Total pages in book: 163
Estimated words: 154735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
It was Vishous. And then the brother shocked him again: “She’s one of us now.”
“Whither the King goes so goeth the species,” Rahvyn mumbled.
V’s harsh face softened. “That’s right. You recover. We’re here on guard.”
As Lassiter stepped in and waited for the door to close behind them, he wondered what the hell he’d gotten her involved in. Then he remembered what she’d unleashed—for the second time—and wondered about a whole lot of other things.
“Come on, let’s get you settled,” he whispered.
Over at the hospital bed, he laid her out with care, which seemed stupid given what she was capable of—but she was so small and appeared so fragile. When he pulled back to unfold the blanket that was at the foot of the bed, her hand gripped his arm.
“Please…”
He hesitated. And then she urged him forward.
Powerless to resist her, he lowered himself onto the mattress—and the way she curled in against him made him stiffen… but not because he didn’t like it.
Moving slowly, he slid an arm under her head so that his biceps was her pillow, and then he brought his body against hers so that he was her covering. The ragged sigh she let out made him feel important.
In a way that being responsible for the destinies of all the vampires on the planet didn’t come near.
He smoothed her hair, marveling at the way the silver gleamed in the low lighting of the recovery room. Funny, how even though they were in a clinical setting, this felt like a private suite just because they were lying together.
“I could not… not help him,” she said with a kind of defeat.
“You did the right thing.”
She propped her head up and stared at a framed oil painting of a weeping willow beside a still pond. Her eyes were dead tired.
“I did not know that it was a dog.” She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I had a rabbit once. I loved her. I called her Mallie. I fed her fresh grass… and made sure she had a soft nest to sleep in. She lived with me in my room. One night when I awoke, she was curled in the corner away from her bedding. She wouldnae drink… wouldnae eat. My parents were still alive then. There was nothing they could do.”
“I’m so sorry.” He reached out and squeezed her hand. “That must have been rough.”
“I put her in a box. My father dug a deep hole. We buried her… under the moonlight, behind the stable. Even my father cried. Animals have a way of being closer to our hearts than people, sometimes.” Her pale eyes watered, becoming even more luminous. “Did you ever have a small animal who relied upon you for care and succor?”
As she brushed at her tears, he wondered if she hadn’t saved her own pet in that room next door.
“No,” he said. “I didn’t.”
“Where did you grow up?”
He hesitated. “I was begotten, not born. There was no… growing up for me. No childhood or transition like you vampires go through.”
“You are wondrous,” she breathed.
“I am nothing… compared to you.”
“Do not say such things.”
As she flushed and hid a yawn with the back of her hand, he stroked her hair again. He told himself he wanted the contact because it comforted her. In truth, it eased him.
“You want to ask me,” she said. “What that was… that I did.”
“We don’t need to go through all that now.”
Rahvyn nodded. There was a pause. “I am sorry you did not know the joys of a young who is loved.”
“Not all that long ago, I was taken in for a time, by humans.” As she seemed instantly aware, he shook his head. “It’s not a happy ending, though.”
“Tell me.” She touched his arm. “Thus I would ease you if I could?”
He scrubbed his face with his hand. “I have told no one this, actually.”
“Then I shall keep your secrets.”
“It’s not a secret. Just nothing I like to talk about.” He shrugged. “There have been a lot of falling-outs between me and the Creator, and during one of my expulsions, I was wandering the earth, not really all that bothered… when I decided I had to do something with myself. I ended up volunteering at a church—if those humans had only known, right? It was back in the fifties, down north from here in Manhattan. One of the families who ended up staying at the shelter there was from across the ocean. They were refugees and had just recently lost their son on the journey over from India. They took me into their hearts…” He cleared his throat. “They insisted on giving me the only thing they had of value—it was a collection of gold jesses they had smuggled onto the boat. They had saved and saved to buy them for their son, for when he got married, as they called it. But he… passed.”