Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
“What have you been up to this evening?” I asked.
“Research.” She leaned up and took another kiss that I happily gave. “Lyric, Julian, and I were going through the archives to see if there was any record of turning a human with cancer.” She cocked her head to the side. “Though it wasn’t always called cancer, which is making the process so much longer than it has to be.” She lost her balance, which had been happening far too often this week, and I caught her easily.
“You what?” My hands flexed around her waist and I tugged her against me, as though I could keep her safer the closer she was to me.
“Research,” she repeated. “We figured if we could find a record of a successful turn—” Her nose crinkled. “Wait, you call it a transition. Anyway, if we could find a successful transition of someone with cancer, then it’s worth a try.”
My teeth clicked as I snapped my mouth shut to keep from voicing the rage that quickly swept through me.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” She arched a brow.
“Like. What?” I got out between my clenched teeth.
“Like you might bite me for something other than pleasure?” There was no fear in her eyes, and damn did I love that about her. She had no problem staring down a six-and-a-half-foot vampire like she wasn’t a delicate little human.
“One, I would never bite you in punishment.” My stomach churned at the thought of Aurora’s throat. “And two, I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to try and turn you.”
“You agreed.” She pushed out of my arms and I let her go. “I want to try.”
“Absolutely not.”
Grace glanced over her shoulder at the queen and our historian, Julian, then grabbed my hand and tugged me out of the archives and into the tunnels that ran beneath the residence. “You’re being irrational.”
My eyes flew wide. “I’m the one being irrational?” Fuck this. She had no idea what she was asking for, but I did. “Come with me.” Lacing her fingers with mine, I started walking toward the infirmary, keeping my pace slow enough to be comfortable for her.
“It’s my body!” she argued.
“And I’d like that body to live!” I countered.
“Well I’m not going to!” She squeezed my hand harder. “I’m dying, Ajax. You turning me is my only chance.”
“And if I thought we had a chance, I’d take it! Gabriel is the foremost physician of our kind, Grace. He’s told us that he doesn’t know. That transitioning you might even speed the rate of your death, and that’s not something I’m going to gamble with!”
“But it’s my gamble to take!” She ripped her hand out of mine as we approached the infirmary. “If there’s even the slightest hope that it would give me more time with you, then I want to try, and if you won’t do it, then I’m sure I could find someone—”
I spun quickly, pinning her body between mine and the wall. “Don’t. Even. Think. That.” My vision flickered to thermal and my fangs erupted as the predator within demanded that I fuck her and feed from her, claiming my mate in every possible way to warn off any other male in the vicinity. “I’m not human, Grace. You go near another male’s fangs and I don’t know what I’ll do. I’d even kill one of my brothers if they got close.” The thought was more than enraging, it was terrifying.
“I won’t,” she promised softly, cupping the side of my neck. “Ajax, I won’t. I’m sorry.”
I breathed slowly, forcing my vision back to normal as I got myself under control. “Do you even know what you’d go through in the transition? The pain alone might kill you, and in your weakened state…” I shook my head.
“I can handle it.” She tilted her chin.
Pride. Sorrow. Grief. Every emotion I could label coursed through me as I backed up a step and took her hand. “You can’t.”
Hurt flickered through her eyes.
I guided her through the soundproof infirmary doors, and the sound of screaming immediately assaulted our ears.
Aurora lay on the clinic’s bed, her frail body writhing as she cried. Her spine arched and she threw her head back, letting out another scream as Gabriel struggled to get an IV line in. Aurora kicked out, sending the bedside table—and its bags of blood—to the floor.
Grace drew back, her hand covering her mouth.
“This is really what you want?” I asked. “Listen to those screams and tell me it’s what you want.” I didn’t wait for her to respond before going to Gabriel’s side. “Tell me what you need.”
“She refuses to feed. Her body is stuck at the final stages of transition,” Gabriel said, his voice calm even though the lines of his body were so tense I thought he might snap.