Page 5 of Eternally Yours

I hurried to get what we needed, but soon realized I didn’t have such magical objects in my apartment. The closest thing I had to a black ceremonial candle was a midnight, perfume-scented candle in the bathroom that I’d been given as a housewarming gift by a human neighbor. But the wax was black, so it’d have to do. I grabbed it and the matches from the bathroom drawer.

Glancing at Cat, who was studying the woman on my bed, I thought about the last thing on the list. A rope.

My balcony’s curtains. They were tied back with a tasseled rope. We could use that.

“Hurry, Nic.” Cat’s warning made my heart thunder faster than a vampire’s should.

I untied the rope and let the curtain fall free. When I gave her the items, she quickly spun the rope into a knot. When she spotted the candle, her nose wrinkled at the overpowering scent.

“It’s all I have,” I told her.

“Let’s just hope it works.”

Then she grabbed the knife. “You’re going to have to slit your wrist again,” she said, passing it to me.

I did so without hesitation this time, the pain quick and sharp. My heightened nerves dulled it some.

Cat coated the rope in my blood, and soon, the wound closed up to nothing more than a faint, pink line across my skin.

“Light the candle,” she instructed, “and say these words.In mortem, et dabo tibi animan.”

Translating the ancient language in my head, I did as she said, the words making my lips tingle as the magic began.In death, I give you life.

With every spoken refrain in the dead language, the life of magic grew in my apartment.

I share my soul with you.

Awake with the other half of my heart.

She lit the match and held it to the candle’s wick. It caught instantly. I took one end of the blood-soaked rope, having no idea of what came next.

Lifting the woman’s hand and wrapping her pale, lifeless fingers around the other end, Cat hesitated.

“What?” I asked her, fearful we’d forgotten something.

“Nic, are you sure about this? Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“Well, no. That’s why I asked you to come. To help me—”

“That’s not what I mean. This ritual… it’ll bind her to you. You’ll be siring a youngling. You’ll be connected forever. Or until death.”

I considered her words. “I don’t want her blood on my hands. I’ll deal with the consequences later.”

“Your father will be furious. Rebirths are chosen carefully. Candidates go through a rigorous selection process. You know this. Only the most influential—”

“Enough. I don’t give a fuck about the rules. Save her. Now!”

She held the dying match to the knot and waited for the flame to take hold. When the fire touched my blood, it sparked and sizzled, the flame turning blue then black. I watched in awe as it traveled down both sides.

Magic radiated over my skin, prickling and biting while at the same time tugging and pulling. It began to hurt, my chest tightening painfully, and when the flames reached my fingers, there was a bright burst of light and blistering pain scorched my palm. I gasped, turning my hand over to see a symbol branded into my flesh—one I recognized from the tapestries and embroidered collars of the high council's ceremonial robes. Three interlocking circles and a cross at its center. Life. Death. And the in-between state we vampires occupy. The mark of immortality.

Slowly, it faded into my skin, disappearing altogether, but I still felt its sting. Cat held open the human’s fingers, too, to show me she bore the same mark now.

Her eyes lifted to me, uncertainty hovering there. “I hope you know what you’re doing, my dear friend,” she said.

I said nothing.

Like with mine, the mark vanished into the woman’s palm. The magic part of the ritual had worked. Now it was up to my blood and the human’s strength to see her through to the end.

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