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Elise’s voice broke Blake’s arhtened around her
"Edle, because I thought if Ed the to fear fro with Eded Becah my heart I stared into his eyes the whole ti h the pain, and at last I fought back Edmond’s neck snapped when he hit the wall The others were injured, but they lived They ran away, and I left my house to live below the train station in the tunnels I’ve mostly avoided people ever since, because if I didn’t care about anyone, then no one could hurt me"
Chapter Eleven
Elise waited for Blake’s reaction Only Mencheres knew this part of her life, but as a vampire and her sire, he was obviously biased when it came to his opinion of what she’d done What would Blake think, knowing she’d killed her hu day?
"I can’t believe he’d do that to you," Blake said His hands never paused in their soothing path along her back "I understand why Edet that But I will never understand why he tried to kill you when he came back How could Edmond do that to you, noinside Elise burst It must have been her last line of eh her left her dizzy with their intensity Who would have thought this virtual stranger’s acceptance would be the grail of forgiveness she’d sought all these long, lonely decades? And as it that she’d only found him now, just to have to lose him so cruelly in the next two days?
"I lost soht out of the ar, didn’t have a clue how to ot a job in co a pretty successful broker on Wall Street Gail finished college and began teaching She wanted to start a fa in nored whatto knohat you had"
Elise was fa when she was huain with Ed that when Blake died, she’d lose everything once more Why couldn’t there be another way to defeat the de hih for her to look at him "Will you drink from me?"
"What?" She couldn’t have been hed "I don’t have ht But I’d like to think so of me will last Ifas you do"
Fresh tears came to her eyes How could she feel so o, she’d been empty inside?
" but only if you want to," Blake continued "I don’t know if the de to-"
Elise sealed herhis sentence off Blake’s heart began to beat with an excited, increased pace that heightened her hunger She let her tongue probe his neck, tasting his skin Caressing his pulse Deciding just where she’d penetrate with her fangs
Blake’s breathing accelerated, his chest rubbing hers with its rapid movement His hands clenched on her back in the saue
"Is this, ahh, going to hurt?" he asked, his voice catching when she pressed her fangs against his throat
Elise ss pierce hi of his skin and the hot, luscious blood that followed Blake shuddered, a groan escaping hiainst her s spread farther into his bloodstrea, deep suction
Blake’s back arched and he gasped Eliseher Igniting every preternatural sense in her She took in another s, getting as ripped her as she did by the sweet taste of his blood His breath caainst her mouth mirrored by his heartbeat next to her brsts The rich, spicy scent of hi her to take rabbed his head, arching his neck farther back, and bit into hihthis blood, she drew her thu and held the cut to the holes she’d made They closed before the final sounds faded from Blake
She leaned back to see his face His eyes were closed, dark strands of hair tuic-and surprised expression on his face
His eyes opened in the next moment, coriander blue and beautiful "That didn’t hurt at all," he said, a grin tugging at his ht and filled with the unexpected happiness inside her
The smell of sulfur woke her Blake had fallen asleep in her ar on the narrow pullout that masqueraded as a bed Elise wasn’t drowsy She didn’t want toti stench enveloped Blake, her are filled her She was prepared to keep the de-so she was taken aback when all the demon did was open his eyes
"You and I need to talk," Xaphan said in a low, gravelly voice
Elise watched with loathing as Blake’s skin turned that waxy, sallow color, and red replaced the lovely blue in his eyes
"I don’t think so," Elise growled
His lips curled back in a condescending sneer "Stupid little va this h she knew better, hope sparked in her "How? You’ll willingly leave hiet away, but then Blake would be free God forgive her, she would be okay with that
"If I could do that, do you think I’d still be here, kept by two bloodsucking vermin? I’m too deeply buried inside this body to leave while he still has life, vaain with you"
Don’t listen You can’t bargain with evil It will alin if you do
"What’s your offer?" Elise asked softly
Those ive you the rest of this et us away from the other vampire When the mortal eventually dies, then I’ll be free to find a better home"
"Liar," Elise bit off "You’d try to kill Blake as soon as we got off this train"
Xaphan sighed The sulfur sed Elise if she’d still been human
"The years this mortal has left are noto you, don’t they? This is a fair offer If you refuse, try to force me onto the salt flats, all of you will die You can’t hope to beat me; I am one of the first Fallen I was around before Cain was even turned into a vampire"
Icy fear slid up Elise’s spine as she stared into the de left of Blake in the with red elimpse into hell How could she and Mencheres think to kill so as old, as powerful, as Xaphan? What if all of them did die on the salt flats, their bodies left to rot under the harsh sun, because she didn’t take the only chance they had at surviving? Could she truly kill Blake anyway, after what he’d co Blake with her for forty, fifty, maybe even sixty years That would be more happiness than she’d ever allowed herself to believe she’d find in all her undead lifeti Blake to the salt flats Maybe if she took his deal now, in the future, they’d find another way to vanquish Xaphan without killing Blake or letting the demon possess someone else
Really, wasn’t this the only possible solution, even if itwith a devil?