Daysider

colony. But we realized soon enough that it couldn’t have been, and Sergius confirmed it. I’m sure Lysander thought they could gain some benefit out of the patch, maybe sell it to the Expansionists. But since it seems to have disappeared, we’ll never know.” She smiled. “And now that we’re all such good friends, it doesn’t really matter, does it?”

“You’re going to need a new patch,” Damon said.

“I should thing that the Enclave would be willing to provide you with one,” Eirene said.

“Agent Fox—” McAllister began, clearing his throat.

“Director McAllister,” she said, swinging around to face the older man. “What about you? What could have possessed you to send a strike force based on one agent’s word?”

The man had the grace to look ashamed. “I was not told about this so-called experiment,” he said, “and I was not informed about the deployment of the strike force until they had already left San Francisco. Certain members of the Enclave government acted without the approval of the Mayor or Congress. I was fortunate to learn what was happening before—” He broke off, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “The important thing is that a new war has been avoided, and we have begun talks to determine how this came about and what to do if something similar happens in the future.”

“And will I and Damon be part of these talks?” Alexia asked bitterly. “We did what Aegis wanted, didn’t we?”

“I know how much you sacrificed, Agent Fox, and if I had realized...” He folded his hands nervously across his groin. “It will not be forgotten, I assure you.”

“Sacrifice?” Damon said, baring his teeth. “Your Enclave had no right.” He walked away from Alexia and Theron, striding toward McAllister with fists clenched and head down.

“Damon!” Alexia cried, running to catch up with him. “Don’t you see? No matter what we had to go through, we proved something important. Darketans and dhampires can work together. They can care for each other. And someone like you can become more than a Nightsider or a Lamia.

“You can see things from the middle no one on either side can imagine. What you have, the ability to truly feel, is a gift.” She glanced at Theron. “The colonists have proved that humans and Nightsiders can live side by side in harmony. Isn’t that worth any sacrifice?”

Damon stopped, intensely aware of Alexia behind him, of Eirene and Sergius, of the Opiri and humans and Lamiae on every side.

Alexia was right. She had always been able to see things more clearly than he could.

And it wasn’t only hope for a lasting peace she gave him now, but hope for himself.

Hope that he could become what Alexia believed he could be. Hope that her faith in him would let him accept what he wanted so desperately to give her.

Abruptly he turned and took her arm. “If you will excuse us,” he growled, “Alexia and I have something to discuss. Privately.”

Striding past McAllister and the humans around him, he led Alexia back along the wall until he was certain not even the Opiri could hear them. Then he swung her to face him, trapping her face between his hands. “Alexia, I—” She gazed up at him, lips parted, eyes shining with tears. He realized that it was fear he saw in them, felt in the trembling of her body.

Fear of him. All those brave words she had spoken. They had been said for the benefit of her audience, not for him.

He dropped his hands. “I’m sorry, Alexia,” he said. “If I had known what they were trying to do, what they made me a part of—”

“I know,” she said with such overwhelming sadness that Damon felt his own eyes grow moist. “I’m sorry, too, Damon. You suffered so much. And all this time Eirene was alive. She was the one who saved me, who gave me the gift that helped us both survive.”

Her blood signature. The most devastating revelation of all, that Damon had been drawn to Alexia—come to care for her—because he had sensed Eirene all along.

“I’m glad for you, Damon,” Alexia said, her lips trembling in a smile. “For you and Eirene. After all this, I know they won’t keep you apart again. You can be free. Really free.”

Damon swallowed hard. “Is that what you want, Alexia?” he asked.

She took his hand. “I want you to be happy. You loved Eirene, even if you couldn’t admit it at the time. And she loves you. It was always her. I should have known—” Her voice broke, and her knees began to buckle. Damon bent to catch her and lifted her to face him again.

“Should have known what?” he asked. “That I couldn’t care for you unless your blood carried Eirene’s blood signature?”

“Not only that. They starved you, Damon. They took advantage of everything you are to make you turn to me. It was your own strength that kept you from hurting me, not anything I did or didn’t do. It was only natural, when we took each other’s blood—”

“Natural?” Damon’s anger roughened his voice, but he couldn’t hold it back. “Are you saying that what we feel for each other can’t be real?”

“What I feel doesn’t matter. Eirene—”

“Eirene was my salvation a long time ago. Yes, I loved her. But she knows that’s over, Alexia.” He cupped her cheek in his hand. “The first time we spoke in the caves, she knew I loved you.”

Her gaze met his. “What?”

“I love you. ” He tried to smile. “You put me through Human Hell just to get me to say those words. And I won’t forgive you for it. I mean to make you pay for the rest of your life.”

“Damon—” She searched his eyes. “Do you mean—”

“I mean that I can’t live without you. I mean that you’re the most remarkable woman of either species I’ve ever met.” He kissed her chin. “They said I can see from the middle. But I can’t, Alexia. Not without you.”

“You’re wrong, Damon,” Alexia said, still refusing to believe him. “You’re more than just a symbol of peace. You can’t just forget what you represent to all of us.”

“A symbol doesn’t feel what I feel for you,” he said, kissing the side of her mouth. “It wasn’t the blood signature, and it wasn’t starvation that made me love you. That would never have been enough. It may have brought us together, but no one can force someone to love.”

He kissed Alexia lightly on the lips, but he felt her holding back. She was afraid.

Afraid that he was giving her what she wanted without regard for his own wishes.

“What can I do to prove myself to you?” he asked, stroking her cheeks with his fingertips. “I’d love you even if you became a Lamia, you little fool.”

Suddenly she burst into laughter. “I...I know what they’ve done for us,” she said, catching her breath, “but I’d rather stay just as I am, if you don’t mind.”

“Whatever you are, wherever you go, I’ll be with you. No matter what happens from now on, whatever agreement the Enclave and Erebus reach with or without our help, we won’t be parted again. We’ll do whatever we can to convince them that the peace has to be maintained.” He brushed her hair back from her face. “Maybe there’ll be a lot more work to do. But we’ll do it together.”

“I don’t know...Damon,” she whispered. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

“Then believe this,” he said. And he showed her with his mouth and his body and his heart until every last barrier fell and she was in his arms, loving him, his for all time.

Together they watched the dawning of a new day.

And a love that could never die.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from Claimed by the Immortal by Rachel Lee