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“We have to enjoy this while we can,” I said, avoiding the topic. “I’ll graduate to Initiate at the end of this term. ” Soon I would get a new room. A new roommate. New fights and new enemies.
“Initiate. ” He sighed. “Such tomfoolery. The Directorate would have you think this is boot camp. While most of those creatures have never seen a day of battle. But, Annelise?”
“Yes?” I asked, staring at the ceiling. I felt full of emotion and, even in the dark, I couldn’t bear facing him for fear of letting it show.
“Annelise. ” H
e cupped my shoulder. “Face me. ”
I couldn’t resist that husky voice in the darkness. I rolled to face him, and it took a moment to get adjusted. He was ever the gentleman, and refused to lie under the covers with me. The old-fashioned gesture touched me.
“You’re avoiding what’s really troubling you,” he said.
“What’s the real trouble?”
He raised his brows, waiting for me to come around.
I sighed. “Okay, yeah, I am sad. And more than sad. ” The rogue vampire was dead, and the Directorate ruled a return to normal. They’d proclaimed Carden innocent. This was an aberrant event, they’d said. Carden and I were left only with our suspicions and no proof that Alcántara had anything to do with the killings. Now all I needed to do was fight Emma; then it’d be back to our regularly scheduled program. If we both survived. “I’m worried about who planted the rogue. I’m worried Al has you in his sights. I’m worried I’ll accidentally kill my best friend. ”
“First,” he said, “you shouldn’t worry for me. You’re a braw spitfire of a woman, but I’ve survived for hundreds of years without you. I imagine I’ll get through the coming weeks as well. ”
I felt a tiny smile begin to play at the corner of my mouth. “I’m a woman?”
He chucked my chin. “You know you are. And you’re strong. Do you know there was once a time when we Scotsmen went to battle, leaving our women to protect the home? It was women who ran the homesteads, raised our children, fought for our land. And from what I’ve seen, you are stronger even than that. Braver than that. ”
I bit my lip, feeling that emotion trying to bust through. “I just…I worry, is all. I worry I won’t be able to find a way to survive this. For Emma to survive it. I’m sick of losing people—even the girls who’d see me dead. I’m sick of all of it. ”
“You will do what you always have done, which is what is necessary to survive. I cannot predict what will happen in your fight. There is no plan Hugo has not yet conceived himself, and I fear he will stand in your way. ” He cupped my cheek, holding my gaze to his. “But whatever happens, hear this: I will not watch you die. ”
I turned and pressed my lips to his palm. I thought of stoic prairie-girl Emma. I had a centuries-old vampire secretly in my corner—whatever my best intentions were, it wouldn’t be a fair fight. I couldn’t bear the thought anymore. “Take my mind off this,” I pleaded. “Show me your powers. ”
“My powers?”
“You know. Your Druid powers. Predict the future or something. ” I blinked my eyes shut. “Tell me what I’m thinking. ”
His hand ever so gently cradled my neck. “I’m thinking perhaps you’d like me to kiss you. ”
I opened my eyes and what I saw blew me away. His features had gone soft, as though he were glimpsing heaven. And heaven was me. There’d been a time when I thought I didn’t want to kiss a vampire. Now it was all I wanted.
I slid my hand over his. “I would like it, yes. ”
He kissed me, and there wasn’t the hunger of our previous kisses. This was a tender kiss. A bolstering kiss. A kiss to give me strength and tell me I wasn’t alone.
When we parted, I stared at him, memorizing him. How strange to find myself with this creature, whispering intimacies in the darkness. “How is it you’re so different? I mean, all the other vampires come from another time and they’re all sexist pigs. ”
He smiled at that. “They’re naught but frightened boys. They don’t know what I do. ”
“Which is?”
“That in the body of a wee blond spitfire lies the heart of a warrior. ”
Just then, hearing his conviction, I felt that warrior’s heart. In Carden’s words, I heard how he’d once had a mother, a sister. Aunts and grandmothers whom he’d honored.
Someday I’d ask him for his history, but I didn’t think he was ready to tell me, not yet. And I wasn’t ready, either. Because somewhere in his stories, I imagined how a girl might find love for a vampire. And that was something I definitely wasn’t prepared for.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
“Don’t worry. ” I gave my friend an uneasy smile. It was surely the strangest prefight march this island had ever seen—two competitors, about to fight to the death, clinging together like they were each other’s life raft. “It’ll be just like in Star Trek. ”
