I nod.
“Proserpina said she’d take Tali if she willingly separated herself from this world, or if you damned her to the Beyond,” he continues, and I swallow so hard that I’m forced to clear my throat.
Again, I nod.
“You had a condition. What was it?”
I wrap my arms around my waist, turning my gaze away from him as I scan the small hotel room. We arrived thirty minutes ago and I’ve been talking nonstop since. I’m exhausted, hungry—and not just for food. I didn’t feed off of him when he came nor anytime in between, and my Amoro is punishing me for it.
I must be too out of it, because I don’t hear his footsteps as he rounds into the kitchen and stands beside me.
“Can I hold you?” he asks, so genuinely I believe he would heed my request if I told him no.
That is what I want though, for him to hold onto me and never let me go.
“Please.”
He wraps an arm over my shoulders, the other around my head and pulls me tight into his chest. I move my hands behind his back and up his shoulder blades. As he leans against the counter, I rest further into him. His familiar scent of apples and cinnamon wraps around my senses, as if they were a tangible thing. It brings me home, settling me in front of a wooden fireplace, and reminding me of a love I’d thought was impossible to have.
His chest expands as he takes a deep breath, his outward sigh brushing against the top of my head just before he places a kiss.
“The condition, little demon.”
“To give me time.” I swallow hard. “Hours mean minutes to them—hours, days… I’ve asked for years.” He says nothing, but I know his silence—it’s full of questions. I just hope I can give him the answers he’s looking for. “I’m hoping something will change. Maybe another Hybrid like me will come along…”
“How long?” I guess I didn’t answer the one he silently was hoping I’d give.
“Nothing was established.”
“And Alaric…” He grits his teeth. “He isn’t touching you, Xera, I’m not fucking around.”
With a gentle nod, I sigh. “I know, Kai, and so does he.”
“Alaric.”The moment we are out of the zombie-land lobby, I grab his shirt and halt us both. “Stop.”
He looks over his shoulder at me, his deep-set blue eyes more hollow than I’ve ever seen them. I’m unsure of if his kind need sleep, but he looks like he’s not had any for months, maybe years.
“I meant what I said.” He narrows his eyes, but I don’t give him the time to speak. “You won’t touch me, and I’ll never let you fuck me. We don’t even know how long it would take to happen, once, twice—a thousand times. I… nor Kai would allow for it.”
His head falls back as he sighs, his fingers coming and running through his long white hair. “I’m aware.” The hall we are in is quiet, so much so I fear even our whispered voices will carry to all the decease that lay at rest. “You’ve doomed a lot of people.”
“I did.” I don’t hesitate to respond. “But I don’t care. If I can save him, and me, I’d sacrifice every world for it.”
“Yeah? Then what? When the Beyond uses that… our… abomination, do you not think it will spread to the mortal world? War has casualties, Xera.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should, because what of Sydni? What of your happiness when that happens? Do you think the likes of mortals and immortals won’t feel that decision? You and I, we are eternal, sweetheart. The world would burn, but we would never become ash with it. We will walk amongst it as it births a new one.”
“Then let me give you what you wanted.” His eyes widen. “Not right now, not in ten years, maybe not in one hundred.” I pause, watching him as the gears begin to turn in his head. “We will give them what they asked for… but I, too, will give you, yours. Then, I want nothing to do with you, the Vayl, or the Beyond. Protect them as you so desire, or don’t, I don’t give a fuck.”
“You are insane. Bringing two of… What the fuck would they even be called?”
“I don’t know. Who fucking cares?” I sigh and shake my head. “Veskar? A vessel… an instrument for someone else’s purpose.”
“You just came up with that on the spot?”
“You think me so fucking stupid, don’t you?”
