She disappears into the bathroom. I pull on my jeans, shrug into my hand-stitched jacket, and slide the tiny bottle Hex gave me into my pocket. My hands shake. She returns dressed in skin-tight black jeans and a white tank top.
Across her chest, written in pen:Property of Lucian.My mouth curves into a dark, broken grin. I move to her too fast. She stumbles back, and I catch her, my arm locking around her waist. “When did you do this?” I ask, tracing the words with my fingertips.
She smirks softly, her hands settling against my bare chest beneath my jacket. “Earlier, before the bar.”
I exhale slowly, restraining everything in me. “If wehad more time,” I murmur, “I’d fuck you and claim you while you’re wearing just this.”
“Use it as motivation to survive,” she whispers, her voice cracking.
“Come.” I take her hand and lead her outside as darkness bleeds into the trees, shielding us from the last dying light.
We ride. The warm evening air wraps around us. The sky burns in deep pinks and fading oranges. Her arms tighten around my waist, like she’s afraid I might dissolve beneath her touch. I take us through town, around the back of Lilith’s Bar. I kill the engine. Evelynn climbs off the bike, frowning. “Why are we here?”
“I need something that might help us.” I’d already called Lilith. She cursed me out, threatened to kill me herself. But after I begged, she agreed.
The bar is dark and silent when we step inside. Lilith waits at the counter, two bottles and three glasses lined up. Evelynn looks at me, confused. “She wanted to share one last drink,” I lie, the words tasting like ash.
“You’re cutting it close,” Lilith says.
“You know me,” I reply. “I live for dramatic timing.” I pour myself a glass of the blood before pouring Evelynn a whiskey. Lilith pulls Evelynn into ahug, murmuring comfort into her hair. That’s when I move. I slip the tiny bottle from my pocket, pour a drop into my palm, pinch the smallest amount, and dust it into Evelynn’s drink. I swirl the glass once and hide the bottle again.
Lilith’s eyes meet mine, and my jaw tightens. I shake my head, just once.Please. I plead with my gaze. She steps back, forces a smile.
“A toast,” Lilith says, lifting her glass. “To one of the most arrogant, moody sons of bitches I’ve ever met. May he win this fight and may Evelynn keep his ass in line.” She winks.
Evelynn laughs, raising her glass. I watch in slow motion as she brings it to her lips. Every instinct in me screams to stop her, but this is the only way. She swallows and coughs. “Jesus, that bourbon is strong.” She sets the glass down. I hear it. Her heartbeat stutters, slows. She blinks. “Lucian, I... I don’t feel right.” Her hand flies to her chest. She looks at me, terror blooming in her eyes. “She drugged me.” She points at Lilith, stumbling back, knocking over a stool. I catch her as she collapses into me.
“No,” I rasp. “She didn’t.” Her eyes fill instantly with tears.
“No,” she breathes. “You wouldn’t.” Each word breaks her further.
“I’m sorry.” My voice shreds apart. “I have to keep you safe. If you’re there, they’ll destroy you.” Her devastation is unbearable.
“You die, I die,” she whispers, her eyelids growing heavy. “I want to be with you. Please. Don’t do this to me.” She’s sobbing now, her strength weakening. I lower us to the floor, cradling her against my chest.
“If there’s even a chance you’ll survive, I’m taking it,” I choke. “You are everything to me. Everything.”
I kiss her, soft, trembling, and final. Then I lay her down gently. She fights the drug, crying my name, clawing at consciousness. “Lucian!” The sound rips straight through my soul. My undead heart collapses in on itself. Leaving her there, I ride away. And her screams will follow me until the moment I cease to exist.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
LUCIAN
We stand outside the compound,tension crackling in the air like a live wire. My brothers flank me in silence, waiting. Waiting for my sacrifice. Waiting for my death.
“If you don’t die from Anathema,” Cain mutters at my side, “you know you’re dead the moment she wakes.”
My lips twitch. “I’d happily die by her hand.” I swallow. Leaving her feels like a blade coiled deep in my chest.
“They’re coming,” Viktor says.
The night sky churns, roaring clouds swallowing the moon. Thunder fractures the air as lightning tearsit open. Sulphur burns my nostrils. Trees rip themselves from the ground, roots screaming as they part, bowing like living things to clear a path. A swirling mass of black matter rolls toward us, then spreads, solidifying into three figures. They look almost human. Where their eyes should be are hollow pits of endless black. The one in the centre steps forward. My brothers raise their water pistols. It tilts its head, assessing us, then smiles—slow and wrong—revealing needle-like teeth.
“I didn’t expect them to be this ugly,” Clutch mutters.
“I didn’t expect to fight an unholy being with fucking toy guns,” Rook says, “but here we are.”
“You came for a fight,” the creature rasps. Its voice reeks of rot and grave dirt.
