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His eyes darkened to black. “A man came out of the rubble. He walked straight to me. Asked me if I wanted to live or die.”
He’d chosen to live, as a vampire. Her lips parted.
“I heard the thump of a helicopter’s blades then. Whirring in the air. They were coming to help us, but I was the only man still living.”
So he could have made it without the change? He could have kept being human?
“I knew about the Other.” He swallowed. “I’d been to so many places, seen things people wanted to pretend didn’t exist. War brings out the monsters, Dee. It brings them out like you wouldn’t believe.”
“I’d believe almost anything.” Sad and true.
“I knew looking up at him—I could see his fangs, see his eyes changing. I knew what he was, and I knew I wanted to be like him.”
She sucked in a sharp breath.
“The medics could have tried patching me up—and maybe, maybe I would have pulled through. But my job was to fight. I had to be strong. He could make me strong. Stronger than I’d ever been, and I’d never have to worry about choking on my own blood as bullets and hellfire took me down on a dirty road ever again.”
No, he’d just have to worry about getting his head chopped off and having a wooden stake driven through his beating heart.
“You don’t understand, do you?” His voice was hard. “Vampires are always young, always strong. That’s a deal that a man dying on a battlefield isn’t gonna refuse. I wanted the bite. I would have done just about anything to keep living in that moment.”
“But the helicopter?—”
“I wanted the bite,” he said again. “I wanted forever.” His shoulders lifted, fell. “I’m not gonna lie to you. Not gonna say the change was forced on me. I chose.”
“And would you choose the same thing now?”
His lips thinned. “Would you?”
“I didn’t choose this, I didn’t want?—”
“Getting out is easy, Dee. Bleed out. Let the fire take you. Every single moment you live, you’re choosing.”
She knew he was right. She was choosing this life because for her, there was no alternative. “I’m not killing myself. That’s not me.” Too easy. Fight. Survive. Pak had taught her that. You survived, no matter what. You lived.
“It’s not me, either.” Soft. “I didn’t know—didn’t understand about the Borns when I was brought over. After the exchange, I woke up, strong, thirsty, so thirsty, and I didn’t even feel the Born’s power at first.”
Ah, key phrase there. At first.
“Then the prick started trying to worm his way into my mind.” His chin lifted. “That link gets weaker the farther you are from the Born, so my tactic was to stay as far away from Grim as I could.”
Her fingers knotted around the sheets. “Guess that tactic didn’t work so well, huh?”
“He knew what I was doing. Sometimes, it seems like Grim knows everything.” He exhaled heavily. “To teach me a lesson, he went after my family. They didn’t know. They had no idea what I’d become and when the vampires came for them…” He shuddered. “They suffered. Grim and Leo made sure of it. All so they could bring ‘my ass in line.’”
She flinched.
“I buried them, and I heard Grim’s call in my head every fucking second.” He unballed his fists and stared down at his palms. “He wanted me to come to him. Wanted me to kill. Wanted me to be part of his twisted vampire family.”
“The alpha,” she managed. “Controlling his pack.” And sensing a challenge from within. “What did you do?”
He glanced at her. “Made a deal with the devil.”
That didn’t sound good. Dee rose, fumbled with her clothes, and managed to dress.
The silence in the room thickened.
She shoved on her shoes.
