“Go rest. I will be there after court,” he orders quietly across my mouth.
I sigh. “Okay,” I agree, feeling all giddy just from his kiss. I snatch up the bowl of fruit, my hunger returning as I disappear down the hall to the bedroom.
CHAPTER TWENTY
LUCIAN
Standing before my brothers,their glaring judgement is fixed on me. “Have at it.” I gesture, knowing the shit they’re about to throw at me.
“How? It isn’t done, it breaks the code,” Silas fumes, his jaw set tight.
“I don’t fucking know. It was happening before I could stop it,” I counter.
Silas shakes his head. “We control the marking. You marked her because you wanted to. So don’t try to play it off as something you couldn’t control.”
He’s right, in a way. When we mark our partners—mates, whatever you want to call it—we do it. It’s not some outside force of fate at play. We feel it when wecome together, like a small spark. At first, it’s tiny, almost insignificant. But you feel it there, simmering, wanting to burn brighter. We choose whether to ignite it. Not many of our kind do.
But with Evelynn, it was different. There was no small spark, no simmering. It was there, burning so fucking bright inside me I couldn’t pull away. I couldn’t and wouldn’t stop. She is mine, and I wasn’t about to let anyone else take her from me.
“It wasn’t the same as the usual marking,” I state. “I don’t know if it’s to do with what the old nun said, but it was fucking different.” I grind the words out, knowing they won’t understand it.
“How did she not die?” Rook asks. “I was always told we couldn’t mark mortals because it would kill them, and then there’s the code.”
“So, what? You going to report me?” I question.
My brothers shake their heads. “You’ve broken the code, the laws set by our kind, but we are your family, your brothers, your goddamn coven. If the Dominion come, then we will deal with it,” Silas says firmly. The others all nod.
“Plus, you know, I think there is something bigger at play here, with Anathema, the nun. The fact that you have marked her and she has survived.” Viktor shakes his head. “I’ve searched tomes after tomes andnothing.” He looks at me, his gaze pinning me. “You are a part of something, whether you like it or not. You and Evelynn. What the fuck that is, I have no idea. But I will figure it out,” he fumes, rubbing his face, no doubt exhausted from reading and researching every book he can get his hands on.
I nod, offering them my thanks, though gratitude feels cheap compared to what they’re giving me. Knowing they have my back, no matter the cost, is something no words could ever repay.
“You going to change her?” Diesel asks.
Clutch shakes his head. “For him to do that, he’d need approval from the Dominion. And if he makes that request, they’ll see she’s already been marked.”
“So, what?” Talon presses. “You just let her stay human?”
I nod, and the room fractures into a brutal silence.
Then Cain’s voice cuts straight through it. “You will die.”
I nod again. I’d accepted that long before this moment.
When vampires mark each other, they’re bound soul to soul, blood to blood. The only way out is death itself. For vampires, that’s usually a minor inconvenience.
But I didn’t mark another vampire. I marked amortal. A fragile, fleeting thing of breath and heartbeat. And when she takes her final breath, I won’t grieve.
I will turn to dust.
No sound comes from my room, just her deep, slow, heavy breaths. A smile plays at my lips as I silently enter, closing the door behind me. In a blur of silent speed, I’m beside her, my fingers searching for her soothing pulse.
I’m not afraid to die, not afraid to fade away into nothing, but I am afraid of losing her.
She slowly stirs, a soft sigh escaping her lips. Her dark eyes flutter open, and she smiles. “Hey, Luci,” she whispers.
I tilt my head at the nickname. “Absolutely not,” I dismiss.
Her grin deepens. “But it’s just short for Lucian.” The playfulness in her tone has me fighting my own smile.
