“You’re going to die.”
“What?”
“You’re mortal. When Garret told us about trying for a baby, a million things went through my head on the way home. Dawn and Sadey? They’re mortal. They’re shifters who have an expiration date. They can’t be Turned into vampires. And I began to think about Garret watching his wife and child grow old. Of having to go on living when they’re gone…” He swallowed hard and looked away. “He asked me before if I would push a stake through his heart if something ever happens to Dawn, and I didn’t even think about it. Just said ‘yes’ and went on with my life, not bothering to understand the seriousness in his eyes when he’d asked me. And then it hit me that I’ll have to watch you die someday, and I’ll want to take that stake to my heart when you go. I understand why Garret asked me now. The last time I felt fear was when I was human, out in those woods, looking for the stars, my leg caught in that trap. I died and woke up different. Dead inside maybe, and I didn’t know what fear was anymore. That emotion stayed with my old life and didn’t carry over. But tonight, I felt it again, and I hated it.” He inhaled sharply and looked back up at her. “You called me selfless, but you’re wrong. I know what I’m going to do.”
“What are you going to do?” she whispered, tears burning at the raw emotion in his expression.
“I’m going to ask you to stay.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m going to give you some time. Get you addicted to me. Make you so happy that you won’t be able to see your life without me. And then I’m going to ask to Turn you because one lifetime with you isn’t enough. I already know.” He clenched his jaw hard and his eyes darkened. His voice turned gritty as he said, “It’s not nearly enough.”
He sat up and pulled her into his lap and hugged her close. Two warm tears streamed down her cheeks as she imagined their future. She was supposed to be scared now, too, right? But though she searched deep inside of her heart, fear didn’t exist in her right now. Only happiness. Relief that he was telling her he cared that much. Hope that her life here, with this coven, would go on and on, because the last two weeks had been the happiest of her life. Which was insane because she was supposed to be living in fear of the killer. She was supposed to be scared of every shadow. Instead, she’d found a safe haven with Evan.
“It’s okay if you judge the man you know me to be now. The one who will take your life someday.”
Nicole slipped her arms around his neck and buried her face against his chest. “Take my life to give me a life. With you. You’re choosing me, aren’t you?”
He kissed the top of her head so gently and murmured, “I choose you.”
Her smile trembled. “Keep making me happy then, Evan, and someday I’ll choose you, too.”
Holding her tighter against him, Evan rocked her from side to side, kissed the top of her head again and again as if coveting her.
Sadey had been wrong.
Someday, Evan was going to take the sun from her.
But someday, that was going to be okay.
Chapter Eight
Evan jerked in his sleep and opened his eyes with a gasp.
Automatically, he looked over to make sure Nicole was okay, but she wasn’t beside him. In fact, he wasn’t even in bed. He wasn’t even in his room. He was in Shane’s.
His coven brother was sound asleep in the dark, sleeping with his arms crossed over his chest like the ancient ones did. Only he wasn’t that ancient. He was a hundred years young. A desk lamp with a red lightbulb cast an eerie glow on the room.
How the hell had Evan gotten in here? He’d gone to sleep holding Nicole in his own bed down the hall.
A burning pain spread through his right hand and up his arm, and when he looked down, he was holding a wooden stake.
Evan flinched hard and dropped it with a clatter to the ground.
Shane didn’t stir.
“He’s having a dream,” Aric murmured from behind him.
Evan hunched and spun on him, startled. “What the hell is happening? Why am I in here?”
There was trouble swirling in Aric’s black eyes. He inhaled deeply and looked around the room. “Can you feel it?”
“Feel what?” Evan asked.
“The darkness?”
The stake lay right by his boot. It was Nicole’s that she kept in her purse, to feel safer when she went about her life during the day away from him. He’d never been a sleepwalker before.
“And you aren’t now,” Aric responded to his thoughts.
“Stay out of my head, King,” Evan growled. “You know I hate that.”
“If I had stayed out of your head, you would’ve drove that stake through Shane’s heart, and he hasn’t betrayed us yet.”
“Yet,” Evan whispered.
Aric’s smile was empty and didn’t reach his demon eyes. “Can’t you feel it?”
Evan looked around the room and opened up his senses. If he concentrated enough, there was something heavy in the air. “What is that?”
“It’s him. His name is Vlaric. He’s talking to Shane in his dream. He doesn’t need to be invited in. He’s already here.” Aric jerked his chin toward the sleeping vampire. “He doesn’t need to lift a single finger. He’s right where he wants to be. Inside of our heads.” Aric stooped and picked up the stake, left the room. From down the hall, he said, “He will destroy us from the inside out, and watch as Nicole’s safety crumbles around her, and then he will take
