Page 95 of After Darkness Falls

"I evolved, Jack. I may not have known it, but I was always meant to be this. I've never felt more like myself. My mind, scattered as it is, is finally entirely mine. I found myself. Bash lost who he was."

Words came easier to her now, too. Everything made sense. Her own brain, her strange desires. Even her father's descent into insanity.

She would not have Jack, or anyone else, feel sorry for her now.

Jack nodded. "I'm not sure how to help him now. How to guide him. Tris will turn eventually, but it's different. She's learned to be both a huntsman and a vampire her entire life. Bash…"

Again, she knew what to say.

"Be his friend. That voice at the other end of the phone if he ever calls. But not his boss. If he chooses to be a hunter after he accepts his nature, you'll be the first to know. For now, he's one of us. Trying to accept himself like this is going to take time."

Bash was staying in Levi’s house, and each time she’d visited, he’d been in that very study where she’d given him her blood, on that sofa. Reading. Sleeping. Maybe just avoiding her eyes.

Jack watched her intensely.

"Are you claiming him?"

The word had meaning, she could tell, and she didn't want to make promises she couldn't keep. She tilted her head.

"Are you claiming him as part of your clan, your family? Do you swear you'll take care of him?"

Maybe the old Chloe wasn't quite gone yet. Part of her was terrified at the prospect of being responsible for anyone at all, let alone a brand-new vampire, when she didn't even understand herself what it entailed.

But she wasn't just a newly risen vamp. She was an Eirikrson. The head of the Eirikrsons, as long as their forefather remained stuck in his cave.

Chloe had learned in Immortal History that most vampires no longer had any affiliation—they just lived their lives as they saw fit. But in the old days, almost everyone was sworn to one of the seven houses.

"I'll claim him if he wants to belong to my house," she said. Knowing that Jack was after more than idle words, Chloe added, "I swear it."

He relaxed a little.

"Where were you going with all that?"

She looked down at the boxes in her arms. Heavy as they were, she hadn't noticed them for the last few minutes.

"Oh."

She blushed, ashamed to spell it out. No doubt Jack would think she was crazy.

"I…" She cleared her throat. "I owe someone."

Jack smiled. "Better settle that debt, then. In our world, debts are as dangerous as oaths and curses."

On her way up to Coscnoc, Chloe was annoyed at herself. She'd lied. No debt was leading her feet up the familiar hill and down the long dark path.

When she arrived at the door, she had to walk sideways to fit through it with the cardboard boxes. Finally, she reached the cave under the hill.

Eirikr was sitting on the ground. He looked thinner, far less lively. And surprised. Mostly surprised.

"You're back."

She dropped the three boxes.

"I hope you're handy with a screwdriver? The bed comes in pieces. I'll bring the mattress in a sec. Levi offered to carry it, but I figured you might eat him, so I made him stay behind."

His sharp eyes remained on her, calculating. Trying to see what she wanted from him, she guessed.

She sighed.

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