Page 64 of Don't Bite the Director
Then she blew him a kiss and hopped in the car.
He barely registered the door slamming and the vehicle speeding off down the road because none of that mattered. Cora was dying. Not in a year, not in a couple years. Now.
He had the ability to change her fate, but if he did she might never forgive him. Not that he could blame her. Forcing his existence on someone who didn’t choose it wasn’t the same as signing them up for a yoga class. Her entire world would change in ways that she already stated she didn’t want.
Maybe he really was the monster Cora thought he was because at that moment Saiden simply didn’t care. She could hate him for a thousand years so long as she did it with breath in her lungs.
Sealing his lips to hers, he let his vampiric Essence flow out of him.
Saiden hadn’t been conscious when Marquin turned him, and he had never been around for a new siringbefore. They were so rare that many vamps never witnessed one. Still, every vampire innately knew what to do. From the time they were turned, they could feel the Essence inside them, itching to be released and shared with another.
He just didn’t realize it would be so beautiful.
Keeping his eyes open and his lips on hers, he held his breath while the faint purple glow emerged from his skin, surrounding them in a cloud of pure energy. Stunned, he watched as the last hints of Essence floated out of him and started to pour into Cora, draping her in a cocoon of pulsing violet light.
His perfect, beautiful mate.
Then she took one last shuddering breath and died in Saiden’s arms.
Chapter thirty-eight
Cora
Cora dreamt of a circus.
The dream state was obvious straight away, and not just because Cora would never go to a circus—she found the animal cruelty outweighed any potential joy—but because the place she found herself in was not a normal circus. The lights shined a little too bright, and the depths of the shadows were a little too prominent. Something moved in those dark places, and though it skulked just out of sight, there was no denying that she could sense its presence.
Whatever it was slipped away, and Cora found herself lost to the flashing lights and the infectious sounds of laughter and frivolity.
Large plumes of purple cotton candy floated through the air, yet nobody else seemed to notice them. She bumped into one, and it exploded into sugar crystals that rained down over the long black dress that clung tightly to her body.
The outfit was all wrong for a fun night out at a circus. Midnight crushed velvet with flared sleeves and a low-cut bodice. She looked like a less boobilicious Elvira.
Take it off,she thought.
She wanted to. She wanted to rip it from her body, preferring to go naked over this gown that was all wrong for her. The fit was too tight, too uncomfortable. She shouldn’t be wearing it, but when she reached behind her back there was no zipper.
Frantically, she clawed at the stretchy material, but it wouldn’t budge. It was as if the dress was now a part of her, fused to her skin. Something she could never take off.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
The words echoed through her brain as she stumbled through the crowd, trying to find the exit. She dashed from one end to the other, the circus seeming to close in on her while also expanding in all directions.
No exit. There was simply no exit. Only sparkling lights and calliope music. Groups of people laughing. Everyone having an amazing time.
Didn’t they know it was all wrong?
Pushing through the crushing throngs of delighted circus goers, she stopped abruptly when she found herself in front of a metal cage. Inside, a white tiger paced back and forth, occasionally stopping to snarl or growl at some unseen thing in the distance.
Don’t pet the tiger, she thought.Bad idea.
And yet… It was so mesmerizing. So majestically beautiful with its restrained violence. A predator this fierce shouldn’t be trapped. Shouldn’t be caged.
Let it out.
The new thought wasn’t hers. She didn’t know where the voice inside her head came from, but it was familiar and comforting. A voice that promised everything would be alright in the end. All you had to do was trust it.
So, she did.
