Page 49 of Until the Heart Stops
But she was already nodding, desperate for whatever might make the pain stop. Unlike when I’d found him in the woods, he did not offer her his throat. Instead, he gave her his wrist. Lilith hesitantly wrapped her hands around it.
“Drink, love, it will help,” I said, caressing her forehead.
Her teeth pierced Seth’s flesh, though it took a little more effort. I watched her lids flutter; her body relaxed with the first pull of his blood. As he had with me, he cradled the back of her head as she drank, leaning low to whisper in her ear. The words were not meant for me, but I felt them through the bond. Comfort. Warmth. Safety.
Seth withdrew his arm, brushing his thumb across her brow as I helped her lie back onto the pillows. “Sleep, little one,” he encouraged and at once she fell into unconsciousness.
We stood in silence for a long moment, Seth holding her hand while I ran my hands through her hair.
“I am sorry,” he said finally, turning to look at me. “Sorry that this night caused you such terror and pain.”
My breath blew out in a gust. “Mael is dead and Lilith lives. That is what matters.”
He hummed, one of his heavy hands coming down on my shoulder. “Yes, and yet still you suffer.”
Did I? I looked deep within myself, past the bond and over the walls I’d built. There was the memory of tonight, the image of the dagger in Lilith’s womb, the blood pouring from her mouth. It was a sight I knew I would see for decades when I retired to my daily rest.
“I would endure endless suffering if it meant she was safe.” With a sigh, I looked at him. “She must be safe. I will not allow her in harm’s way.”
Seth nodded solemnly, squeezing my shoulder once. “Then I suppose the time is right for another uprising.”
Chapter 28
Iwoke in darkness.
My breath whistled through my teeth and I jerked, hand flying up only to meet stone. Oh,goddess, I was back in that coffin, back in the ritual room with Mael on the other side of the lid. Magic whispered across my skin but it was distant, out of reach. I tried to grasp for it all the same, only for it to slip through my fingers.
“Shhh, love.”
A hand curled around my shoulders, tugging me close. My head wasn’t resting on a funerary pillow, it was a chest with scents of apples and spice curling around me. Lips brushed my brow and fingers tucked my hair away from my face.
“The sun has not yet fully set,” Callum continued. “We cannot risk it for at least a few months.”
The sun hadn’t set…
Memories poured over me like water past the coffin in the ritual room. The dagger in my belly, the pain, the blood, Mael’s surprise as I stabbed him in the heart. And after. The changing, more blood. An immortal who was somuch more than merely a vampire, made by Amayah herself.
Callum must have sensed my panic because he tensed as well. “You…Goddess, Lilith. You were dying. I-I had no choice.”
I frowned, pressing my cheek against his chest. All the normal aches and pains were gone, along with the bone-aching weariness I usually felt upon waking. In fact, I felt better rested than I had since I was a child.
“Are you angry?”
Shaking my head, I traced the line of his bare torso. “No…I am not.”
When I hesitated, he shifted me up so my head fit into the crook of his neck. “But?”
Again, I reached for my magic. The small pool it had once been now felt like a single drop—or like I was viewing a body of water from a great distance.
“Your magic will return with time and practice,” he answered, plucking the thought from my mind. “I will be here to help should you want it.”
I pressed a kiss to the juncture of his shoulder and throat, wondering at the texture beneath my lips. Before it had felt hard like stone, cool to the touch. But now it felt like silk and I couldn’t help but brush my mouth over it again and again.
“Drink,” he murmured, cradling the back of my head and guiding me up to his throat.
We shifted so we lay on our sides within the coffin, the debilitating darkness all but forgotten—especially when I could see him so clearly in my mind through our bond. For a brief moment, the once human part of me recoiled at the idea of biting Callum before my new vampiric instincts took hold.
The moment his blood hit my tongue I moaned,pressing tighter against him. His answering rumble of pleasure skated across my chest, spiraling down to the apex of my thighs. His blood was thick, sweet, and it quenched a thirst I had not known I suffered from. He stroked my hair as I drank, his other hand sliding down my arm, caressing my cheek, touching me with soft reassurances.
