The nightwalker no longer holds my hand, and I am on my knees behind him as he walks ahead. Shadows drench his clothes, some breaking away and becoming wisps on the wind.
Wind…
Through widened eyes, I look up. Thousands of stars cluster in the sky, and with shaky breaths, I rise to my feet.
It has been ten long years since I last saw the stars. Ten years of dreaming about lying in the valley of moonflowers and gazing up at them.
Pain hits my bones, a sharp blade sawing through them. This moment was supposed to be with Jax, yet here I am, standing beside a nightwalker. My glamour is gone, removed at his touch.
“I see…” he says, and I tear my focus away from the stars to watch the nightwalker now circling me. Red eyes look me up and down, softening. “I see Saya Claymore as she should be seen.”
I look to the stars again, my throat tightening and heart pounding. “Here I am, exposed, while you are still hidden in shadows, nightwalker.” My eyes narrow on him. “Are you like the creature in the vent?”
“No.”
“Then why do you look like it—your claws, I mean.”
“A glamour…perhaps a curse. It is supposed to frighten those who come near me. Though you seem to be enticed by it.” He stops in front of me, eyes not once leaving mine. “I will show you who I am if you accept my offering.”
“And what exactly is your offering? You have not elaborated on what you want from me.”
Red eyes crease in amusement. “I want you to survive the red moon, but I can’t do that without you drinking my blood. With it in your system, I can protect you.”
My smile falters, and I drop my gaze.
“You’re still not willing to accept what you are.”
“Then what?” I say, glaring up at the stars and moonless night. “You save me, my friends, and my brother? You protect us, while they are terrified over what you are?”
“Just you. Your brother, your friends and your not-lover will panic, and perhaps try—and fail abysmally—to kill me instead of thinking about safety.” He faces me, but all I see are his red eyes through the shadows. “I can be your sanctuary.”
I pick at the skin around my fingernails. “Jax has a plan. The slayers will save us. He will helpall of usescape. All I need to do is?—”
“Hide who you are,” he finishes.
I release a shaky breath as I say, “Until I am out of the Feeding Ground. Then I can show them who I am. I will convince them…in time.”
“If that is what you desire.”
“Sorry,” I blurt when he looks away. “I don’t know why I am apologising.”
He breathes a laugh. “You are…amusing.”
A strange fluttering stirs in my heart.
“Here.” The nightwalker holds his hand out to me. “Instead of my offering, give me a drop of your blood. At least then, if you are on your deathbed, I’ll be able to find you.”
I jerk my head back. “Why?”
“No one should die alone. Trust me.”
With a slow breath in and out, I raise my hand and rest it in his. He takes my index finger and draws it to him until it’s consumed in the darkness. A sharp breath escapes me when he takes me into his warm mouth—not icy as I had expected—and his tongue rests against my finger.
I wince at the prick of pain from his fang, and after a long, hard suck, he slips my finger out of his mouth. Heat flares between my thighs.
Why did that turn me on?
He chuckles, then says, “Hopefully I don’t need to find you.”
