“How long?” I ask.
“Uh,” Vaughn laughs. “That’s kind of what we were doing when we walked in on y’all… We took him into the basement and then came into the house.”
“Well, shit,” Soren laughs.
“Might as well go see how his week has been.” I shrug before I turn and walk to the kitchen. They follow to the basement, and I stop a few feet from where Micah is naked and dangling from shackles. He is beaten all to hell. His face is busted up, he has at least one broken wrist, and God knows how many broken ribs. I slowly circle him, and he has a mix of blood, come, and shit all over his ass and the back of his thighs.
“Vaughn, you butt fucked him, didn’t you?” I ask.
“Yes!” He says with a proud grin. “We all did.”
“Twice,” Laurent adds.
“Daily,” Caine chimes in.
“Goddamn,” Soren laughs.
“Wake up,” I say, slapping Micah so hard that his eyes snap open and he gasps.
“Talia. Oh, my God. Please help me. Please…” he starts to beg, but stops when I laugh. “Please.”
Instead of saying anything, I turn and grab Vaughn so I can kiss him hard. I go to Diego, then Laurent, then Caine, and end with Soren. He is grinning down at me, and I smile before turning back to look at him. I just look at him, wondering what the most deserving way to kill him is, and a lightbulb pops on in my mind. I gasp as I spin around to face Soren.
“Change me,” I say. “Dad said you can wake the hybrid side of me by turning me. So do that.”
“What’s your plan?” Soren asks skeptically.
“I want you and I to drain him completely,” I explain.
“This is forever, Talia. That mortality shot isn’t an option,” he warns me. “It rapidly ages you, and it isn’t meant to be survivable.”
“I want this, Soren,” I say gently. “I’ve wanted this since the moment you all saved my life. I am choosing this with open eyes, and it has nothing to do with the bond.”
“And if I say no?” he asks.
“I’ll just get someone else to change me.”
“You’d have to dedicate yourself to learning magic and understand that others might call on you for help. That is a ton of magic to possess and others will…”
“I know, Soren,” I say, gently this time. I go up on my tiptoes and pull his face down to meet mine. Soren sighs as he kisses me and then smiles.
“Okay,” he agrees reluctantly, but then pauses. “Are you sure you want to spend forever with me, Talia?”
For the first time since meeting Soren, I realize that not only was his bitterness rooted in being forced into this life, but also in loneliness. I assume he wanted to be alone, and it was a conscious choice to avoid mates, but that isn’t true at all. He didn’t think he was meant to have forever with someone. Even with his friends, he pushed them away every chance he got, but much like me, they held onto him and refused to let him go. I can’t imagine how hard this moment is for them because Micah was their friend. Their brother. They spent centuries together, and for what? To have it all reduced to selfishness and greed for power? Devastating.
“So, how does this work?” I ask.
“It’s a little violent,” Soren warns with a smirk. “You feed off me, and then I kill you.”
“I’m sorry?” I ask. “That is violent. Damn.”
“It’s about trust,” he says sweetly. “Do you trust that I will keep you safe?”
“I don’t know if that is safe… but I do trust that I will get to spend forever with you.”
“Because if you are wrong, she will haunt you for eternity,” Vaughn snorts.
“Let’s do it,” I say.
