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“You failed,” he snapped.
“She told me about you, how kind you were. How you had a difficult time when you were sired. You wouldn’t have chosen this for yourself, that’s why you fought so hard not to be a monster. Even in the end, she still had hope.”
“Hope for me?” he asked.
“Yes. Even now, I know she’d feel the same. There’s always hope for new beginnings. For second chances. Even now, Lawrence.”
He released his grip on her and turned her to face him. “You really believe that, don’t you?”
“With all my heart,” she whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“How sad for you.” With that, he shoved her away from him with such strength that she flew through the air, hitting a support beam hard enough to knock her unconscious.
I turned a venomous look at him. “You son of a bitch.”
I started to move toward Jennifer to check on her.
“Stay where you are,” Lawrence growled, pointing the silver stake at me. “I’m not going to drink your blood today, but I am going to end the Nightshade program right here and now. You’re too dangerous to my kind to be allowed to go free.”
I suddenly couldn’t take my eyes off that sharp stake.
“It doesn’t have to end like this,” Declan hissed.
“With death?” Lawrence asked. “Everything ends with death. I would have done anything for my wife, but I wasn’t given that choice. Stacy chose to keep a horrible secret from me. And then Victor chose my destiny. Together, they made me who you see before you right now.”
Declan's gaze met mine, then flicked toward the door thirty yards away from where we stood. I took it as a silent order for me to make a run for it while he tried to hold Lawrence back.
Again, he was ready, willing, and able to sacrifice himself. The mighty vampire hunter faced with yet another bloodthirsty vampire.
But he was still weakened, still injured. And if he thought I was leaving him behind—and Jennifer too—to save my own neck, then he better think again.
“Stacy would be horrified by what has happened today and the fact that you’re blaming her for this,” I said instead. “Jennifer says she still loved you. She accepted you even after you were sired. There’s still time to stop this. You’re not really a killer.”
The vampire’s black-eyed gaze tracked back to me. “Wrong. The more I kill, the better it feels.” He looked at Declan. “I’m sure you know how that is.”
Declan shook his head. “I’ve never taken pleasure in what I have to do.”
“Never?”
“One one single damn day.”
“That’s too bad,” Lawrence replied. “I almost feel sorry for you.”
He’d embraced the monster within him. And that monster was the only one in the general vicinity with a very sharp, very deadly weapon in hand.
Lawrence fell silent for a long, uncomfortable moment. “I’ve seen you protect this woman. You’d kill for her—anyone who’d threaten her life. Am I right?”
“Would I kill for her?” Declan glared at him. “In a heartbeat.”
Lawrence didn’t look away. “Would you also die for her?”
Declan didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
My breath caught. Despite our many issues, I knew that Declan put my life before his. I just hadn’t heard it stated so bluntly before. He wasn’t lying or trying to buy us time. This was the raw, honest truth.
He’d kill for me. He’d die for me. In a way, that made everything easier, since I felt the same way about him.
Lawrence nodded. “Then you know how I feel.”
