Then he realized the numbness was in his body while anguish filled his heart. He was going to die, and he was fairly certain she was his mate, even if she hadn’t realized it yet. When he died, she would follow him, which upset him more than his impending death.
“If you give me some of your blood,” he forced himself to say, “it will have to be enough to change me.”
CHAPTERFORTY-FOUR
He was dying.He was really and truly dying. Brie could only sit there and stare at him as she tried to process this information without becoming a sobbing mess.
Sitting here and bawling like a baby certainly wasn’t the most helpful thing to do, considering every passing second meant he lost more blood and that blood was oozing out at a much slower rate.
It only took a couple of seconds to process exactly what she needed to do, but it felt like it took forever before her brain caught up. She’d changed Cabo and Zina but never imagined changing anyone else again.
With them, she’d seen it in her visions. She’d known what she had to do, but she hadn’t seenthiscoming.
Centuries ago, Brie stopped getting angry about the things her ability chose to show her and the things it kept hidden. She’d still have a family if her visions revealed everything, and she would have been prepared for this, but she could still save him.
Lifting her arm, she bit into her wrist. She may not have foreseen this, but she couldn’t lose him. She’d already lost too much in her life.
When she looked at him again, his eyes were barely open and his skin so pale she could see the blue veins running through it; his lips were white. His breathing was shallow, and the awful rattle of it chilled her to the bone.
“Is this okay?” she demanded. “Can I give you my blood? Can I turn you?”
She doubted he wanted to die, but he was a hunter, and for centuries they had done everything they could to destroy vampires. They’d slaughtered many of them with ruthless intensity.
Things had changed, and she knew some hunters were becoming vampires, but that didn’t mean Asher would make this choice for himself. But with every passing millisecond, she felt him slipping further away.
Instead of answering her, he said something that shocked her more than his proclamation of love.
“Before you do,” he said in a gurgling, rattling voice, barely more than a whisper, “you should know, I… I… believe you’re my mate.”
In the ensuing silence, the drop of her blood hitting the console was as loud as the gunshots in the cave.
Mate? Mate!
And then a lot of what happened between them suddenly clicked into place. It all made sense—her powerful attraction to him and the trust she’d given him long before she would have given it to anyone. Her vision of the compound, her compulsion to go to the airport, and her inability to keep from warning him all madeperfectsense.
“Asher,” she breathed when his eyes closed. “No! Don’t you dare leave me! Is this okay?”
When he didn’t reply, she pressed her bleeding wrist against his mouth. If this wasn’t okay, he would hate her forever, but since he couldn’t answer her, she chose to save them both.
Though she hadn’t believed he had any strength left, he clasped her wrist with his good hand and held it against his mouth. Her blood slid past his lips, filled his mouth, and down his throat. He didn’t have the strength to swallow, but it filtered into him and seeped into his system.
When the gash on her wrist started healing, she fumbled for her knife. She ignored the burning in her stomach as her intestines felt twisted into knots. She pulled the blade free and sliced open her wrist.
It flowed freely as she kept her wrist against Asher’s mouth. It continued to fill him, but he’d passed out.
“Please don’t die,” she pleaded.
She prayed he wasn’t too far gone to save and continued to give him blood while she grew weaker. Knowing she didn’t have much time either, she managed to dig out her phone and dial Cabo’s number.
When he answered, she croaked into the phone. “We need help. It’s safe, but we’re too injured to go anywhere, and I’ve given him too much blood.”
“I’m on my way,” Cabo replied and hung up.
* * *
It wasnight when Brie woke again. She lay there, assessing the damage as she tried to piece together everything that happened.
Her entire body felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to it. The pounding in her head brought her back to the time when she went to see Metallica. It had been a great concert, but she continued to hear the drumbeat for days afterward.
