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“Shh,” I interrupted again, straining to reach up and press my index finger to his lips. “It’s over.”
Bo kissed my fingertip and made his way to his feet with me cradled against him.
I reached up to wind my arms around his neck and found that my muscles were already responding to my commands more quickly.
I turned my head to survey the room and when I saw the devastation that littered the floor of the barn, I felt guilty for being in Bo’s arms. There was much to do. The only conscionable thing to do was to put my thirst for Bo on hold.
We needed feet on the ground.
Savannah was on her knees, crouched over her dead mother’s body, weeping quietly. A slight shimmer in the moonlight delineated Devon at her back, a silent rock for Savannah in her time of need.
Annika’s dead and bloodied body was face-down in the dirt, exactly where she’d fal en not so long ago. Lil y lay sprawled on the ground, her limbs perfectly arranged and her hair spread out around her head like the halo. I thought that was particularly apropos.
Looking at her, a pang of loss—the loss of someone I’d never real y known, the loss of someone I’d now never get to know—pinched at my heart, but I sternly reminded myself that she was happy and safe and that was al that mattered.
There was no reason to mourn her. She was far better off than any of us.
“Let me down. I can help,” I said, swinging my head back around to Bo. He opened his mouth to argue, but I preempted him. “No arguments. We need to bury them. Quickly.”
Reluctantly and with a frustrated sigh, Bo let my legs slide down his body until my feet touched the floor. Pressing a quick kiss to the cleft in his strong chin, I turned my attention back to the victims. Some were living, some were not.
Savannah looked up at my words and she tried to give me a watery smile.
“She gave her life to save me,” she claimed, her voice breaking on the last.
“I’m so sorry, Savannah!”
Making my way to her, I bent to hug her. Even as my arms went around her, Devon didn’t let her go. I couldn’t help but smile. Savannah was hurting now, but she was stil one of the luckiest girls in the world. To know a love like what she and Devon shared was priceless. And I could say that with absolute certainty. After al , I knew al about being lucky in love. Even when the time came that I had to bury a very mortal Bo, I knew I would walk the earth alone for al eternity loving him as if he stil walked beside me.
Savannah ral ied and, between the four of us, we managed to gather the fal en and make our way into the woods, to a place that Bo had obviously been using to bury those deserving of a resting place of peace and respect. He had disguised the graves so perfectly that I doubted a human eye could detect the slight variation in the lay of the land. But I could. As I counted the graves, four in total, I ticked off people I thought to be buried there—Trinity, Drew, Aisha and Summer.
Bo kept a short-handled shovel hidden in the trees, so we silently, tearful y, took turns digging until there were three deep holes in the earth, one of them considerably shorter in length than the others.
Bo and I, plus Savannah with the help of Devon, laid the bodies to rest, each of us burying someone that was uniquely important to us. When the bodies were covered and the ground over the plots replaced and disguised, Bo said a few words over them. They were some of the most poignant I’d ever heard, speaking to his truly angelic nature. I knew as long as I lived I’d probably never attend a more beautiful ceremony, simple as it was.
As we stood in front of the nearly invisible graves, I felt the icy hot fingers of thirst clawing at my throat and eating away at my tissues. I didn’t have to look to know that I was fading.
A little niggle of fear and insecurity gnawed at the back of my mind and I glanced over at Savannah. From where I stood, I could smel the tantalizingly sweet scent of her blood. I could plainly pick out her heartbeat from among the others. The delicate vibrations of it tingled across my lips.
Although those things did make me more aware of my thirst, I felt clear-headed and in control.
Mental y, I shook my head. Control. I final y had control. I just never imagined that it would be so hard-won.
The four of us had seen quite a bit of barbarity and bloodshed in recent months. Our lives, while forever changed by what we’d seen, were also forever linked. I could feel it in the air between us like a kinship that was so strong it was nearly tangible. I would sooner take my own life than harm them in any way.
“I know it’s terrible timing, but you need to feed,” Bo said hesitantly.
I wasn’t going to mention Cade. He was a sensitive subject that I didn’t feel like Bo or I either one needed at that moment.
“Why don’t you go check on Lucius and see if he can spare a bag until we can regroup. I’l head back to the house with Savannah and Devon.”
Bo grinned.
“You’re so awesome. Have I ever told you that?”
I smiled in return.
“Not that I recal , but feel free to repeat yourself as often as you like.”
With a quick kiss, he was gone, leaving Devon, Savannah and me to make our way back to Sebastian’s.
About halfway there, Devon scooped Savannah up and carried her the rest of the way. It was bizarre to behold. It appeared that Savannah was floating in midair, her arms wrapped around nothing, her head leaning against nothing.
“Shut up,” she teased when she caught me studying them.
“I didn’t say a word.”
“No, but you were thinking it.”
I chuckled. There was no arguing that.
“So,” I said, stil uncertain whether I should broach the subject of the future or not. “What are you two going to do? I mean, Devon, are you going to stay invisible forever?”
I could almost hear his shrug.
“If we’re ever going to have a life together, I can’t. I justI’m afraid that—” He trailed off because there was no reason to explain. I knew exactly what he was going through, what his fears entailed, what his doubts were. But I also knew what the prize was—Savannah. And that was worth any sacrifice, any compromise.
“Bo and I can help you. Wel , mainly Bo. He’s real y—”
I stopped myself. If Bo was mortal, would he real y be much help to Devon? The implications of his mortality fel down over me like a blinding haze of dread.
Ruthlessly, I pushed through it, reminding myself that Bo had lived a long, long time as a vampire. He’d wanted nothing more than to be normal, to be mortal. The least I could do was be happy for him, to put my own selfish thoughts and desires aside for his benefit. It would only make him feel guilty to know how much it bothered me.
