Echo bit her lip. She wanted to find Margaret first, but she’d been outvoted. Everyone agreed they should be ready to fight. Giving Fionn a reluctant nod, she turned to stare out the window. Echo wondered if it would be the first and last time inher vampire existence she’d ever see the sunlight spilling across the world.
Fionn’s safe house was an end-of-terrace townhouse in a fancy gated community on the Wharf of the Thames. It had six bedrooms and south-facing views of the river. Echo guessed the place would sell for a cool five million dollars. Seriously, the fae warrior was loaded.
It wasn’t quite enough to distract Echo from the fact that she was about to meet her real mother for the first time. A mother who might not want anything to do with her once she realized Echo was a vampire—the same as the villain who had destroyed her true love.
For the first time in as long as she could remember, her stomach churned with very human butterflies. Fionn had a housekeeper who’d left a ton of food for them, but Echo could only pick at it. Eventually, feeling like she might scream if she didn’t get some alone time, she disappeared from the massive kitchen and hurried upstairs to a guest bedroom. She closed the door behind her, pressing her palms to the wood, trying to get a hold of herself.
It was all too much.
Elijah.
Margaret.
Echo marched across the luxurious bedroom to the large window that looked out toward the river. Her birth mother was on the other side of it. She had no idea her life was about to change. Once again.
What if she hates me on sight?
Echo squeezed her eyes closed, feeling tears burn behind her lids.
Tears were so unlike her, and yet she’d cried more in the last few days …
It was because of him.
And as if she’d conjured him, the door clicked open behind her. His scent hit her, as well as the whisper of his feelings.
Concern. Determination.
Tenderness.
Emotion stung her nose, but Echo didn’t turn to him.
When his heat hit her and he pressed his strong, hard chest against her back, sliding his arms around her waist to rest his chin against her temple … she didn’t shrug Elijah off. But it took everything within her not to melt into his embrace.
“You barely ate anything,” he murmured quietly.
Echo didn’t respond. She wasn’t sure she could.
“I sense how nervous you are. How sad. How afraid.” His lips brushed her temple as his voice grew gruff with feeling. “I wish I could take all of it away. I hate that you feel so alone when I’m standing right here.”
“It’s just the mating, Elijah,” she replied tonelessly. “If you took a minute to really consider me … you’d recognize this—me—is not what you want.”
His body tensed and she felt a swell of his anger push against her senses. “How very fucking patronizing of you, love.”
“Elijah—”
“I have lived on this planet as long as you. I might not have been raised by a psycho, but I’ve met my fair share of dark beings across my travels. I’m not some naive human. And I’m not perfect.” He sighed heavily. “I’ve used people. I … I started the band with another bloke. Mac was talented, but he had a drug problem, so I cut him off just before the band got signed. We left him behind. He’s an addict living in social housing, probablycursing the day I was born. And why shouldn’t he? I left Mac behind for my own ambitions, not wanting to get dragged down by his problems. Not very honorable.”
She heard the pain in his voice. His guilt.
See?
Good.
“Don’t you understand? I’m like your friend. I will only drag you down. You should cut me loose.”
Instead, his grip tightened, and his lips brushed her ear. “You are not a monster.”
She sucked in a breath. How did he …
