Somehow he had enough strength to pull me down onto the bed with him. “I’m okay, Evey. I’m still here, aren’t I?”
“Your heart was going crazy.”
“You own my heart, lady.” He smiled weakly.
“How much time do you think you have?”
As sick as Lucian was, he still got a laugh out of that. “Like anything else, who the knows? Who the hell knows? Will you promise me something, Evey?”
“Anything.” I kissed his cheek and nuzzled into his neck.
“Promise me that if you remember anything after I’m gone, you’ll protect yourself by not speaking a word of it. There’s no telling what could happen.”
“I would never.”
“Also, you have to live a normal life for me. Please.” He squinted, smiling with his eyes. “I worked so hard to make sure you had a normal life. I wish I could control myself with you. I wish I hadn’t done this to you. I’m sorry.”
“You said no apologies. You can’t fault a person for love, and you’re still here.”
Just when I said that, he looked like he was going to pass out. An alarm went off on the screen above his bed. I ran to get the nurse.
I FELT WOOZY.An alarm was beeping above my bed. Evey had run out to get help. On the other side of the darkened room, I noticed a figure sitting in the chair.
“Mona?”
She stood and came to me. “Well, you got your wish.”
“I didn’t wish for this, to die this way.”
“I mean you got yourself an appointment with Him.” She pointed at the ceiling. “A face-to-face, a sit-down, Lucian.”
That angered me. “Oh what, now? So I die, and then I get to go talk to Him? What’s the point of that?”
“To plead your case.”
“To plead my case? You’re not any less cryptic than you were two thousand years ago, Mona.”
She put her hand on my arm, and I felt a surge of energy. “They’re coming,” she whispered. “I have to go.”
She kissed my cheek, and then she was gone. The alarm stopped.
“False alarm,” I said when the doctor, nurse, and Evey all came rushing in.
“Oh thank God,” Evey said.
“Don’t thank him.” I smirked.
The doctor and nurse checked me out thoroughly before leaving the room. The doctors were all stupefied by my case. I think the fact that they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with a seemingly healthy thirty-year-old man, bruised their egos a little.
They stopped giving Evey updates. I think they were just trying to keep me alive.
I coded again later that day. The only thing I remember about it was that Evey was screaming. Later that night, I woke when I overheard a doctor telling Evey I was septic and that my body wanted to die.
Evey lay beside me and cried. I drifted in and out of consciousness. I tried to hold her and comfort her, but I couldn’t anymore. I was only hurting her. At one point I asked her to call her mom, but she refused.
“No,” she said. “It’s too complicated, and I don’t feel like lying to them anymore.”
“I understand. I just don’t want you to be alone. I love you so much. For two thousand years, I had no life. You gave me life, and I’m grateful to you.” I kissed her and she kissed me back, and then she began sobbing again. “Please say something to me.”
