to her mouth. Her lips parted automatically, her body craving the immortal essence running through my veins. Yet somehow it didn’t seem to be enough, the scent of deterioration thick in the air. I recognized it because I’d smelled it so many times throughout the millennia, that sickly sweet aroma of a human on the precipice of death.
It didn’t make any sense.
Damien returned with the towels, laying one over her forehead and the other across her neck. His expression remained stoic, but I caught a flicker of concern in his gaze. He smelled her imminent death just as I did.
“I’ve given her blood every damn day,” I told him. “She should be closer to immortal than mortal.”
“Perhaps you gave her too much,” he suggested.
“Too much?” I repeated. There was no such thing as “too much.” “That’s impossible.”
“Mortals are fragile,” he added. “Their reactions vary. The only foolproof method is to turn one immortal entirely.”
His words rolled around in my head, the truth unraveling behind my eyes.
The only foolproof method is to turn one immortal entirely.
In any other situation, I wouldn’t even consider that alternative. But Willow didn’t fit the definition of ordinary circumstances. She was spectacular. Unique. Mine.
“You’re right,” I realized out loud. “There’s only one method to ensure she survives.”
“Oh, no,” Damien said. “That’s not what I meant. I mean, fuck, Ryder. You’re the one who taught me that mortals are meant to die. It’s why we don’t get attached, remember?”
I did. And I still agreed with that sentiment. However… “This one is different for me.”
“I said the same thing about Izzy.”
“And she’s still alive,” I pointed out. Most thought she was dead, but that was another conversation entirely. “Willow can’t be an Erosita, Damien.” Her body had been defiled by the lycans, and even before that at the university. Only virgins could be a vampire’s life-mate.
“I know. I get that. However, turning her goes against the Blood Alliance. Lilith might be able to look the other way in how you rule the territory, but this will cross the line.”
“I couldn’t give two fucks about Lilith’s edicts.” She could kick rocks, for all I cared. “This isn’t about her. This is about Willow.”
“A human you’ve known for a handful of weeks,” he snapped. “Do you even hear yourself? This is insane, even for you.” He began to pace, his shoulders tight with disapproval.
I considered Willow once more, found her glassy blue eyes staring up at me as if I existed in a dream, not reality. Her lips only half-heartedly worked over my wrist, her body shutting down with each passing second. Soon she would resemble a corpse, the warrior inside her gone forever. I tried to visualize it, to make myself see what needed to happen.
Damien was right.
This was the reason we didn’t get attached.
Yet somewhere along the way, this female had seduced a foreign part of me. It might only be temporary, but even a few passing moments of the sensations she awoke within me were worth breaking a couple more rules.
I’d lived too long to deny myself something so precious.
“I need more time with her,” I whispered, holding her dying gaze. “I don’t accept that this is her fate.”
“What is it with this girl?” Damien demanded, drawing my attention to him. “She’s beautiful, yes. But why her? There are almost a dozen willing females upstairs waiting for a chance to warm your bed. Why this one?”
“She makes me feel alive,” I told him, my voice hardening. “And I’m not done with her yet.” I probably sounded like a petulant child whose toy had just been yanked away, but I didn’t give a fuck. What was the point of having the ability to save someone if I refused to use it?
“Okay, and what happens when you are?” he pressed.
I couldn’t answer that. It also wasn’t important right now.
“I want to save her,” I said instead, my decision made. It really wasn’t up to him whether I did so or not. Willow was my pet, not his. And I had the ability to cure her, so I would. What happened after that would be discussed at a later point when our current situation was fixed.
“She’s really gotten under your skin,” Damien marveled, studying me intently. “I’ve never seen you so enamored with a human before.”
“I need a place to take her to perform the change,” I informed him, ignoring his side commentary. Maybe I had lost my head over the female on the bed. I’d evaluate it later, after