“So we’re going to keep going,” she said, mostly to herself. “Because that’s what the living do and the dead cannot. We… move forward.”
No matter how much it could hurt sometimes.
“Anyway”—she sniffled some composure back into her face—“where are you off to? They’re making me stay here for monitoring, but honestly, I feel fine.”
“I’m just going to train—but you should absolutely hang here.” Rhamp got to his feet. “Call me if you need me.”
“Always. And you do the same, okay?”
He bent down and kissed her cheek. “You got it, sister mine.”
As her brother headed to the door, she closed her eyes, thinking she might sleep a little. There was nothing else to do.
“Lyric?” When she popped her lids and looked over, Rhamp was hesitating by the exit. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re wrong. I think it does matter that guy was there.”
Drawing her brows together, she tried not to be angry with her twin. “Why are you defending him?”
“?’Cuz I believe he saved my sister’s life.” Rhamp opened the exit and stepped out. “I owe him.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Back in the heart of downtown, on the fourth floor of the apartment building that had been the epicenter of so much, Dev was waiting on his bed, hands in his lap, eyes on the floor where the bloodstain was.
The red one, where Lyric had lain.
Passing a hand down his face, he knew that this was the last time he would be in this space, and he didn’t feel any type of way about it. The studio hadn’t meant anything to him when he’d first taken it, and in spite of everything, it didn’t mean much to him now. If there was any hint of nostalgia, it was just because the square footage had been a marker of time passing, an era over.
Marked in blood, as it were—
One by one, they appeared, the three vampires from the night before entering through the crack in the window across the way: Lyric’s brother, fierce and dark-haired on the left. The tall one in the middle with the nasty expression and the braid. The diamond-studded one on the other end.
“She’s okay, isn’t she?” Dev asked.
Twinkle Lobes muttered, “None of your goddamn business—”
The brother elbowed the guy to shut up and then replied smoothly, “She’s totally okay. She’s resting and fine.”
As the pair of vampires glared at the male, he didn’t seem to care. He just kept staring straight ahead at Dev.
Ah, so the guyhadseen the little sleight of hand and knew what had happened.
“I really want to kill you,” the one with the braid muttered.
“I wish you would.” Dev smiled coldly at him. “With the way I’m feeling now, death would be so much more preferable. But unfortunately, given who my parents are, that’s not an option.” He sat up straighter and cracked his knuckles. “We could go a couple of rounds with that dagger in your hand, though. Good exercise for you, and I think I’d like to have a little physical pain to go along with everything else that’s banging around in my head. Except that would really just be a waste of time when there’s so many other things you want to do, right?”
“Where are you taking us,” the braided one demanded.
“To his presence.” Dev shrugged. “I’m not Google Maps, asshole. I can’t give you directions. All I can do is transport us into my sire’s vicinity.”
“Hold on,” Twinkles cut in. “How do we know this isn’t a trap.”
“Call the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Call all the vampires on the planet.” Not that he wanted that. Better to keep this limited in scope so there was less chance of people dying. “I don’t give a shit, but I thought you wanted to try to kill him yourselves. Or was I wrong about that.”
When there was no immediate reply, he looked at them one by one. “What’s it going to be, boys.”
Still no answer, so Dev shrugged and went over to that open window. For a moment, all he could see was a memory of Lyric standing in front of the drapes as she’d looked around that first time she’d been here, her blond hair so beautiful as it shimmered when she moved.
The searing pain that went through him made him wonder what she’d felt after she’d been shot. Too bad he couldn’t have taken whatever agony she’d had from her. The shit in the center of his chest was late to that party, though.
