Page 60 of Nightshade

She shrugged and crossed her arms in a way that bunched up the extra material of the dress, squeezing tight around her body. “It’s a thing in some of the myths that killing a vampire sire destroys his whole bloodline. Is that true?”

I sucked in another deep breath as I felt Leo’s arm tighten around me. In the end, it didn’t really matter. If it meant Ivan was no longer walking the earth, that was a sacrifice I’d be happy to make, but I couldn’t very well say that.

And truthfully, I didn’t know.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “I don’t really know—Ivan wouldn’t have been incentivized to tell us the truth if we could survive his death. He wanted us under thumb and willing to protect him, but if his end meant ours, I think he would’ve crowed about it more.”

Quite frankly, if he’d thought about it, he’d have been wise to tell us that we could only survive as long as he did, but that’d only been an implication, never said outright.

Leo’s hand flexed on my shoulder. “You’re not tied to him like that. No magic works that way. Henry’s not going to have any more authority over Tristan than any other wolf just because he bit him.”

I shook my head. He didn’t understand.

Henry had bitten Tristan.

Ivan had drained every drop of my blood and replaced it with his own.

“He owns every piece of me,” I rasped.

Leo flinched. His adoring, innocent eyes wide with horror at the thought. Already, he was shaking his head.

But I couldn’t explain it. I couldn’t make him understand.

I couldn’t damn well get a breath that I didn’t even need, except that it felt like I was dying without it. With a ragged gasp, I stood.

“I need some air,” I whispered.

I marched out of the house, not stopping until I found the riverbank. At that point, a sound was throbbing in my ears like the heartbeat I didn’t have, and the ringing was making me dizzy.

My feet sank into the earth, and I didn’t know if it was my own panic, or simply the wet, muddy riverbank giving way for the weight of me.

In either case, I snarled, tearing my feet out of the muck. My shoes—Leo’s shoes—were ruined, stinking with mud.

I ripped them off my feet and tossed them onto the far riverbank. “Fuck!”

At the sound of my shout, night birds took off into the air.

If I was any good at all, I’d go with them.

CHAPTER 31

Leo

For a moment, no one spoke after Altair left. Then Evie plopped down onto the couch next to me and gave my side a shove.

I looked down at her, and she lifted her brows, then glanced at the door, and back at me. I knew what she wanted. It was what I wanted. For me to follow Altair.

I just didn’t know if everyone else would be okay with that.

No one said a word when I stood, though, not even Viktor. His eyes were focused in the distance, and clearly his thoughts weren’t on the room or us at all. No one else spoke up as I headed for the door, so I took that as a blessing and hurried out into the night after Altair.

I followed him all the way to the river, where he was . . . well, he wasn’t really doing anything, but his very stance was the most overt display of emotions I’d seen in him. He was barefoot, and glaring across the river at nothing—or not at nothing. At my muddy shoes, sitting on the other bank of the river. Like they’d personally wronged him.

His bare feet were muddy too.

I sighed, realizing what at least part of the problem was. “I did the same thing when I was learning how to drive,” I said, coming up beside him rather than behind him, so he wouldn’t be too startled.

He turned to look up at me, silent, but at least interested enough to listen.