before kissing my palm. “I know you feel the same way. We should take our time.”
“I don’t know what came over me, to be honest. It was intense,” I mutter. Intense isn’t a good enough word for how that felt, but it is close.
“I’ve heard of blood magic, but I didn’t understand it before now,” he whispers and clears his throat. “Blood magic is the reaction when a vampire bites someone who wants them back. It can make everything so much more intense.”
“I feel that,” I reply with rosy cheeks, and he laughs, pulling me to him and hugging me tightly as he kisses the top of my head.
“You need me, and I’m here. Just ask,” he promises me, and I rest my head next to his heart. I will think this a million times and it will never be enough: Thallon Cross is the kindest soul I’ve ever met.
And I love that he is mine.
Chapter 39
“What do you mean I’m not welcome in this lesson yet?” I question the snooty nose woman who looks down at me. She is seriously tall, like well over seven feet, and I feel like a tiny bug, wearing a blue T-shirt that says “I’m over it” with a rainbow under the words.
“Miss Lightson, I was made aware Master Raloxisys has given you several books to read. These books will need to be read before you start my class halfway through the year. The history of vampires is long, but the beginning must be understood,” she tells me. “Come back when you have read the books.”
Without another word, she shuts the door on me, leaving me outside alone. Dammit. I storm back to my room, which is empty as Thallon is walking around the academy with Henry to get some movement in his leg. I’m so happy he is up and moving around, but I almost wish he was here to read these books with me, because I’ve ignored them for a reason. And the reason has everything to do with the island of “Denial Central” I’m currently living on. While I’m shopping on that island, I sneak another sweet tube of Parma Violets out from under the sink. Grabbing the books, I sit on the bed, crossing my legs and leaning back against the headboard as I open the first page. A white note, much newer than the yellowing pages of the book, falls out onto my lap, and I pick it up.
“Thank you.”
Knowing it’s from Ren just makes me mad, and I throw the note onto the bed before turning the first page of the book open and popping a sweet into my mouth. The book has been transcribed from Latin to English on modern paper stuck on the plain side next to the Latin, making it easy for me to understand. The first half of the book explains how the mating bond between vampires is very instinctual, and most vampires lose control the moment they meet their mate. The longer a mate bond is ignored, the female vampire could die a horrible death. Even though this explains what Ren did, I’m still mad. I can’t forgive him that easily, not when he is hell-bent on revenge as his priority over me. And I’m too scared to ask him to choose me, because the answer wouldn’t be what I wanted, and I know that. Ren is living for vengeance, and what am I compared to that? The book goes from a page of writing to a page with the same painting I saw in the angel’s library, but instead of two men standing next to a pregnant woman...they are angels. One with black wings and one with white.
What the hell?
I quickly look at the writing and start to read.
“It is said a goddess walked the earth alone for many years, her sisters fighting a war she wanted no part in. Knowing her sisters would destroy each other in the end, the goddess decided she wanted to be alone. Travelling around the world, she found two men with wings like birds and eyes that glowed with the power of the gods; they were angels. She believed a man she had once loved and changed into a god long ago went to the stars and bred a new race…and called them the Angels. She soon fell in love with them both, and with that love came a child. The child was not born well, the power of angels and gods in a small body