Page 188 of Buried in Blood
I’ve seen the way he looks at her now. Not with lust. Not with power.
Withfear. Fear that he could lose her.
And I get it.
Because I watched Evelyn flatline once.
And I will never forget what it did to me.
I shift forward, setting the glass down, elbows on knees, fingers threading into my hair.
Damien.
That name still tastes like blood.
My “brother”. My curse.
Lucien used to chase his shadow—tried to kill him once, failed harder than he ever failed anything.
But now?
He’s gone.
Heart shot out.
Face caved in.
And I don’t feel guilty.
Not even a little.
Because that man was rot.
He would’ve kept infecting everything he touched until there was nothing left but bone.
The world is better without him.
We’re better.
And if I close my eyes now, I don’t see his face anymore.
I see Evelyn.
Smiling.
Alive.
Ours.
I think about Brooke. She’s healing, and that’s more than I could ever ask for. For someone who has been through some shit. She sure knows how to stay strong. I’ll let her stay with us as long as she needs to, but something tells me she won’t need me for long.
I push out of the chair and crawl into bed behind Evelyn, wrapping my arm around her waist, burying my face in the curve of her neck.
She sighs in her sleep, soft and safe.
I press a kiss to her shoulder and whisper into her skin.
“I’m done fighting ghosts.”
