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She fought to keep the tears at bay She wouldn’t display such weakness in front of hiine as long as you’ve been--"
"The difference in you and I is that I didn’t choose this"
Ta to lectureand stupid I’d been taken into a secret ical order and was so proud of myself and what I’d achieved I had no concept of the powers I was playing with or what I was asking for"
Cain downed the rest of the brandy and put the snifter on the ground, then eased closer His nearness made her heart flutter He was the perfect predator, with prey that begged to be taken She’d put her shields back up--force of habit But even without thrall, his effect on a er hair," he said conversationally, his hand ot chills as he stroked her skin, but she couldn’t let that corow it out real quick while ait for a psycho to gruesolad to see you have your priorities in line"
He laughed "I don’t know if I hate you or admire you I don’t normally let anyone speak toher palht that grew into an energetic ball that hissed like live electricity "You think you can takeyourself since the day youto innuendo that would have made him sound like a self-iht to the table everything he implied and more
She sed around the luaze The energy ball whimpered and died in her hand At least she hadn’t whilad to see you’veyou"
In any other situation, it would have been about theher a favor It wasn’t the favor of his precious presence or sex with him; it was the favor of a painless death to help her escape her pursuer and break the cycle she’d been trapped in for so long she wanted to stop counting the years
"Tell me, to satisfy my curiosity before we do this, how exactly did you pull it off? How did you become immortal?"
She had no choice but to tell hiive her what she wanted "Jack was our leader He was the one as obsessed with it We call it the fountain of youth now, but even before that version of the legend, there were stories about waters that gave eternal life We found it, deep inside a cavern: a saltwater pool Down in the depths, in the dark, we found this jellyfish that didn’t die"
Cain nodded "I’ve heard of it"
"Right But back then, nobody knew about them That here the species started They’ve spread since then The water at the bottom fed back into the ocean Jack was convinced he felt the energy ere looking for there, but e did a spell to reveal it, it was in the sea creatures, not the water The whole coven worked together to create the ritual I wrote the chant"
She may as well have said I bear more responsibility for what has happened than h to know that Deone quiet,the opportunity to throw condemnation
When he didn’t interrupt her with a sic like this usually requires blood of the creature to seal it We used the jellyfish itself, but they are bloodless, so we sealed the ic with our own blood It may be another reason Jack is after us all"
"Explain better," he said, growing iht was a coy explanation
"The power of immortality was diffused to all of us If I were crazy like hiether if I could kill everyone else in the coven You don’t knoho the other two are, do you?"
Cain shook his head "We don’t"
Tam stood and paced in front of the couch, unable to concentrate with hiive you names of everyone, but we’ve all lost touch After Whitechapel it was safer not to congregate together We were too easy to track that way Everyone has probably changed their names dozens of times, perhaps even the way they look I have no doubt Jack has And I don’t knohich of us he’s already killed and which reh not much"
"What was your name before?"
"Tamar It’s a biblical name In the first few centuries I was so enamored with myself and my new ability--to cycle and not lose memories--that I renamed myself Tamara In certain areas of India itironic But I’m fresh out of irony no I just want to end it"
"I told Anthony and the rest that I’d protect you"
She stopped pacing "And you are protectingme protects me and everybody else You and I both know this whole death thing is a sha a life that has run on far too long Don’t aross"
"You say it, but you don’t ued with him, but he’d alreadyher back onto the couch Startled, she let out a sigh against his lips
"Let down your shields," he growled
Tam pulled back, suspicion in her eyes "Why?"
"Aren’t you curious about what it’s really like to die in the arms of an incubus? Don’t you want the whole show? What other danger could I possibly pose for you if you’re e your own demise?"
She was curious
She closed her eyes and tried to relax, breathing deeply The shields stubbornly stayed in place, as if they were arguing with her--her last bit of self-preservation instincts co in to protect her After her periodic searches for someone to end this, she’d finally found the one who could do it Cain was old enough and strong enough As ive her the best death It wasn’t possible to go out of this world in a ainst the idea of so willingly going into Cain’s ar her life The shields had to go, or she’d end up fighting hiic until she was tapped Ta her o down around her
The es of the two of theether filled her ripped the sides of the couch as she felt the effects of his thrall It was a potent cocktail of warasm and alcohol buzz rolled into one
"Hold onto ripped her wrists and moved her hands to his shoulders His well- not to be taken by s black eyes, so dark--like pools she could drown and die in And very soon she would He looked at her so intensely, she thought she ht expire from the power of that stare alone At so her shields, he’d divested hi She’d had a dim sense of it when she’d touched him and was disappointed she’d been too overwhelmed to enjoy the show