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After being turned, I never thought about having children of my own. I didn’t dare dream of such things, but the idea of not being able to give Olivia a family was the most disappointing hope of them all. Any desire for a family she might have had was gone.
“Lost in your thoughts?” Zach’s voice sounded behind me, as he stealthily crept up next to me. “I thought I heard your broody sighs from upstairs.”
“You’re funny,” I said deadpan, and shoved my hands in my pockets. “Where’s Anna? Finally getting some peace from you?”
“In our room.” He winked. “Tired out.”
I laughed. “From your war lectures?”
“She likes them.”
I shrugged. “Someone has too.”
He smirked.
“Olivia’s asleep too,” I added.
He followed me into the parlor room and grabbed a bottle of blood. “It’s still cold,” he said, throwing me one. I winced, missing having it straight from the source, but we couldn’t bring attention to ourselves.
“Thanks.” The moonlight sliding through the window illuminated the bubbles in the thick, crimson liquid. I poured the blood into a glass, then mixed in a little liquor for a kick. Anything to help numb the fear was welcome. “You couldn’t sleep too?”
He sat on one of the red, velvet sofas, kicking his feet up onto the table in the middle. “No. Since your wife told us about the prophecy, my mind's been…scattered.” He shook his head, sighing up at the ceiling.
“Yeah. Me too,” I said, but his thoughts were likely far different from mine. Zach could sense a war brewing like a bloodhound. He’d lived through enough of them to know the damage it did to both sides. There were no winners in such things. Even before he became a vampire, he was a soldier.
I leaned back into the armchair; the cushions doing little to ease the stress in my muscles. The blood coated my lips, my fangs protruding as I grabbed both sides of the glass, closing my eyes as the rich liquid slipped down my throat. I quickly refilled it, the thirst burning in my chest as I drank a second, then a third, barely stopping to lick my lips in between.
When I finally looked up over the glass, Zach was grinning, amusement pooling in his silver stare. “Thirsty? I don’t know why you’re refusing to feed in front of Olivia. She’s married to a vampire. I’m sure she’s expecting it. I mean, you’ve fed on her before.”
“Like you said, that wasbefore,” I said, placing the glass down on the semi-circle table next to me. “I don’t want to her to see any more blood.. Not after everything she went through.”
Zach pursed his lips, trying to hide his smile. “That’s verysweetof you. I never thought I’d see the day.”
“I love her,” I said, and he nodded in understanding. We both had soulmates, and the connection differed from anything else I’d experienced. She was a part of me. It wasn’t like I didn’t know who I was without her, because I did. I just liked myself more with her at my side. “She doesn’t deserve any of this. She deserves better than me.”
He scoffed. “You’re extra broody today.”
I loosed a sigh, rubbing the lines forming on my forehead. “We have to get her out of here.”
“Yeah, good luck with that. There’s no way she’s going willingly.”
“That’s the problem.”
He shrugged. “Free will, brother. We can’t force her.”
My jaw ached as I ground my teeth, staring up at the ceiling painted with art. “I might not have a choice.”
His smile dropped as he leaned forward, shaking his head in my peripheral vision. “Careful, brother. She’s already been kidnapped twice. You can’t force her to go, else you’re—”
“Say it,” I warned icily. “That I’m doing what they did? Because it’s not the same. I’m trying to protect her from reliving it twice!”
He put his hands in the air. “Whoa. I know you’re not as bad as them, okay? But you’ll be kidnapping her if you take her against her will. We both know you can’t do that.”
I snapped my eyes to his. “So, I let her die? Is that it? Let her sacrifice herself for what? Me? Them?” I pointed at the window, at the city filled with creatures who didn’t deserve to be saved. “Fuck all of us. Sanmorte deserves to burn. Let us go into the underworld. Let Salenia destroy it all.” A twinge of regret knotted in my chest, but I dismissed the feeling.
He finished his glass, placing it down, then pulled his hair up at the back of his head, leaving a long lock of silver traveling down his back. “You’re not stupid. You know Salenia won’t destroy it all. With her in control, it’ll only get worse. For us. For the mortals.”
“I don’t care,” I blurted. “I only care about Olivia.”
