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“No. I didn’t.” Garrett struggled into a more upright position. When he glanced at the blood, his mouth worked as though already tasting it. He took the cup and held it in both hands. Some of the bravado ebbed out of his steely eyes. “Thank you for this, but…this won’t fix what’s really wrong with me.”
“Which is a long list indeed,” Dominique said dryly.
“Wiseass.” He put the cup to his lips and knocked back the contents like a shot of crimson liquor. With eyes scrunched, he took several fortifying breaths. Dominique watched a silver sparkle build in the dark-gray aura.
“Well. That cleared a few things up,” Garrett said and lay back into the pillows with a confident control over his limbs he didn’t have only a minute ago. “For now.”
Again, Dominique waited.
Garrett didn’t look at him. “I’m dying, Nick,” he began and swallowed hard. “I don’t mean in the sense of ‘we all die’—well, all of us mortals, anyway.” He put the empty cup back on the table. “I’m sick. Really goddamned fucking sick. The doctors in Germany diagnosed me. I was hoping your blood would cure it, but…” He glanced at him. “These fine Canadian docs agree with their German colleagues. I’ve got a year. Probably less.”
Dominique didn’t quite know what to make of this revelation—or the maelstrom of mixed feelings running through him. He had hated this man and wished him dead. Yet he relied on him, too. Despite everything, a twisted honor dwelled in Garrett’s blood-thirsty little soul. “What are they saying is wrong with you?”
“Chondrosarcoma. A fancy name for ‘you’re screwed.’ Bone cancer. I’ve had pains for a while now, deep nagging stuff. I wrote it off as arthritis, popped some pills and hit the gym. Figured I was feeling my age.” He shook his head, a grimace distorting his face. “Nope. A goddamn cancer is chewing on me. It’s in my fucking arm. Can you believe that? And in my ribs. That’s why one snapped when that prick we cornered in Germany rammed me. They’re saying to try—try—and cure me, they’d have to start by taking off my right arm. At the shoulder.” His eyes shimmered now. “After that, the chemo and radiation, and maybe, justmaybe, they could stop the one in my chest.”
Dominique had no words. He sat perfectly still, aware of nothing but the man in the bed, the heart racing beneath those fragile ribs, and the anger and fear oozing out of his pores.
Garrett briskly swiped a hand over one cheek. “You’re the only one who knows. The only one I’m telling.”
“Why?”
“Because…I can’t live this way. And I don’t want to die like that.”
Dominique’s brows gathered. “You…wish me to help you die?”
“What? No. I know how to use a gun. I don’t need you for that.”
“Then—”
“I want to live, Nick, and…I’ve decided that there’s no price too high for that.”
Dominique stared at him. He could not be hearing this, could he? Not from this man?
“What? You’re going to make me say it?”
“Yes. I do not want to misunderstand.”
“Fine. Dominique, I want you—no, I’maskingyou to…consider—” He sucked at the air. His hands fisted in the blanket. “Goddamn it. I want you to turn me.”
Yes, that was what Dominique thought he understood. Leaning forward in his seat, he rubbed the tips of his fingers together and spoke with care. “Not so long ago, you claimed you would rather die than consume even one drop of vampire blood. And when I threatened to turn you, you went into hiding on another continent.”
“Death has a way of refocusing the mind.”
“You do understand all the consequences, of course?”
“No sunlight. Need blood to survive. Great strength and immortality. Yes, I’ve known that for most of my sixty years on this earth.”
“Also, complete submission to me as your lord and master. The world of night is not a democracy.”
“Aren’t you my boss already? You’ve got a good sense of integrity. I can work with that.”
“You would lose your advantage of hunting during the day.”
“I think I might do pretty well with the suppressant if I need to.”
Unlike Dominique, who, despite all his powers and desperation to make it work, had yet to do so in any meaningful way. “Your mind would be forever linked to mine.”
Garrett clenched his jaw. “I’d get used to it.”
