last step and pushed the door open.

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