Walking out of the ICU with my head high, I noticed the fluorescent lights didn’t seem as harsh this time.The antiseptic smell didn’t cling to me the way it usually did.I felt lighter, somehow.Cleaner.
I’d proven something today.Not to my father, who would never wake to see it.Not to Raphael, who probably didn’t care.
I’d proven it to myself.
Back in my car, I sat for a moment in the hospital parking lot, watching the snow fall.
I pulled out my phone without thinking.Checked for messages.
Two new ones from Raphael.
Raphael:You visited your father.Nineteen minutes.You told him you handled the crisis better than he ever could have.
My stomach dropped.The hospital.He had people at the hospital too?
Raphael:You did.And when you get home tonight, I’m going to show you exactly how pleased I am with my clever girl.
I stared at the words until they blurred.Clever girl.Like I was a pet who had performed a trick.Like my competence was something he had the right to praise or punish.
But underneath the rage, heat pulsed low in my belly.The same heat that had flooded me when he kissed me in the library.The same heat I couldn’t seem to extinguish no matter how hard I tried.
He hadn’t swooped in to save me.He hadn’t sent resources or taken over.He’d watched.He’d let me handle it.And now he was waiting at home to reward me for it.
The thought made me want to scream.
You’re being ridiculous.He’s manipulating you.This is exactly what he wants.
I set the phone face-down on my lap and stared at the falling snow.
My lips still remembered his.The taste of him.The way his hand had felt on the back of my neck, firm and demanding, like he was claiming something he had every right to.
I touched my mouth without meaning to.The swelling was gone, but the memory wasn’t.
Tomorrow, he’d said.
Well, tomorrow had arrived.And I’d spent it proving I didn’t need him to survive.
The question was whether that would matter when I went back to his house tonight.When I stood in his library and pretended I hadn’t thought about him all day.When he looked at me with those gray eyes and expected me to melt.
I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
But as I gathered my things and prepared to leave, I caught my reflection in the darkened window.Beyond the glass, snow was still falling, blanketing the world in white.The woman looking back at me was tired and triumphant and confused all at once.
She’d saved her hotel today.She’d proven herself to her staff and her guests.She’d done what her father never believed she could do.
And she still wanted the man who’d kissed her and walked away without a word.
I didn’t know what that said about me.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out.
15
RAPHAEL
The vampires arrived precisely as the sun set.
I stood at the far end of the warehouse with Viktor and Dmitri flanking me, watching as three figures emerged from the shadows.No footsteps.No heartbeats.No scent.Just the whisper of expensive fabric and the cold that preceded them like a warning.
