Page 174 of The Midnight Order
“Lowell.” Silver’s voice cuts through the night, and I snarl.
“Go! Leave me!” My fangs bare, and I watch her shift on her feet
There’s a bandage at her throat, covering where she so wickedly opened her vein to a room of vampires, to the slayer himself.
She’s washed, and the overwhelming smell of blood is gone, but the aroma of her healing wound is enough to have venom dripping from my fangs, leaving a tangy flavor dripping down my throat.
“I’m sorry,” she says, emotion braided into her tone as her voice shakes.
“You should be! I could’ve killed you. I could’ve drained you. What were you thinking?!” I’m on her before I can think twice, pressing her into the bark of a tree and watching her wince at the sharp bite of it.
“I wanted to make myself irresistible so that the test could end! I wanted some part of this shit over with! I need to know something, even if I can’t know who I truly am or regain my memories. You four are the tangible thing in my life now. I need you.”
Her confession has caused my anger to subside.
“I could’ve killed you.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
I close my eyes as she cups my cheek, the tips of her fingers edging the godforsaken mask adhered to my face. “I fear I’ll never be able to return to before you, and I don’t know what that means for me, little lamb.”
“It means you’re mine,” she whispers.
My eyes open and lock on hers. Her stare is unwavering, her pulse even, her hand steady.
I’m hers, and she’s unafraid of that fact even when she just saw the deep, dark roots of me that are poisoned.
Tucking my fingers beneath the edge of the bandage Corvin painstakingly applied to her throat, I rip it off in one fluid movement.
She hisses, her face blanching at the pain.
There are stitches in her throat, red and irritated. If only fangs had opened her throat, then venom could’ve closed it.
Tugging on the first stitch, I remove them one by one, tossing the thread to the forest floor as her blood oozes to the surface, angry and red, sweet on the night breeze.
“Lowell,” she whimpers, pain radiating from her tone.
“Shh, little lamb. You’re mine, remember. I’ll do with you what I wish.”
I watch her blood trickle down her neck while I grapple with the significance of the next few moments. Should I go forward with this?
It could go badly.
History could repeat itself.
Or… Silver could be the thing I needed all along. To break the cycle.
Sure, they want to retest her, but no drug can mask the Predestinat bond. I knew that. So do they.
I’m the final key to the question.
Is her blood the thing to remove this fucking mask, or is she the thing that’ll bring the Slayer back to Thorngray Manor?
“Lowell, step away from Silver right now.” Jasper’s voice rends the air, but he doesn’t command me.
I command them.
All of them.
