She glances up at me. “What are you going to do?”
Another good question. If Santiago’s in town, trouble’s bound to follow.
“Strap in,” I say. “Things just got more complicated.”
Elliot is the most predictable unpredictable person I’ve met. She’s the antithesis to Nell in so many ways, apart from her heart.
Or, I should say, that’s how it was.
Now, she’s a vampire, and Vittoria’s words ring through my veins.
Elliot jumps when I enter the study, and a drawer closes. Of course she was snooping. It’s in her nature.
“We’re going out, Monty,” I say.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she says.
I close my eyes for a moment. “Your games keep you locked up longer. Get dressed and be ready in twenty. There are cocktails first.”
“Cocktails? You aren’t serious.”
I cross to her and close my computer. “Did you find what you were looking for?”
She hesitates, but then holds up a faded picture of a beautiful woman on the beach. It takes me a moment to realize what this is.
She found a picture of Nell, the one she had given me after I had revealed to her what I was. It had been a gesture of assurance that she wouldn’t leave me, even knowing the truth. I had been terrified it would scare her away, but Nell never seemed to be scared of anything.
Not even death.
I’d almost forgotten I had that picture in my desk.
“You really did love her, didn’t you?” she asks.
Looking at Nell’s beautiful, smiling face drives a spike of sorrow through my heart. As much as I’ve tried, I can’t get thoselast moments with her out of my head. I may have granted her final wish, but it’ll haunt me for the rest of eternity.
“I did,” I whisper, staring at Elliot over the picture. “For a long time, I thought I had lost my humanity completely, that I was more monster than man, and because of it I would be cursed with an eternal life of loneliness. The madness of monotony.” I pause and do my best to push down the rising grief. “Nell helped me see that wasn’t true.”
Elliot places the picture gently on top of my computer. “If I asked you to kill me, Lucian, to grant my final wish like you did with Nell, would you? You may not have given me a choice in being turned, but would you at least give me that if I wanted it? End me?”
“What?” The words sink their teeth into me. Is she out of her mind? Kill her? I saved her because I couldn’t bear losing her. “Why are you asking me this?”
“It’s a simple question,” she says. “One I’ve been pondering for a while now. There has to be a way to kill a vampire. If this isn’t the life I wanted for myself?—”
My hand snatches her by the chin, cutting her off midsentence, her baby blues flashing as they roam my face.
“Please…” I whisper, unable to stop the pain from leaking into my tone. “Don’t ask me that.”
She rubs her lips together, and the simple gesture awakens something inside me. I know she’s debating whether to press me further, but my thoughts are already spiraling into possession. The mere idea of her not being with me urges a desperate need to hold on tighter.
“Is being with me forever really so bad, Monty?” I ask, shifting closer.
“No…” Her hand curls around my wrist that still holds her face. “I’ll never be Nell, Lucian.”
“I know,” I say. “And I don’t want you to be. But I also don’t want you to die, so please don’t ask me to do that for you. Ever.”
I don’t realize I’m leaning in closer until my mouth whispers over hers. And she kisses me back with eyelids fluttering closed. She lifts onto her toes and presses firmly into me, and her excitement fills the air, mingling with mine.
An ache blooms fast, and the kiss deepens.
