Now, she was going to become one of them.
Rolling the parchment back up, she tucked it into the waistband of her pants and started down. She knew Braith was there before she spotted him below with Jack. His head was tilted back as he watched her descend. She dropped soundlessly from the tree. He looked as if he was going to grab for her, but his hands remained at his sides as his fingers twitched.
She opened her hand to reveal the brooch. Jack’s startled gaze darted back to the top of the tree before returning to her hand. She pulled Daniel’s drawing out and handed it to Braith. His eyes stayed on her as he unrolled it, he finally glanced at the drawing, back at her, and then his eyes shot back to the parchment in his hand. Jack peered over his shoulder at it.
“It’s from the lake.”
“I remember,” Braith murmured his brow furrowed as he studied it.
“Daniel stumbled upon us by accident. He said that was the day he realized what was between us was real, and that it was more than just love. I gave it to William to keep it safe; my father discovered it and kept it. He put it there with the brooch so that I would have it again, so that I would know that he accepted this, accepted me and you. That he supported whatever choice I made.” She tilted her head back to look into the tree again. “You can see the palace from up there; I used to watch it when I was a child, and wonder. I don’t wonder anymore.”
Braith and Jack were both staring at her now. Braith’s hands shook slightly as he held the drawing. She opened the brooch and pinned it at her neck to hold the cloak together. “No more doubts, no more waiting. I’m ready. Today.”
Chapter 21
She was ready for the pain, braced for it. Braith had told her over and over again that it would hurt, that it may even last for days. She’d experienced pain before though, she could handle it.
She wasn’t ready for the bliss that came before the pain. The floating, drifting sensation that came from holding him, sustaining him, giving him what he coveted, and had so often denied himself. He’d never have to deny himself again when she wasn’t human any longer. She’d be able to give him as much as he needed whenever he needed it. It may not fill him in the same way as human blood would, but hers would always be the only blood he craved. Her heart hammered with the realization, excitement tingled through her as he drank from her not in greedy gulps, but in gentle pulls that shook her to her very core.
Her fingers curled through his hair even as she felt a weakening in her body that signaled her life was draining away. She hadn’t experienced this, not even the first time, when he’d been so eager to have her that he’d lost control and nearly killed her. He would kill her now. The thought didn’t terrify her, she thought she was a little insane for that, but she couldn’t find fear in his arms.
She felt the weakening pulse of her heart as he pulled away from her. His fingers were tender on her face as they stroked over her. She tried to open her eyes to look at him, but she was tired and her lids were unbelievably heavy. She felt the press of his wrist against her lips and she opened them to receive him.
“I love you.” The words were whispered against her ear, she yearned to return them but his blood was flowing into her. “Don’t leave me, please don’t leave me.”
They echoed what he’d said to her that first time when she’d mistakenly thought she’d been dreaming the words. She couldn’t find the words to tell him that she would never leave him and that this was far easier than he’d said it would be. His fangs sank into her once more as he continued to let his blood flow into her.
Her body stiffened as her heart skipped a beat, that hadn’t happened the first time. She tried to remain relaxed, tried to keep her body as still as possible so that he wouldn’t feel the anxiety that shot through her. She knew that he already had though as his hand constricted in her hair and he hesitated for a moment. She worried that he would retreat, that he would change his mind and wouldn’t continue.
Then, with a low growl, he bit down harder and she realized that there wouldn’t have been any stopping him, not at this point.
Aria inhaled sharply, her body became completely rigid; her eyes flew open involuntarily as her fingers constricted on his head. She was acutely aware of the fact that her heart had stopped beating, and there was no air within her lungs. A scream stuck in her chest, she didn’t have the breath to release it. She hadn’t expected this nothingness, this waiting, this feeling of being trapped within her own body, unable to move, but still fully aware of her surroundings, and thoughts.
He was above her, his eyes searching and petrified. She was looking back at him, she was seeing him, but her eyes were as frozen as the rest of her. They were locked upon him, still as stone, as immobile as if she were actually dead.
It hit her like a ton of bricks, she was dead, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.
She took it back, this wasn’t easy. She would have far preferred agony over this frozen uncertainty. He’d said there would be rigor mortis, but was this it? So soon? It took hours after a person died for rigor mortis to sink in; she knew that, she’d seen it. Although, this wasn’t a normal death. She wasn’t dead, not completely. She was confined to a husk that no longer moved and no longer offered her the life support she had once required. She could feel his fingers on her cheeks; even feel the drop of a tear as it landed upon her skin. It left a cool trail on her cheek as it slid toward her neck. Braith was crying. For her, and there was nothing she could do to ease his worry.
She didn’t know how long she was trapped in a world where all she had were her thoughts, none of which were entirely pleasant at the moment. She wanted to cry, wanted to do anything other than just lie here like this. Braith sat with her, his arms around her, his hands on her face, and in her hair. The look on his face, the fright in his eyes was almost as awful as this endless uncertainty.
Then a warming sensation started in the tips of her toes, and gradually began to spread upward. At first it wasn’t unpleasant, and she welcomed anything over the nothingness that had encompassed her. The tingling reminded her of holding her frozen hands over a fire and heating them too quickly as it began to prick at her skin. It quickly became unpleasant, but if she could grit her teeth she could get through it. Unfortunately her mouth wasn’t unfrozen yet.
The tingling worked its way through her arms, up to her shoulders, across her neck, and into her chest. She tried to fist her hands against the pain, they wouldn’t move. Frustration filled her, she tried to scream, she tried to cry; she tried to do anything other than lay here like a useless lump.