of my lips. I didn’t know what I’d do without him. I’d returned to the Noire region just a week ago on the cusp of death, and he’d been by my side ever since. Being my Blood Mate it was his duty, but it was more than that. We were more than that.
He’d done everything he could to help me recover and to make my being here more bearable. I fed from him until the fasting began, but he still offered when he sensed a wave of exhaustion or hunger wash over me. It was a hard offer to refuse. Never before had I tasted anything more delectable than his blood. Just the smell of it set my body alight with hunger and passion.
Even when the servants were too busy with reconstruction, he took it upon himself to repair my room. All the rubble and debris had been swept away, and everything was cleaned. It wasn’t quite what it used to be, but the effect was the same. Tears slid down my cheeks when he revealed his surprise. The part that really broke my heart, and mended it at the same time, was what he did with Louie. He gave the fur ball a bath, washing him as clean as a newborn kitten for the first time in ages. Louie hated every minute of it, as was evident by the scratches up and down Arrick’s arms, but I couldn’t have been happier in that moment.
As if sensing my thoughts, Louie meowed at my feet telling me it was time for bed. I scooped him up and sleepily dragged myself over to my mattress. The second my head hit the pillow, the urge to succumb to slumber tugged at my eyelids, but Arrick’s weight on the bed beside me had me popping them open again.
“What’s going to happen tomorrow?” I asked in a whisper before he had a chance to speak.
His face took on a faraway expression before he replied. “Tomorrow we honor our dead.”
“What happens when a vampire dies?” I wondered it before. The anti-vampire activists said we had no souls, but that obviously wasn’t true. Did we go to heaven like humans believed, or somewhere else?
When he finally brought his eyes back to mine, they were softer. “When a vampire dies, they are never truly gone. Our essence is still connected to our body after we pass. Some say that even in death we can visit our bodies and hear the prayers of the living.”
I didn’t like his answer. “So, our souls are trapped? Like a soul stone?”
“Soul stone?”
“I was thinking about it, and that’s what they seem like to me. Souls trapped inside a prison.”
He considered what I said.
“No, I don’t think it’s like that. It’s believed that because of our powerful connection to emotions and the world around us, it can never be severed even in death, as long as our body remains in this world.”
That made sense. I definitely felt tethered to my body, like there was more holding me together than just skin and bones.
“That’s why we burned the dark vampires. Their essences can never visit their bodies.”
“Good.” A smirk crept onto my face. He’d explained it to me before the fire, but after having witnessed it, I understood better.
“I’ll be right outside your room if you need me.”
I nodded as he placed a kiss on my cheek. His fingers traced my jawline briefly before he stood up and marched out. I wanted him to stay with me, to sleep beside me through the day, but I didn’t tell him that. I don’t know why. Maybe I was afraid of taking things to the next level, or maybe I was afraid he’d turn me away again. I knew it didn’t make sense. Arrick’s and my relationship had never been better, aside from the state of the world around us. But, as I was drifting off to sleep, I realized the true reason for my hesitation. I was afraid of living in a world without him in it. If I allowed us to get as close I wanted, to fall in love and spend an eternity together, I stood the risk of knowing the utter agony of losing him. After watching Mara spiral downward into a deep pit of despair from the loss of her mate, I wasn’t sure I had the strength to survive that. Could I even survive it now? We were already linked together on a much deeper, more intimate level than any