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"I stated I was inclined to say yes. Her future is still unclear."
"You said it was that way when I changed, Stefan," Lukas chimed in. I could hear the hope in his voice. Lukas’ guilt still haunted him. Anna was his friend and he'd been unable to save her, a prisoner to the fear of his own nature.
Wiggling out of his arms, I looked into Stefan's face. He was once again staring closely at Anna. His brow was furrowed, his blond eyebrows heavy over the concerned blue of his eyes. His chiseled jaw tightened and released a few times. His entire being became still underneath me as he concentrated on her.
I was torn between wanting to give him space and the urge to dip into his mind. Instead, I focused on his emotions in our bond. He was scanning her future repeatedly, watching for minute changes. I sensed his surge of excitement when he must have noticed a change.
"What's happening?" I questioned. Unable to sit any longer, I stood and began to slowly pace the room.
His brow smoothed out, the lines disappearing. "It is time. She is waking."
Hot tears pooled in my eyes and I let out a loud sigh of relief. Stefan hadn’t relaxed. He was still testing his connection to Anna.
"I can feel her too. What can you see, Stefan?" Lukas asked excitedly. He joined me in my slow, nervous wandering of the room.
"Anna is trying to sort through her memories of that night. She remembers who took her life and wants vengeance on him. She knows she is alive, yet dead. She is trying to make sense of how it happened."
Lukas and I came to a halt. Not one of us moved. The only sound in the room was my breathing and the muffled sounds of the city outside. We were all transfixed on watching Anna awake from her long, two day slumber.
Anna's eyes opened first. Her deep brown eyes took in the room, her brow wrinkling in confusion. Her fingers blurred to her face, tracing the curves of her skin with a new quickness she hadn’t had before. She turned her head to the side, meeting my anxious gaze first.
"Anna?" I whispered. My voice sounded shaky even to my own ears.
She blinked at me a few times. Her bewildered brown eyes moved from mine to focus on Stefan, who sat motionless in the chair. His long fingers were tented under his chin as he gazed at his newest child with quiet anticipation.
Anna had been an attractive woman before her change. She was now stunningly beautiful, her lustrous brown hair laying in deep, full curls against her shoulders. Her flesh, while pale, still hinted at her olive complexion. Her skin glowed with an iridescence that only added to her mysterious beauty.
A tiny smile of recognition broke over her face as she gazed at Stefan. She rose to sit on the couch, slipping to fall on her knees at Stefan's feet in one smooth motion.
"Master," Anna murmured reverently. She looked up at him through her eyelashes, completely at his command. He leaned forward and held her face in his hands tenderly. He beamed, his glorious face lighting up in a strange, loving smile as they shared a long stare.
"Anna. My child." He pressed a kiss to one side of her cheek, then moved to the other. "You are outstanding."
Anna beamed, her brown eyes glowing with pride. She said nothing as Stefan turned her face from side to side, admiring her changes with quiet, cool approval.
Fear crept up inside of me, closing around my throat like a vice. Was it always this way with makers and their children?
Stefan’s cool voice disrupted my worried thoughts. "Go with Lukas for now. He has blood waiting for you. We will have much to discuss soon."
She nodded, elegantly rising to join Lukas. She glanced back at Stefan briefly before letting Lukas lead her from the apartment.
A surge of jealously surged through me as I watched Anna leave the apartment with Lukas. Stefan was mine. Mine! I didn't want to share his love with anyone, even if it happened to be my friend. I knew there was no need for my possessiveness, yet I couldn’t stop it from boiling through me.
They had barely left the room when he spun to face me. Immediately he lunged at me, surrounding my face in his calloused palms. He leaned down and pulled me to him abruptly, his mouth devouring mine. His kiss was urgent, as if was trying to reassure me of his devotion. I gasped at the swiftness of his embrace, but quickly returned the kiss with the same tenacity. His lips scorched my mouth with his searing assault. His thoughts spilled into mine, sending me reassurance that there was no one for him but me, nor would there ever be. He was reminding me that I was the beginning and the end for him, flooding my mind with his own brand of possessiveness.
I tried to control my emotions, but they blasted out with a savage greediness. He belonged to me! I further forced my claim on him as I lightly bit at his lips until I tasted his blood on my tongue. It spiked our lust, spiraling it out of control. Unwillingly, he pulled back, resting his forehead against mine.
"For you," he vowed. "I claimed her for you."
"I know," I said breathlessly. "But you love her. I didn't expect for you to love her. It was a surprise."
"She is my child, vackra. I love her only as my progeny. You are my lover, my mate. I desire no one else in my bed but you. Do you understand the difference?"
Nodding weakly, I tucked my hair behind my ear and shifted my weight nervously. What if Anna felt differently for Stefan? What if her devotion changed and she was in love with him? There were so many things I hadn’t thought about when I’d asked for Stefan’s intervention in saving Anna’s life.
"Josephine, I only changed her for you. You begged me to not let her die. She carries my blood, just as Lukas and you do. We are all a family, however unusual." He rubbed a finger across his lower lip as if searching for the right words to reassure me. His blue eyes bored into mine, desperate for me to understand. "You are my lover. We share a bond different from what I share with Lukas and now Anna. You...you are my soul mate. My other half. My fated love. To compare that to Lukas or Anna is like comparing a speck of sand to all of the sand in an entire desert. Do you understand?"
The strength of his words surged through me. He loved me. He'd searched 200 years for me. I was his fate. As I was his beginning and end, he was also my own. I'd love this man for an eternity and I'd still long for more time with him.
