Page 55 of Sacrifice of the Vampir
Unless.
"I have to go after Alex." I was surprised at how steady my voice was when I said the words aloud. "Tonight. It's the only way."
Elias went very still. "No."
"You know I'm right."
"I know you're not ready." He crossed to me in two strides, his hands gripping my shoulders. "Marcus is waiting for you, Talin. He wants you to come to him. You said it yourself. He smiled when he saw you watching through the threads."
"Maybe." I covered his hands with mine. "But if we don't try, he wins anyway. He'll drain Alex dry, and then he'll come for Alice, and we'll be too busy protecting our mates to stop him."
"There has to be another way."
"There isn't." The certainty settled in my bones, cold and final. "You know there isn't."
Chapter 14
Elias
The crack of light through Talin's bedroom window had shifted from harsh midday brightness to the softer gold of late afternoon. I'd been tracking it all afternoon, watching the sun creep across her floor while she lay curled against my side, her fingers tracing lazy patterns on my chest.
Other than getting up once for food and a very interesting shower, we'd barely moved from this bed all day while we'd waited for the sun to go down so I could leave the apartment.
But, the thing was, I didn't want to.
For the first time in a very long time, I'd laid around, not cleaning, not organizing, not worrying, just… talking. Touching. Getting to know each other in ways that had nothing to do with magic or threads or ancient djinn manipulating our lives.
She told me about her family, about her parents. About growing up practicing magic with her cousins and how when she was diagnosed the Moss family closed ranks around her so tight that sometimes Talin felt like she was suffocating. About the battle she fought in her tender teenage years that stole part of her body and all of her certainty that she'd ever be wanted as a woman.
I told her about the war. About the men I couldn't save, the ones who'd bled out in my arms while shells screamed overhead. About Killian finding me in the aftermath, offering me a choice I didn't fully comprehend until it was too late to take back. But at the time, I'd only wanted to live.
I told her about my life as a vampire.
Well, not everything. I didn't tell her I was a murderer. I didn't describe the way blood lust could consume you like a wildfire, burning away every rational thought until nothing remained but the thirst, especially in those first volatile years after being turned. I didn't tell her about waking from that haze with cold, lifeless bodies in my arms, eyes wide with terror when I'd realized what I'd done. Or how the guilt became this physical thing inside you, this constant companion that sat on your chest when you tried to sleep, whispered in your ear when you fed. How it followed you through the decades, becoming as much a part of you as your fangs.
Maybe someday I would tell her those things too. Maybe someday I'd find the courage to reveal every dark corner of my soul and see if she could still look at me the way she did now.
Or maybe not.
Now the sun was setting, and I sensed the burden of our impending future bearing down upon us both.
"We should get up and get ready to go," Talin said softly. "The others will be gathering soon."
"I know."
Neither of us moved.
Her apartment was small. The bedroom barely fit her queen-sized bed and a dresser, but she'd made it hers. And it was girlier than I would've expected. All pinks and browns. A collection of pretty crystals on the windowsill that caught the dying light. Clothes draped over a chair in the corner because apparently she didn't believe in hangers.
It was messy, and it made my fingers itch to organize it. To put everything in order because that would somehow help me stabilize the thoughts and emotions that had been knocking around inside of me all day.
"Elias."
"Hmm?"
"You're doing it again."
I glanced down at her. "Doing what?"
