But I don’t need it. The answer is written across his face.
“It feltso good,” he whispers, fangs making his quiet voice thick and demonic. “It feltso goodto drain her…to suck every last drop from her body…”
Ice wraps around my unbeating heart.
And my fingers reach for my stake.
“Crimson,” Murad says, a crease between his eyebrows. “Let me do that. You shouldn’t have to…”
“No,” I growl, sinking my shovel into the soft earth. “I staked him. I’ll bury him.”
“Roslyn…”
I hiss, my rage casting a chill across the cemetery. “And if you don’t get out of here immediately, I’ll put you down in the ground beside Thomas.”
“Understood,” he whispers.
I don’t hear him leave, but I know he’s gone.
And I’m all alone again, under the heartless glow of the full moon.
I lose myself in the steady rhythm of my task. With each shovel of dirt, I bury the pain, the anger…
The memories…
Until there’s nothing left but a hollow emptiness inside me. A hole, as deep as the grave I’ve dug.
Thomas’s body isn’t the thing that’s heavy. I toss him easily into the ground, and bury him just as easily.
There’s no gravestone, or marker. There are no gravestones in our vampire cemetery. Just mounds of earth. Some new, some old.
What’s heavy is I don’t remember who is where. That I have no way to visit them, no where to put my sadness, my fury…
Myguilt.
I return to my crypt, dirt fresh on my hands, blood fresh on my stake.
I don’t expect her to be waiting.
“Crimson,” Paige gasps, her eyes widening as she spots me.
I must look terrifying. But she doesn’t retreat. Instead, she comes closer, her hands clasped at her breast.
“What are you doing here?” I demand, my voice flat and heartless. “I didn’t call for you.”
“Murad told me what happened…”
“Get out of here,” I snap. I can’t look at her face. I can’t bear to see the expression in her eyes. “I don’t need you tonight.”
She inhales, her pulse strengthening. “Yes, you do.”
My eyes close. I should be furious with her. But I don’t have it in me. It’s as though all of my anger has burned itself out. And I’m left with that aching emptiness again.
“You don’t…you don’t want to see me like this,” I whisper.
I feel her step closer to me, the kiss of her warm breath on my skin.
“Yes,” she replies. “Yes, I do.”
