“Yes, I was with those vampires. If you hadn’t been here when we arrived, I have no idea what I would have done. I may have slaughtered everyone here before regaining control of myself, if I ever regained control of myself.”
“You think that now, but you would have kept control and not hurt them. You would have done what needed to be done to protect your loved ones and your followers.”
His fingers worked through the ends of her braid, unraveling it to spread her hair around them. The golden and blood-red strands in her deep-auburn hair shimmered in the dim light filtering around the edges of the door. “How can you have so much faith in me?”
“Because I know you and your heart.” She rested her palm over it and shuddered. “Even when it was pierced, you still protected and fought for everyone else, and me. You would have done the same for all of those in this place who need you.”
He wasn’t so sure she was right, but he would never argue with her unwavering confidence in him. Lowering his head, he kissed her chest over where her heart had once beat so strongly within her. “I much prefer your heart where it is,” he said against her skin and she actually chuckled.
“Tearing it out was all I could think to do when I felt you die, but William stopped me until I could regain control of myself.”
“I understand,” he said as he smoothed the lose strands of her hair back from her face. “When I first woke, I nearly killed Daniel and Jack.”
“Are they all right?” she demanded.
“Yes, but I do owe them an apology.”
She smiled at him as she cuddled closer. “That might shock them more than you rising from the dead did.”
“I think you’re right.”
“Braith, how is it possible you and your family are able to do such a thing?”
“I don’t know. I’m sure Sabine has some knowledge of it, but I don’t think Atticus had any.”
“I don’t either,” she said. “Goran is your uncle, but he’s not as powerful as you.”
She’d already revealed that to him, but a small kick of shock still went through him when she said it again. He had an uncle, who was just as malicious as many of his other family members had been.
“No, he’s not,” Braith replied. “He may be around my age, as I feel he is old, but whatever is in Sabine, was in Atticus, and is in me, is not in Goran or Jack. I think that whatever it is that makes the three of us different than other vampires, is why I was able to see you that day on the stage without having tasted your blood first.”
“Hannah can’t walk in the sun without sharing Jack’s blood on a regular basis,” she said.
“Exactly, but something in my blood allowed me to see you, and to regain my vision without your blood.”
“It’s because you are the first born of your line,” she murmured and stifled a yawn.
“You have to rest.”
“I’m afraid if I close my eyes, I’ll wake to find this really was all only another dream of you.”
“It’s not,” he promised.
“You came back stronger,” she said as she curled up on her side again and her eyes drifted closed. Her lids popped back open at once and her hand clenched around his as if it were a lifeline. “I can taste it in your blood. It is more powerful. Your vision and scars are completely healed.”
“Yes. I also heal faster and move a lot faster. There were fourteen vampires in the woods. I killed them all.”
She burrowed closer against him. “They couldn’t have been allowed to live.”
“No, they couldn’t.”
When you d-died,” her voice broke on the word. “Did you know?”
“I knew I was dying,” he said as he recalled those last moments of coherency before he’d woken again in the cave. His hand rested on her shoulder, and his fingers slid over her silken skin as she rolled over to look at him. “I tried so hard to stay with you, to not go, but I couldn’t stop it.”
“You lived for a while after you were shot. I had to take out the arrow that was in your heart.”
“You will never have to do something like that again.”
“We don’t know what the future holds.”
“I will do everything I can to make sure you never go through such a thing again. No matter what happens, not even death will keep us apart.”
She started beneath him, her eyes widening as she gazed at him. “I had a dream about us in the garden, all the roses turned black around us, and you said those words to me then too.”
“I am wise even in death,” he whispered and bent to taste her lips once more.
She smiled at him when he pulled away. Her fingers ran over the stubble lining his cheek as he watched her. “You are.”
“Rest, love,” he whispered and kissed her nose.
She rolled over to stare at the wall for a minute before closing her eyes again. This time, they didn’t reopen as sleep finally claimed her.
***
Braith