“Going to share?”
He kissed her lips. “Letting it percolate.”
“Your ideas are coffee now?”
His laugh was a full-bodied thing that made her tingle in all the right places. “Oh, my love. Come. Let us practice.”
Beckham had the decency to let her march out to the cabin rather than carry her. She wanted to be back at the house watching over Brian and waiting to hear the reaction from the public to the video that Zoya had uploaded. Instead, she was in the cabin, practicing Beckham throwing her his vampire skills.
Healing they had figured out. Speed he’d given to her at Penelope’s. Hearing was next. Opening her up to theirconnection and pushing out the ability. It took a few tries before it worked, but she could only listen to the outside world for a minute before dropping the connection.
“Oh God,” she gasped, falling to one knee. Beckham rushed to her side.
“What happened?”
“My ears. They hurt like a bitch. Ringing and pain.” Reyna put her hand to her ear. Blood ran out of one of them.
“Did you have symptoms for healing or speed?”
Reyna closed her eyes as the pain receded and thought back. “Not much, just some pain as I healed. When you gave me the speed, I was disoriented and dizzy. Some ringing in my ears and it took a second to stand steady again.”
“Of course.” He nodded his head as if it all made sense. “You’re getting my enhancements but without the virus changing your composition to be able to accommodate them. So your body is exhibiting physical side effects.”
“What can we do about it?”
“Not do it anymore.”
“No.”
“Building up to it could take weeks, months, even years. We can’t force this onto you. You could die.”
Reyna groaned. “Then fucking turn me! Let’s make it easier. If as a human I can’t handle it, maybe I could as a vampire.”
“That’s not part of this discussion.”
“Make it part of the discussion. There’s a cure now. I could always turn back.”
Beckham turned away from her. “I understand why you want this, but no. It’s risky.”
“Do you not want me to live forever with you?” she whispered.
“Do we have to decide about eternity in the midst of war?”
“When else will we decide?”
“Reyna, I don’t know how many ways I can tell you that I loveyou. That I love you so much that I would never want this to happen to you. Look at what it did to your brother. Yes, he was tortured and starved, butyouare the kind soul. What would the virus do to your heart? Would you still be my Reyna afterward?”
“Of course I would. We’re blood matched. You’re my soul mate.”
Beckham shook his head. She could see the resignation in him. The sheer horror and discomfort that had settled onto him. “If it’s the only way, Reyna, then I’ll do it.”
“You will?” she whispered.
“You can make your own choices. You trust me not to be a monster. Perhaps I could trust you not to be your own.”
Reyna stared at him in shock. Not that he would allow her to make her own choice, but that he’d agree tothischoice.
And it was the same moment she realized she could never do this to him.
