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I can’t understand why he’s not screaming, when he knows he is moments away from perishing.
I do wish he would scream.
“I know I…could never hope to take the…p…place of your father. But you…you, Nox, are a son to me…you always… I just hope one day you might forgive me…”
The man sputters out, the last of his life draining from the two puncture wounds in his arm.
His blood feels dull against my throat. Like it’s been sitting out too long.
I drain him dry before releasing him.
His sallow body makes a cracking noise as his skull hits the corner of the stone stair.
He does not bleed from his wound.
It’s a shame that the man didn’t suffer more. My belly is swollen with blood, to the point of discomfort, and though I will hunt the girl down tonight just the same, I will not take pleasure in it as I might have.
CHAPTER32
BLAISE
Ihear everything.
The slice of the knife against Gunter’s flesh.
The ravenous gulps as Nox feeds.
I hear Gunter’s last words as they echo off the cold stone walls and up the staircase.
I hear his plea for forgiveness, as he leaves Nox without his oldest friend.
It’s his sacrifice that keeps my trembling limbs moving, even when they feel heavy as lead.
Even when I slip in my own blood and have to push myself up.
I climb and I climb and I climb, and I don’t know if it’s for myself or Gunter or Nox.
But we all need me to make it.
There’s no other option. Not if I don’t want the male I love to crumble.
I’mthree steps from the top of the staircase when there’s a loud crack from the bottom of the steps.
My throat wants to sob, to cry out for the loss of Nox’s friend at his own hands, but I don’t let it. I’ll let myself cry when I make it out of here alive.
But then I hear steps pounding down below. Slow and deliberate. A predator seeking to draw out the chase just a few moments longer.
I’m not going to make it to the door at the top of the steps.
Even if I could, there’s no way I could open it.
It should frighten me, and maybe it’s just Nox’s venom working its way through my system, but I’m as calm as the surface of a mirror pool.
Because I will not die down here. Not after Gunter sacrificed himself so I would live. Not when it would break Nox if I died.
Not when my child is out there somewhere.
I won’t die before I meet my baby.
