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“Then you can leave her to suffer and perish on her own. Or”—he heaved an almost human sigh—“you can give her your blood. The choice is yours. Either way, Nico, you will be true to yourself, and I will have you. You belong to me.”
“Brûle en l’enfer!” This “choice” was no choice at all. Whatever he did, the Cassidy he knew and loved would be gone, and without her, he would be as cold and callous as every other blood-drinker, because they all belonged to Kambyses. They all secretly danced to the drumbeat of his madness—as would Cassidy, if she became one of them. For a while, with her help, Dominique had triumphed over the madness.
So much hope and promise in their love.
Gone now, all of it, reduced to smoking cinders.
He turned his back on Kambyses and returned to Cassidy’s side. Lying there with the beast fighting to claim her, she looked frail enough to float away. Her chest rose and fell with shallow breaths, and he heard her heart stumble along, moving the last of her blood.
Lowering his head, he closed his eyes against hopeless tears. Of all the fates he could imagine for her, only one was worse than becoming a blood-drinker—becoming a blood-drinker enslaved to Kambyses.
“Cassie, mon amour,” he whispered, his heart quietly breaking as he took her into his arms one last time. “Forgive me.”
Cassidy’s eyes snapped open.
That goddamned, bloodsucking jerk was at it again. She struck at him. Her hand connected with a less-than-satisfying slap, but it did have the desired effect of making him jolt upright. Surprise registered on the face that looked like Dominique’s, but surely wasn’t. “Get the hell away from me.”
A wave of vertigo tangled her limbs as she tried to roll away, gasping with the effort. “Haven’t you toyed with me enough?”
Every night, he took more. Every day she became sicker, but she held on and held on. Held on for Dominique. No matter what, she would find her way back to him.
The illusion of Dominique blinked, perplexed. No condescending smiles. No vague words. “Cassie,” it said, reaching out but not touching her. “It is me, Dominique.”
She hesitated and then grew angry with herself for wanting to believe him. “Leave me alone.”
He glanced over his shoulder and spoke in harsh French. Another voice responded. She focused her reluctant eyes on the far end of the cabin. Kambyses? But then—
With a cry, she threw herself into the real Dominique’s arms. He caught her, clutched her tight, and murmured her name over and over while her eyes burned with tears that would not come. They had dried up along with her blood supply. Delirious, she held on to him, soaking up his strength and inhaling his brisk winter smell. Kambyses never faked Dominique’s scent for her. He only made her not notice its absence.
It really was him, her one and only Dominique. Desperate to merge with him, she pulled his face against her neck. Let him take what he wanted. If it would be the end of her, at least she would die happy.
“Non. No, Cassie amour,” he whispered, stroking her grimy hair. “You have too little, and you can take no more serum.”
A stifled sob returned her to an awareness of the moment, of the others hovering around her. Monica stood by the door and dabbed at watering eyes. “That is so sweet.”
Cassidy collapsed against Dominique. He may be here at last, but their predicament was only getting worse.
“What will it be, Nico?” Kambyses mused. “Will you release her? Or will she join us?”
Dominique’s arms tightened a little more around her. “Join us? You know you could never pit us against each other. We will not play your games.”
The eternal vampire rose to his feet and slid his hands back into his trouser pockets. “No games. Of cowering servants, I have many. Of companions who will challenge me, I have none but you. By your defiance, you have proven yourself worthy of me and have succeeded where two thousand others have failed. If sharing you with her is to be the price of your acceptance of me, then it is a price I will pay.”
A violent shiver ran through Dominique’s body. Cassidy trembled and closed her eyes.
“You have until dawn to consider your choice,” Kambyses said. A moment later, the door opened and closed. The silence that descended was the silence of a world standing still.
Neither Cassidy nor Dominique moved. “It is not my choice,” he finally whispered against her temple, voice heavy with misery. “It is yours.”
She stirred in his arms until he released her to sink, exhausted, into the sheets. He stretched out on his side, one hand on her belly. She grabbed it, threading her fingers with his as she collected her thoughts. “I’ve had some time to think about this.” Over the past two days, she had done nothing but. “Your perspective changes when you’re up against a wall like this.”
He remained silent, watching her, listening.
“Yes, I want to be human and feel the sun on my skin. But more than that, I want to…want to—” Live? Given her options, that didn’t sound right. “—continue. I want to continue, Dominique.” He squeezed her fingers, but whether in warning, encouragement, or despair, she couldn’t say. “I want to continue as long as I know you’ll be there with me. Even if…even if I never see the sun again.”
“All that is good in you will be destroyed, and with you, all the light that is left in me,” he said in a low, harsh tone. “We will both be bound to him for eternity. We’ll be monsters just like him.”
“We’ll be monsters together. Doesn’t that beat being a monster alone?” Or would she be an eternal reminder of all he had lost? It was obvious Kambyses preferred her dead. Just as obviously, the bastard understood he would lose Dominique if he just killed her now. Which didn’t mean he wouldn’t get rid of her later, whether it was next week or next century. “Besides,” she added and licked at her cracked lips, “there’s the prophecy.”
