Page 89 of Thirst
I would’ve sold my damned soul for some of Lenore’s strength, her power, her pitiless will. But she hadn’t wanted my soul. She wanted my humanity.
And I gave it freely, shedding it like a snake’s brittle, used-up skin. What remained was cold, ruthless, heartless—like the old ones who’d walked this path before me.
But I guess I wasn’t as untouchable as I believed. Every vampire’s got a crack in the armor—their mate.
And mine was named Nyx.
And I’d fucked it up.
Something real had been growing between me and Nyx, and I’d torn it out with my bare hands.
Because I’d listened to Baker’s voice—the one that called me weak for wanting her, that said needing her made me soft.
And in trying to drown him out, I’d hurt her.
I swallowed over the boulder in my throat and glanced at Talon. “Can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.”
I flexed my fingers on the steering wheel, made a tiny correction to the rearview mirror. “What’s it like—being mated?”
“She… completes me.” A corner of his mouth tipped up. “It’s like finding the piece you didn’t know was missing. And she’s always in here.” He brought a fist to his sternum. “Even when she’s not beside me, I feel her. Like a heartbeat that isn’t mine.”
Last year—hell, even last month—I would’ve laughed off something as sappy as a missing piece of yourself. Soulmates, destiny, all that poetic bullshit.
But I wasn’t laughing tonight. The truth of it smacked me in the chest, leaving me exposed and off-balanced.
Nyx felt like my missing piece, too, the one thing my money couldn’t buy. Her unhappiness was now my unhappiness.
When I didn’t say anything, Talon sent me a look from beneath his brows. “You still think I should’ve held out for a vampire?”
I shook my head. “Maybe at first, but not now. You two have something special—even I can see that. You find your mate, you claim her.”
He nodded, slow. “Yeah. You just know. And when you do…” He exhaled, shoulders rising and falling like the weight of it lived in his lungs. “It’s everything. Nothing else on Earth even comes close. It doesn’t matter that she’s not a vampire. She’s just Eden.”
He eyed me, waiting.
I glued my gaze to the road. Saying it aloud would make it real, break open something I’d never be able to close again.
He snorted. “You gonna make me drag it out of you?”
“I’m thinking,” I growled. “This is—” I shook my head.
“Alright, then tell me this. What would you do to keep her?”
“Anything.” My voice was low, guttural, the words ripped from my heart. “Burn down the world. Bleed it dry. Whatever it took.”
“Does she know?”
“I offered her sanctuary, didn’t I?”
“So? She’s an in, a way to get to Nazaire. You would’ve done that for anyone close to him—right?”
“Probably,” I admitted. “But I wasn’t thinking of him when I made the offer. I was thinking of her, that she needed a safe place. Somewhere away from that controlling sonofabitch.”
“So you want to protect her,” Talon said, “and you’d do anything to keep her.” He shook his head. “You, my friend, are well and truly fucked. Because right now, she thinks that all she is to you is bait. Those texts?—”
My back teeth clamped together. That was the curse of brothers. They were world-class bullshit detectors.
