Page 139 of Eternal Surrender

“Are you sure you can trust him?” she asked.

“Marcus is a loyal friend,” I replied.

She let my hand go. “Orpheus’s friend.”

I resisted the urge to turn away, not wanting her to see my darker side.

“Jadeon, I’m going to save you.” She gave my sleeve a tug of reassurance.

With my arm wrapped around her waist, I guided her toward the stairwell.

“I’m so relieved you’re alive,” she said.

This probably wasn’t the right time to tell her that I was having second thoughts about going back to what I once was—two separate beings. What if it didn’t work? Until now, death had never been on the agenda, for me anyway. Together, we made our way along the sweeping corridors.

“I’m sorry about your father, Ingrid,” I said.

She wrapped her arm around my waist and hugged me closer. Even though her grief still lingered, there was the subtlest shift in her presence, a promise of resolution for a lifetime of being weighed down by guilt. And I caught a brief glimpse of Ingrid’s authentic nature, the tranquility of her femininity surfacing.

“You know, if we were able to incorporate what Fabian did to me to modern day therapy.”

“The world isn’t ready.”

She gave a sorrowful nod.

We soon found Blake lying on Alex’s bed, and he was reading the Daily Express newspaper. Ingrid hesitated in the doorway, preparing to see him for the first time as a vampire.

She rallied the courage to go in and rested on the edge of his bed, reaching for Blake’s hand and kissing it.

“Hey you,” he said, shoving the paper to the side and straightening his back up against the oak headboard. “Well, what do you think?”

“You look the same,” Ingrid said. “Paler perhaps. Can I get you anything?”

He shook his head. “How long can you stay?”

“As long as I’m needed,” she said.

“Ironic, isn’t it?” Blake said. “I become a vampire to cure myself from an incurable disease, and then go and get poisoned.” He gestured toward the blacked out window. “I’m meant to be out there somewhere, wearing leather pants and jumping off roofs.”

Ingrid suppressed a smile. “I’m not going to stop until I find the answers.”

“I’m so sorry I messed up,” he said.

I waved off his remark. “Want me to stay?”

They both shared their enthusiasm for me to be here with them.

“Do you remember who you bit?” Ingrid asked. “We’re thinking the poison came from members of a group called Sovereign.”

“I mean, maybe.”

“They’re purposefully ingesting poison,” I explained.

Blake cringed. “It was a bit of a crazy night. I went out on the town with Marcus’s friend Zachary. Though he’s fine. No one got hurt, honest. I can promise you that. Zachary was teaching me the art of the little sup technique.”

“Meaning no one died,” I said for him.

“I get it,” she said.