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“Just stay with me like this.”
“Adam...” He needed medicine or maybe a tea. “When this happens, how do you get better? What does your body want?”
“I don’t want you to leave.”
“I’m right here.”
“I’m too weak to...” He let out a soft breath. “Promise you won’t leave. The spell will pass.”
Her brow tightened. “I won’t leave. I promise.”
He weakly caught her wrist and kissed the soft underside where her pulse beat. “I only need you.”
“Adam, come on. You can barely hold up your head.”
His lips pressed to her wrists, holding her tender pulse against his soft lips. “It’ll pass...”
She tsked and pulled her hand away. “I think you’re dehydrated and hallucinating. You’re not making any sense. I’m going to find your sister.”
“No.” The sharp command halted her exit. “You promised to stay.”
“I’m not leaving the house, I just want to see if Grace is back from her walk. Maybe she can make you soup.”
“I can’t eat.”
“Then tea. You need something.”
“I need you.”
“Be serious. You’re ill.”
He waved a weak hand, signaling her back to the bed. His eyes opened like little slits as he watched her through his lashes. “I need to finish telling you...”
She sat on the bed at his hip and used her apron to blot the beads of perspiration off his face. “Telling me what?”
“Our story.” He held her hand and she tolerated the hollow ache as best she could, but it took effort. The distracting pangs filled her with woozy waves of emptiness that stole her focus, but she breathed through and they eventually passed. “I need to explain the rest to you.”
His faintness gnawed at her. “You can tell me later when you feel better. For now, you need to rest.”
“No.” He licked his lips. “We don’t have much more time. I need to tell you, Annalise. I need you to listen. You must know the extent of what I’m asking so you can make your decision. We’re running out of time. I can feel the—”
“Okay,” she squeezed his hand, trying to calm him. “Okay, Adam. Tell me. I’m listening.”
He caught his breath and his grip on her hand tightened. She felt a wave of relief through the discomfort.
“You remember the ceremony I told you about, and the bonding?”
“Yes.” She remembered—no anesthetics. She still had questions about the ritual and the transfusion, but she’d save them for later once he regained his strength. “I remember.”
“Once the transition begins, my cells will reconstruct inside your body—sturdier and at a speed that modern science lacks the equipment to track. Your body will be reborn. Your scars will fade. Your joints will soften, and your bones will gain density. Everything you are will change, but you’ll still be you. Only stronger.”
“What happens to my brain?” Her memories, her tastes, and dislikes, and silly things like knowing that you were supposed to brush your teeth up and down not back and forth. “Will I remember everything?”
“You’ll remember everything up until the transition starts. Then you’ll sleep. And when you awaken, your memories will all be there, but you’ll see the world through new eyes. The air will smell different, crisper. The sky will be bluer. Depths will be shallower and desires will be steeper.”
“This is insane. How long does the transition take?”
“A matter of hours. I could introduce you to others who have been through it. They have no memories of the death, only the memory of being reborn with immeasurable vitality.”
Was she actually considering this? Losing the closest person in her life plagued her with thoughts about mortality on a daily basis. It was the driving source that put her in the medical field and the reason she’d been so angry with God.
If he could actually make it so she couldn’t die, she’d never have to fear death again. But would there come a time when she reached her limit? Survival, even in mundane suburbia, got exhausting.
“Do you ever get tired of it?” she asked.
“Tired?”
He was only thirty-seven, so he hadn’t really lived yet. “How old is too old?”
His eyes watched her. “We have Elders who have lived for centuries.”
“Centuries?”
He nodded. “But there are older immortals out there.”
“Older than centuries?”
“It’s immortality, Annalise. We’ve endured plagues, famine, and acts of God. So long as the will to survive remains, our existence continues.”
“But you can die.”
“Yes. There are ways. And like any other species capable of love and loss, happiness and sadness, there is suicide. But there is also life, and when you’re with the person you love, then every day is happy and there’s little desire to die.”
An unsteady breath pushed past her lips. She didn’t love Adam. She hardly knew him. His culture contrasted her world so much, most of their time together had been spent adapting to the differences.
Yet she slept with him.
Her jaw twitched. Maybe that wasn’t the brightest choice, but she couldn’t find the will to regret it.
