Viktor studied me for a second before turning to my former roommate. He rolled Delilah over, revealing her blank, staring eyes. They would haunt me for the rest of my life. She had chosen that, though. She had chosen death over living as a vampire, just as Mr. Wolf had. A small part of me wondered why I couldn’t do the same. Was I a coward, like she said? Or were vampires really that evil, and somewhere inside, I was just the same?
“She’s dead,” Viktor whispered, his trembling fingers gently closing her lids.
I already knew she was, though. I knew because I’d absorbed her magic when she went. But I couldn’t come to terms with the reason. Yes, we were vampires, but we weren’t monsters. Vampires weren’t inherently evil. My friends weren’t perfect by a long shot. They made mistakes, and sometimes acted like jerks, and did things they didn’t agree with because their laws said they had to. But no one could look at Viktor and Svana and Amy and tell me they were worse than any human or werewolf or other being who walked this earth.
Viktor gripped the branch and yanked it from Delilah’s middle before standing. Then he reached out a hand to me. Our eyes met and held. Then, they dropped to the stake. When I met his gaze again, there was a question there. I gave the smallest shake of my head before letting him pull me to my feet.
“I’m sorry,” he said, wrapping an arm around me, pulling me into his chest. I slid my good arm around him, a sob threatening to rise in my throat. I swallowed it back, knowing this wasn’t the time for tears. His fingers brushed mine as he pressed the bloody stake into the palm trapped between our bodies.
A tear leaked from my eye, soaking into his shirt. “I can’t,” I whispered against him, pressing my lips to his silent heart.
“Try.”
He thought of himself as my maker, but I couldn’t hurt Mr. Ravenwood, either. He should understand that.
Maybe he did. He and Svana had told me they didn’t agree with Ravenwood. But they were bound to obey him by law because he belonged to the Council, and they were vampires. But if I had a stronger tie to Viktor, and he commanded me to try… Just try…
Viktor pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “I love you, Timberlyn,” he whispered. “I always have.”
“I know,” I whispered, my throat tight. “I love you, too.”
He lifted my chin, his luminous lavender eyes searching mine. “I want you to be happy. Okay?”
I nodded, a single tear catching on my lashes before spilling down my cheek. His lips brushed over it, and then over mine. I kissed him back this time. He was my maker, and I owed him my life, but that’s not why I loved him or why I kissed him. I loved him because he was good and kind, because he’d seen me through the worst months of my life and still loved me afterwards, because he was my complicated, sensitive, devastating, beautiful friend. And I kissed him because I knew this was goodbye.
After a second, I felt his teeth extend, and I tensed. This wasn’t that kind of kiss. There were tears running down my face, and he was getting aroused?
I started to pull back, but he buried a hand in my hair, deepening our kiss. The next second, he angled his head, forcing his tongue into my mouth. I struggled against him, but he held me flush against him, my bare skin against his cold, silent chest. Then his tongue slid along one of his needle-sharp fangs, opening a long cut in his flesh and sinking into my mouth again. Realization dawned, and I stopped struggling and sucked shamelessly at his tongue. I drew his blood into me, knowing I was doing more than kissing him. I was gaining strength, deepening our bond. I was feeding the flames of my rage and hate, my defiance.
“Well, isn’t this touching?” Mr. Ravenwood interrupted after a minute. “I guess I didn’t need Delilah to tug at your heartstrings after all.”
Viktor’s hands tightened on my waist for a second, his breath quickening. I breathed him in, my own grip lingering, not wanting to let go. And also knowing that if I broke the kiss too soon, if I let them smell the blood Viktor had fed into my mouth, they might suspect.
At last, he pulled away, his lips brushing over mine one last time. Our eyes met, and what was left of my heart broke for him, for what he was giving up for my happiness. I wanted to break down in sobs, to collapse on the ground, to hold onto him and never let him go. But he stepped away, leaving me to face my other maker.
Sadness and fury raged inside me as I stared at the ancient vampire who had tried to kill me. I’d stolen his blood, and he’d claimed me as his own when I became a vampire. He expected me to fall in line, but he should have asked the Wolf boys how well that would work. Instead, he had demanded my obedience without earning it. He had turned my friend into a vampire against her will, just as Mr. Wolf had done with the wolf girls. It was his fault Delilah was dead.
It was his fault and Viktor and Svana were forced to follow laws they knew were wrong. And he’d followed me here, which caused the deaths of countless wolves, vampires, and others. I would never get to take Amy dancing again, as I’d promised. Jose would never get to have his mate, to have the pups he’d so badly wanted. Brooklyn would never get
