Page 69 of High Noon

She nodded. “I agree, but it’s not just mine; it’s Kohana’s, Tremew’s, and Tanuk’s. It’s not just about me. Why do you think Kohana is really here, Enoch? If you turn me, he’s going to try to kill me. He’s seen what I’m capable of as a vampire. He has to protect his loved ones… from me.”

A growl built in my chest.

“Stop,” she said in a tired voice.

“I love you,” I vowed, searching her hazel eyes for a sign that she felt as strongly. She tightened her grip on my hand. “I don’t want to lose you.”

“I love you, too, Enoch. I know you don’t understand, but I can’t let myself be turned into something I hate just to make you happy. Not when I know what will happen if I became a vampire.”

“You don’t know!” I argued doggedly, begging her to see my point of view.

“My visions showed that I killed everyone, Enoch. Even you. Your friends. Titus. Terah. Abram and Asa. And then you. I never want to be that version of Eve. If I die, so be it. I want to die the person I really am.” She shifted over to the side of the bed. “Lay with me?”

Part of me was afraid to lay down beside her. Afraid she’d die. Afraid I wouldn’t be able to fight the intense instinct to turn her so she wouldn’t. Because my need for her was greater than my sense of self preservation, I settled beside her. She curled into my chest and sighed.

With my chin on her head, I inhaled her sweet scent. She was warm, her suit softly humming beneath the clothes I’d found for her. “It doesn’t make sense,” I remarked.

“What doesn’t?”

“That your suit can speed up the healing process for everything else, but it’s not helping you now that something is threatening your life. I hate your suit.”

“I know,” she replied. “And it wasn’t just my original suit, it’s this one, too. Or I guess I should say it has nothing to do with the suit you hate, and everything to do with me.”

“If you think it would help, I’ll hunt more clones and retrieve theirs for you. Perhaps two suits were faulty, but a third would work.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think it will.”

Warm rays of sunlight poured in through the west-facing window and dust motes floated through the air. Eve watched them like they were delicate creatures, dancing only for her amusement. A tear fell from her eye. Then another. They fell from mine, too.

When she kissed my lips I tasted their salty flavor, as well as every ounce of the sadness they carried within them. She was saying goodbye now in case she didn’t get the chance to later.

I was holding on for dear life.

Her knuckles grazed my jaw and she traced her fingers down the column of my throat before her hand fell open and her breathing became slow and steady. As she slept, I closed my eyes and reveled in the feel of her. I stroked her back and toyed with the silken tips of her hair, watching the simple motion of her breathing.

How much time do we have before it stops? At this rate, it won’t be long.

My heart ached at the thought. If she died, if she left me for good, I wasn’t sure what I would do, who I would become, or of what I’d be capable.

I’d want to tear the stars from the heavens to avenge her.

* * *

Downstairs,Titus and Maru were talking with Mary. After they told her what was happening, Mary trudged up the steps, intent on making Eve see that she was no damned monster. But when Mary opened the door and saw her sleeping, the anger that simmered beneath her skin eased. “She looks terrible. How long’s she been like this?”

“She hasn’t been here long,” I answered softly.

“The hunky blond downstairs said they’re gonna get pulled home soon.”

I nodded.

“Will she live until then?”

I scrubbed a hand down my face as I sat up, careful not to wake Eve. “I’m not sure.”

A speculative gleam entered Mary’s eye. “Turn her.”

Shaking my head, I answered, “It’s not what she wants.”

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