She squeezed my hand lightly and led me into the adjoining living room. Next to the fireplace she had a mug of something sweet, hot chocolate perhaps? And a blanket. I scooted a chair next to her and sat, our hands still touching, still grasping, feeling one another.
It was the most calm I’d felt all evening.
Sitting with a human, by the fire.
Sitting with a Vampire’s mate.
Sitting.
Watching.
Maybe I inherited that from my father? The keen ability to be able to stay awake and watch, in hopes that by keeping my eyes open I’d, what? Save the world from itself? Save the woman I loved?
“You look sad,” Genesis said.
“I find that I’d rather allow the human side of me to mourn what has transpired between me and Stephanie than push it away. Sometimes it’s better to feel, no?”
Genesis ducked her head as she took a sip of hot chocolate. Her dark wavy hair fell across her soft skin as her green eyes glowed over the rim of the cup. “Feeling is almost always painful, but with pain, is always beauty… pleasure.” She glanced at the fireplace. “You aren’t truly living if you are choosing to ignore the most vibrant parts of yourself, including, emotions.”
“Pesky little things, emotions,” I joked.
Her laugh was soft. “They do tend to get in the way.”
“I want to save her,” I admitted.
Genesis’s eyes saddened. “You can’t.”
“I keep telling myself if I wouldn’t have—”
Genesis’ eyebrows arched. “Go on, wouldn’t have what?”
“Bargained,” I blurted out. “I made a bargain with Sariel. Allow me thirty days to pursue her, to love her, he made me human while restoring her immortality as a gift. At the end of thirty days, if I had not succeeded, I would die. But, of course, Sariel failed to mention that if we mated, I’d be restored.”
Genesis frowned. “It doesn’t seem like Sariel to leave something like that out. Are you sure you are restored?”
I frowned. “I have all of my powers, look at me.” I spread my arms wide, releasing her hand in the process.
“But do you have your immortality?” She wondered aloud.
I paused as the room itself tensed, and then like a warning, the lights flickered. Because if I could die, if it was possible to die without the draining of my immortality, that meant… the future had not truly changed.
Because in the end.
Stephanie could still kill me.
Stab me in the heart.
And I would perish.
Stephanie
TEARS BLURRED MY LINE of vision as gravel crunched beneath Mason’s old boots. They’d been by the door, and I’d been desperate. Maniacal laughter bubbled up inside of me. What was happening? No matter how hard I tried, the temptation to give in to something so dark and forbidden, was like inviting warmth into the icy parts of my soul.
The air around me stilled, but I continued walking down the street toward the small wooded area where I used to go running—before my life had changed, before I’d discovered that I was an abomination.
Shoving my hands into the pockets of my sweatshirt, I picked up my pace, only to slam directly into an invisible wall.
Confused I took a step back.