“Yeah,” I answer her, my frown deepening.
“Well, I thought about it, and while I agree with you, your life was destroyed that night in that bar. It also holds many, many other memories. Good ones with your family before that night. Your life didn’t end that night. It was tragic. Horrific, what happened. No one will deny that.”
A violent, haunting, roaring scream comes from Silas’s room. Evelynn pauses, her hand grasping mine in a tight, supportive hold. “Shit,” I breathe.
Evelynn continues talking over the screams—the animalistic noise coming from Silas will haunt me for eternity—in an attempt to cover it. “Well, your life also started that night.” She pauses. “I lost my best friend the night Lucian took me,” shesays. I knew this. I had thought it was a dick move on the club’s part, but then they weren’t exactly law-abiding citizens. “It was unfair, it was devastating, and I’m not for one second comparing that to what you went through. But I’m just saying I understand, at least a little bit.”
“You going somewhere with this?” I ask, arching my brow.
Her lips twitch, fighting a smile. “Trying to have a heart-to-heart and you still bite.”
“Sorry. It’s like a defence mechanism,” I sigh.
Evelynn squeezes our clasped hands. “All I’m going to say is don’t leave. You have a chance at happiness with Silas. Fine, don’t live in the bar, get your own place, make new memories. But don’t leave the people who love and care for you. Take a break, but don’t leave,” Evelynn pleads.
I look at her. “Are you asking me to stay for you or Silas?”
“Me. And a little bit for Silas,” she grins.
As if hearing his name, Silas lets out an almighty scream. Both of our attention turns back to Silas’s door. It opens, and the brothers file out one by one, a haunted look on their faces. Evelynn and I scramble to our feet, my palm splayed on the wall behind me, keeping me upright. “Talon, how bad wa—” My words die when he looks at me.
His usual hard exterior is broken. He shakes his head. “Fuck, Lilith,” he breathes.
His tone, the way he looks at me, causes me to bolt, pushing past Shade and Deisel to get into the room. Lucian’s eyes land on mine, my fists balled tight at my sides. The room is silent. My eyes flick from Lucian to Silas; he looks paler. He looks worse.
“It didn’t work,” I state, my heart or what’s left of it breaking. Viktor comes out of the bathroom, drying his hands on a cloth, his clothes covered in black ichor. My lips part in shock.
“It worked,” Viktor states. “He’s weak and needs feeding when he wakes.”
I move to Silas, climbing onto the bed beside him, curling my body into his, my head on his chest. Silence; no heartbeat, no breaths. At any other time, it would be a serious concern. But with our kind, no sound was good news.
“Call us when he wakes; he will need to be fed by one of us,” Viktor instructs.
“He can feed off me,” I sigh, my hand moving in a lazy pattern on his stomach.
“Call us. He is likely to be ravenous, and he won’t be able to control the blood thirst,” Viktor warns.
“Okay,” I sigh, my eyelids becoming heavy, my muscles relaxing against Silas.He’s going to be okay.Closing my eyes, I feel a blanket being laid over me before the silence.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
SILAS
My eyes snap open,a rogue breath dragging back into my lungs like I’ve been drowning. For a moment, I don’t know where I am. Then it hits. The pain. The darkness. Her. Lilith.
My chest tightens as I turn my head, and there she is. Curled against me, her golden hair spilt across my chest like sunlight I don’t deserve to touch again. Relief crashes into me so violently that it almost hurts. Relief, then something deeper. Darker. Hunger. Not just for blood. For her. Always her. I move before I can think, rolling us so she’s beneath me. She barely has time to wake before her eyes fly open wide, stunned, those emerald depths locking onto mine. “Silas,” she breathes, like she’s afraid I’m not real.
“Firefly,” I rasp, my voice rough, dragged from somewhere broken inside me.
I take her in; really look at her. The shadows beneath her eyes, the grief still clinging to her like it hasn’t let go.
Because of me. A sob catches in her throat, her hand trembling as it lifts, brushing my cheek like she’s afraid I’ll disappear. I turn into her touch, pressing my lips to her palm,closing my eyes as I breathe her in. Home. She’s always been my home.
“Silas, I?—”
“Shh.” My voice drops, softer, but firm. “No words.”
Because if she speaks—if she says the things I already know—I might break. Instead, I take her hand and guide her with me. Steam fills the air as the shower comes to life, heat wrapping around us, but it doesn’t come close to the fire already burning beneath my skin. Clothes fall away without thought, without hesitation, until there’s nothing left between us. No barriers. No distance. She stands there, watching me like I’m something fragile and dangerous all at once. And I realize I nearly lost this. I nearly lost her.The thought twists something vicious inside me. I step closer, slow and intentional, like claiming ground that was always mine. Water runs over her skin, tracing every curve, every line I’ve memorized in silence for years.
