“I feel awake. Constantly. Like every cell in my body is humming. My vision’s sharper. I hear things I didn’t even know made sound. I don’t get tired. I don’t feel cold or hot.”
His brows lift slightly, but he says nothing, just watches me like I’m the answer to a question he didn’t know he was asking.
“There’s blood in me now, but it’s not hunger. It’s power. It fuels everything—the regeneration, the energy, the strength. I’m not like you,” I say gently. “I wasn’t born from a curse. I was made. Engineered. A different kind of forever.”
His mouth parts like he wants to say something, but no words come out. Instead, he leans down and kisses the spot just beneath my collarbone.
Then another. And another.
His lips skim down to the curve of my breast, the center of my sternum. “My miracle,” he murmurs.
Lower, to the ridge of my hip bone. “My death and my resurrection.”
I thread my fingers through his hair as he kisses lower still, reverent and slow.
“I would’ve walked through fire for you,” he whispers against my skin. “But now I think you are the fire.”
His mouth worships every inch of me like I’m something holy. And I let him.
Because I am his miracle.
And he is mine.
Chapter 12
“She’s in bad shape,” Juliet says as we step out of the smoothie shop. With a cup in either hand, we both walk out of the busy store and cross to the table outside.
Damn. If it weren’t for the difference in hair and eye color, Ares and Roman look like they could be brothers. The broody expressions, the tattoos, they’re both tall and built like they grew up in an MMA arena.
I extend Ares’ smoothie to him and sink into the seat beside him. He takes it, though he doesn’t immediately set into it. He’s been fairly quiet since we met up with Juliet and Roman twenty minutes ago. I’ve caught Ares up on all the details of their presence in the city, including the impossible reality that there’s anecromanceraround. He’s still processing all of that information.
And that was after Florence and Clementine came over this morning. I’ve never seen Florence cry before today. But her relief at having her brother back was overwhelming. Guess that’s what happens when you’re the only blood family each other has left.
“The internal bleeding was extensive,” Juliet continues as she sits beside Roman. “She broke five ribs, she has a skull fracture,and she was definitely concussed. She’s probably going to be in the hospital for two weeks.”
My throat is tight. It feels like there’s a barb wedged in it. “Is she conscious?”
Juliet nods. “Yeah, they worked on her for about two hours, and she woke up a few hours after that.”
“So, she’s going to live, right?” I ask. My words sound funny. They’re too strained, too tight. Too emotional.
Juliet studies me. She’s still trying to get a feel for the situation and everything going on here. “She is.”
I nod in relief, looking around at the bustling city around us. “I don’t know how we’ll live in the same city together after everything that’s happened. I can’t forgive her for what she’s done. She’ll hate vampires even more now after James lost his damn mind like that. New York was her dream, but it’s always been my home.”
Juliet reaches across the table, laying her hand over mine. “Relationships are complicated. Sometimes you think you know someone, and it turns out you don’t.”
Who betrayed Juliet? What’s her story?
“When people put your city at risk, you don’t let them stay,” Roman says. He, like the other two Born at this table, is wearing some serious sunglasses that mean business. He’s already difficult to read. Having his eyes obscured makes it even harder. “Sounds to me like Ophelia needs a change of scenery.”
“I don’t think I can just kick her out of Manhattan because we’re in a fight,” I say, my eyes narrowing at Roman.
“It’s a hell of a lot more than a fight when someone goes and roots around in another person’s mind and makes them kill others,” Roman says, his brows gathering. “That was an outright declaration of war.”
“He’s right,” Juliet says cautiously. “Someone who could go to that kind of extreme is dangerous. You can’t let her stay in the same city you live in.”
“We could send her back to Chicago with you,” Ares says, and there’s a tiny hint of a smirk pulling on one corner of his mouth.
