“She’s innocent!” I screamed. “She’s done nothing wrong.”
Sariel smiled sadly. “But she will. Believe me. She will. Remember what your love did to you last time.”
“Time’s wasting.” Mason’s eyes turned black. “We need to hunt.”
Stephanie reached for my hand. I squeezed it once, intent on letting it go, but decided to hold it a bit longer, because she felt good and because I knew I needed to start appreciating every minute I had with her.
Because something told me—they would add up—and my time wouldn’t just be over—but nonexistent.
Cassius
Greece 79 AD
I FOLLOWED HER SCENT. I would stop her at all costs if things got out of hand. She’d promised.
She’d lied.
Again.
I wanted to turn a blind eye, mainly because whenever Eva was near, the world didn’t feel as dark or desperate.
The way she laughed and smiled through her immortal life was a thing of beauty, and I hated being the one responsible for dampening that light.
“Shh, I’ll return one day.” She whispered to the little child. His face was wet with tears. “Just be good for your mama, alright?”
He wrapped his tiny arms around her neck then kissed her cheek. “I love you.”
The air filled with sadness, drenched with such a hollow emptiness that I sucked in a breath.
Vampires weren’t supposed to be so emotional.
Leave it to a child to bring out the worst of human weaknesses in all of us. God forbid I ever felt such weakness.
“I love you too, John.”
Eva set the boy on his feet. He reached up and captured one of her dark curls between his fingers dropped it, and then turned on his heel and walked off.
“He’s precious,” she said aloud, already sensing my presence. “It was his birthday, I couldn’t allow him to think I didn’t care anymore.”
I crossed my arms. “Eva, there will always be something. A birthday, a holiday… You must leave him for good.”
“I want children.” Eva hung her head as I approached her from behind. “I’ve always wanted children.”
I could taste her desperation in the air as tension swirled between us. I’d known for a while Eva felt strongly for me, the way I felt for her.
But a union between a Dark One and a Vampire would do nothing but present us with hurt feelings when a bond failed to take place. We could not mate with one another.
And children were an impossibility.
“I can’t give you that,” I whispered, setting my hand on her shoulders. She gripped my fingertips. I shuddered from her warm touch.
Eva turned, her eyes green and beautiful as they gazed up into my cold depths. “We could adopt.”
I smiled at that. “Humans adopt. And you and I… will never be.”
“Immortality.” She wrapped her arms around my neck. I never allowed such liberties. “Not for the faint of heart, hmm Cassius?”
“No.” The temptation to kiss her was too strong to deny any longer, my mouth descended, fusing with hers, creating a hum of energy between us as her blood heated out of control, my touch cooled her as fangs descended past her top lips.