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“I went to stay with my foster parents when I was very young—I know I wasn’t always there, but I can’t remember a time before them. She was so warm and kind and loving, and she reached out to anyone who needed it, even if it meant giving pieces of herself away. In the end, when she was dying, no one could help her.” My eyes welled with tears, and I blinked fast, trying to get them to go away. “She was alone, and even though she’d given everything to everyone, no one could give back to her so that she could live.”
I took a deep, shuddering breath. “I don’t want anything like that to happen to anyone else. If there’s a way to help them, then that’s our duty. There is so much good in this world, and so much darkness that tries to snuff out that little light. I can’t let that happen.”
I finally turned my head to face Colter. His eyes were a light green, like jade, and his face was riddled with more emotion than I’d ever seen on him.
“Okay,” Colter said.
I frowned. “Okay?”
“You can help me bring back the machine.”
I blinked at him. “Really?”
Colter nodded. “I’m not saying it won’t be dangerous, but—”
“I’ve been training, remember?”
“Right,” Colter said. He didn’t look like he believed I would be able to fight, but that didn’t matter. He was willing to let me help, and that was all I wanted.
All I’d ever wanted was to reach out to others and to help. That didn’t always look the same. Sometimes, it was going into the crowds to reach out and physically help people.
Sometimes, it was stealing a machine and being an accomplice to a bigger picture that would hopefully change the world.
18
LIV
“Are you ready to go?” Colter asked, coming into my room. I stood in front of the mirror and looked at the final product.
“I think so,” I said.
“You look great.”
I’d dressed in my usual office wear so I wouldn’t look out of place. It felt weird to dress up for work the way I usually did. Everything in my life was so different now, I barely recognized it.
I smiled at him, a blush creeping onto my cheeks. He offered a warm look in return, and even if it wasn’t a complete smile, it was enough to make my toes curl.
Colter and I hadn’t talked about what had happened between us, but he was different toward me now. He was warmer, more open, and he treated me with respect. He’d been moderately respectful toward me from the start, for the most part, but something was different between us now, after we’d slept together. It was like a line had been crossed, a barrier had been broken. He spoke differently to me, with more reverie than before. When I caught him staring, there was hunger in his eyes, but something else, too.
Affection.
I wasn’t sure exactly what it all meant. I knew that I liked Colter, and that we had something big we had to do together. What the future held after that…
Everything I’d had planned for my future had been turned upside down the moment I’d learned about the existence of vampires.
I wasn’t the person I’d thought I was, either.
Who was I now? I still had no idea, and that left me reeling.
Colter was the only constant in my life right now, and I held onto that fact—he was an anchor when I felt lost and bobbing in the waves out at sea.
“Let’s get this over with,” Colter said. “As soon as we have the machine and you’re back here, safe and sound, I’ll breathe easier.”
“It’ll be fine,” I said.
Colter grumbled something under his breath, and I flashed back to the demon that had tried to take me away from my apartment. I knew he was thinking about that, too. That was what had happened the last time I’d left the penthouse, and it was hard not to panic and be terrified that something like that would happen again.
There were bigger things to focus on, though, and without me, Colter wouldn’t be able to get that machine. It was important that we got it back until he figured out what was going on, so we were going out there, no matter what the cost, and we would bring back the machine in one piece.
