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A cruel joke, to offer hiain, no sound rose in his throat

Time passed; how much, he didn’t know Time had ceased to exist in the thick darkness that held hi he had ever known, this blackness It oppressed hihed hiht in some hellish limbo from which there was no return

And then he heard Mara’s voice, felt her presence there, beside hih the darkness Mara The queen of their kind Surely her ancient blood would revive hireedily, and like Rafe’s blood, it eased the pain for the moment, but it didn’t draw him out of the darkness Only Savanah could do that

Ah, Savanah, with hair like spun ht and eyes as blue as the sky Savanah, who should have taken his head and had given him her love instead It was her blood he craved, her voice he longed to hear, her touch he ached for

Savanah Only her blood, thick and warm and filled with life, could rescue him from the darkness

Savanah stared at the place where the two Vas she would never get used to, like Vampires who could appear and disappear in the blink of an eye But at thein her father’s bed

Going into the kitchen, she filled a pan ater and then, with some trepidation, she went into her father’s rooht Rane lay as before, eyes closed, barely breathing, un him was no easy task When it was done, she could only stare at him His wounds still hadn’t healed, but at least they didn’t look any worse

Expelling a sigh, she went into the bathroo to Rane’s side, she washed hi, as she did so, why neither Rafe nor Mara had suggested it Of course, they’d both had other things on their minds, or maybe they had just assu Rane, she changed the sheets Again, no easy task, rolling an inert body fro and breathing heavily by the time she finished, but he looked more co the covers up over his chest, she smoothed a lock of hair from his brow, then bent and kissed his cheek

“If this was a fairy tale and I was a princess, maybe you’d wake up,” she murmured

But it wasn’t a fairy tale, she wasn’t a princess, and he didn’t wake up

With a sigh, she dumped the pan of bloody water down the toilet, then turned out the lights and closed the door behind her She carried the pan into the kitchen and rinsed it out, then went upstairs where she took a quick shower, slipped into her nightgown, and brushed her teeth She stood there aat herself in the ht’s events replayed in her mind If she called Jolie and told her what had happened, Jolie would never believe it in a million years If Mr Van Black printed the story in the paper, people would assu at her reflection in the h, she went to bed and pulled the covers up to her chin, only to lie there, staring up at the ceiling, while the house settled around her She heard the wind rustling the leaves of the tree outside her , the tick-tick of the clock on the nightstand, a distant siren, the howling of a dog

But it was thoughts of Rane that kept her awake as one hour slipped into the next Rafe and Mara had assured her that Rane would recover, but what if they rong?

Rising, Savanah pulled on her robe, then padded barefooted down the stairs She paused at the foot of the banister, wondering if Rafe and Mara had returned, but she had no sense of their presence as she moved quickly down the hallway to her father’s room and opened the door

Rane lay on the bed as before, un hi Rafe and Mara had both given Rane their blood and it hadn’t wrought any visible change in his condition What made her think that her blood, her weak, mortal blood, would make a difference when the blood of the Queen of the Vampires had failed to heal hi into the roo Rane’s name, she stroked his brow, and then lifted his head into her lap Too late, she realized she should have stopped in the kitchen for a knife hich to make an incision in her flesh since she was pretty sure she couldn’t do it with her thuet up, then remembered that her father had always kept a pocketknife in his nightstand, a keep-sake fro the drawer, she picked up the knife The blade was s a deep breath, shewhat Rafe had done, she held her wrist to Rane’s lips and h the pain as cleanly as a surgeon’s scalpel Like a blind pup, he followed the smell, then latched on to the source The war blood, pure and fresh, as rich and smooth as the finest wine The beat of her heart was like music to his ears This hat he needed, what he had yearned for The pain fled, leaving hirateful

He , oblivion

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Savanah woke late the following afternoon She had spent the night at Rane’s side, wanting to be there if he regained consciousness It was a strange experience, sleeping beside a Va what her parents would think if they knew she was in love with one of the Undead Of course, she knehat they would think They would be appalled

Vampires had killed her parents; she had sworn to follow in herRane’s head, she had given hiain and as often as needed to prolong his existence

After she showered and dressed, she went into the kitchen to fix a late breakfast, surprised at how hungry and thirsty she was No doubt her increased appetite was due to the fact that she had given Rane her blood the night before She didn’t kno ht-headed and unsteady on her feet when it was over, and terribly thirsty, so e juice