Page 5 of Thorns from the Fall

I would have thought he disappeared if it weren’t for his bloody footprints leading out of the ballroom.

Gwyn rolls off me onto her back, coughing and choking and…

Laughing.

“Why am I still alive?” she huffs as she rubs her throat. Her nose is bleeding from slamming into the ground.

“Your guess is as good as mine. You’re like a fucking cockroach,” I say, pulling my legs out from beneath her. She sits up, a smile lighting her face that makes her look simultaneously gorgeous and manic. Lurid crimson paints her flesh while silky, black hair tumbles over her shoulders, and I have to look away.

“Can’t be killed,” she says, before collapsing backward, laughter shaking her entire body, and I can’t help but think she finds this all to be one sick fucking joke. Perhaps her desire to die hadn’t been an act all along.

If that’s what she wants, I’m more than fucking happy to oblige her.

“Now, let me see my goddamn brother.”

She snorts before issuing a series of commands, never bothering to stand.

3

GWYN

Margot

What’s your fucking plan?

The vibrationof my phone draws my attention from the sunset. Bjorn’s penthouse has a three-hundred and sixty degree view, but so far, my favorite is this one. The west-facing windows stretch from the floor to the obnoxiously high ceiling, and I sit here every day from four p.m. onward, until I peel myself off the couch and crawl into bed. Right now, there are tiny snowflakes falling from the sky, and I’m just high enough to see them. I doubt they’ll stick when they hit the ground far below. It’s only been a few days since Agnarr left, and I’d hidden myself away, trying to think of a method to draw the vampire back. I have nothing to show for that time, although the center couch cushion might already have a permanent indent from my ass.

Margot

Do you even have a plan?

It’s weird to have my phone back after so long without it. Sasha had overnighted it, and I’d made Margot bring it up to methe minute it arrived. But after so many weeks without, I realize I didn’t miss it. Especially when it’s only Hale and Margot texting me. Hale is short in his texts, which means he’s with Sasha and she’s pissed the fuck off. And as for Margot, if there’s one person who hates me just as much as Roman, it’s his best friend. I shamelessly used her to get what I wanted. She was kind to me, and I took advantage of it. Once she drank my blood, I only had to Ascend for her to be whatever I needed her to be.

To Margot, I was a fledgling vampire, turned by her careless friend, and she’d been determined to befriend me. With a hand around my waist as we walked down the street toward Last Drop, she had thought she was offering me friendship. But really, she offered opportunity. With a simple command, a bit less thought-out than it ought to have been, I forced me and Roman onto a path that we won’t come back from. The picture she’d taken of us, the message she’d eventually sent to his uncle? Those actions caused a chain reaction of events that led us to where we are now. There’s no fucking way she will ever forgive me. And I don’t bother asking myself why I even want her to.

Margot

Roman wants to know if you intend on holding his brother hostage indefinitely?

I don’t respond for a moment. Roman hasn’t left her apartment a dozen floors below me since I holed up in this penthouse. I’ve been hoping to find him on one of the many cameras Hale patched me into, but that only works if he leaves her place. But he’s stayed locked behind that door. He’s probably sitting next to her right now, glaring at her fingertips as she types.

I wish I could go back in time to the moments before I ever let Roman Sauveterre touch me, hold me,love me. I’ve even foundmyself wishing I never pursued revenge, and it makes me sick. It makes me hate myself more than I already do.

But due to my change in plans and unfortunate insight into a vampire’s humanity, I still need his cooperation, so I’ll continue to play the part.

Gwyn

If you think I’m just going to tell you, especially with that attitude, you’re delusional.

Margot had hit the nail on the head with her second text. I don’t have a plan anymore now that Agnarr is gone. I laugh to myself, thinking about how he’d Slumbered for hundreds of years, only to wake up and find a freak experiment as his only living relative.

To be fair, I’d run too.

I have no idea how to track down the terrifying, ancient vampire who sired me. It’s a good thing I Ascended as a vampire, because it turns out I’m a lousy hunter. But it’s not as if I’m a very good vampire either. I killed half of my ill-gained coven—though I can’t say they didn’t deserve it—and now I have no idea what I’m doing. I suppose Hale and Sasha probably have a plan, considering they’re going to be here any minute. They’ve hidden Remy somewhere nearby, so I can let Roman see his brother whenever I decide to allow it.

Since my first instinct was to take him there immediately, I intend to do the opposite. I cannot be trusted when it comes to giving Roman what he wants. I can’t be trusted to make any wise decisions now that my feelings are involved.

Margot

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