"Noted."
"Fast learner."
"Survivor," I fired back.
He sighed, his smile slowly fading as did the light behind his blue eyes. "It's fifty-fifty."
"What?" I was just popping a piece of cheese into my mouth. Why did the food taste so bland? I was hungry — ravenous — so I didn't care, but it was like eating sandpaper.
"The survival rate, of course." Alex examined his fingernails then clicked his tongue. "Most humans are able to survive it, the strong ones."
"Survive what?" I clenched my teeth together as another chill wracked my body.
"The marking." His eyes narrowed. "It's made easier when your mate actually holds your damn hand through the process." I could have sworn he said ass under his breath, but it was too low to hear.
"He didn't…" I licked my lips and reached for a cracker. "He didn't want to do it though."
"Tough shit," Alex said in a louder voice, repositioning himself on the chair, dangling his legs off the side. "We've all had to make sacrifices for the greater good — this is his."
"Okay…" Feeling full and a bit sick, I put the cracker back on the plate. "And when this marking is all over… when I survive it — and believe me I will—"
Alex grinned, making me all the more irritated that he'd doubted my strength — that any of them would.
"What happens then? I'm Ethan's mate? I live to serve him, then I die? Only if Cassius doesn't ever find me?"
Alex went deathly still. "It's sad… tragic, actually… how little they tell you these days. About us. About the world and about your place in it."
"So tell me!" I pounded my fist into the pillow next to me, scaring the crap out of myself. I'd always been controlled — it had been bred into me from birth. And I'd just yelled at an immortal like he was a petulant child.
Alex grinned. "I think you'll do just fine, Genesis. Just fine." He chuckled warmly. "Try not to be too hard on us. We've been waiting for a chance to change things for a very long time… and you just may be exactly what we've been waiting for."
"I can't do anything if you don't tell me what I'm supposed to be doing!" Tears threatened, the confusion and fear back full force. "I don't know what to do. Just tell me what I'm supposed to do."
"And that's the problem right there." Alex leaned forward, sadness etched in his every feature. "Your whole life, choices have been taken from you, rather than given to you." He hung his head. "I'll do this once and only once… I'll throw you a bone, isn't that what it's called? Do you a solid? A favor? And give you one goal this evening, one thing to set your small misinformed mind toward."
I waited in anticipation.
"Survive," he said softly. "Just survive. And when the flames threaten to take you higher and higher, give in. When the heat scorches you from the inside out, when tears no longer come, when the need is all you can contemplate… you survive."
He stood and shrugged, as if he hadn't just scared the crap out of me.
"Oh, and also? It would probably be good to call for your mate…" He offered a haphazard shrug. "When it's time."
"When I'm dying?"
"Only when your need is so great for him that you've forgotten yourself completely. That's when you whisper his name. Pray to God he answers — because he still has a choice in this, and if he doesn't choose you, survival will be pointless. You. Will. Die."
A lone tear fell down my cheek before I could wipe it away
Alex reached out and captured it with his thumb. "It's been years since I've seen real tears. I hope you keep yours. I hope the gift of feeling such strong emotions remains — then again — for your sake, at the same time, I hope they don't."
He left me.
Just like that.
With shaky hands, I put the tray on the nearby table and went back to lie on
the bed, freaking out, wondering when the heat was going to come, when the pain would arrive, and when I would be out of my mind for a mate who clearly didn't want me.