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But there was a difference. In the present, one figure still stood. Slashes of blood colored him red from his hair to his torso.

I should’ve tried to run. Should’ve been terrified of the monster.

One desperate arm untangled from my chest, reaching forward.

“You came…” Nothing more than a whisper of a question.

Any response was lost as my vision blurred and I collapsed.

Chapter Eighteen

I woke, first slowly,then as awareness teased at my edges, I grabbed it and slammed my eyes open. Fear chased away any drowsiness.Defenseless. Where was I? I craned my neck up from where I lay prone. Above me was an angled wooden roof. Under me, something I hadn’t slept on in ages—a bed.

I tried to prop myself up on my elbows, the blanket covering my back falling to reveal I was shirtless. My chest was wrapped in fresh bandages. My back ached like it had been ripped open.

Which it had been.

Memories crashed into me. My hand flew to my throat, then over the bandages as my movements grew more frantic. “My necklace.” My voice was a raw rasp, but all I could do was push through the pain and twist to try to locate it. Was it lost forever?

No, no, no.Anything butthat.

“On the table. Now, be still, lest you undo all my hard work.”

My head jerked at the sound of a voice. Raphael stood in the entrance of the room, propped against the doorframe. He was back to white hair and red eyes, though something about him was different.

Exhausted. He looked exhausted. His hair was unkempt, eyes sunk farther in with dark rings around them. His shoulders were partially slumped, as though he’d been standing too long in that spot. Even after they’d spent days whipping him raw, he hadn’t seemed this rough.

Something I now understood in a visceral way.

He lifted his chin to the other side of the bed. I twisted my neck, my head already spinning from the small amount of movement. Relief flooded my throat, letting me breathe again. The bedside table held a pathetically small stack of cards and the necklace I’d retrieved from Greymere and carried hidden on the journey.

I reached for the necklace, but the movement was too much. Raphael crossed the room and handed the chain to me. I snatched it once it was within reach, wrapping my fingers around the cool metal as I tried to make sense of my immediate situation. I didn’t hear any noise aside fromthe crickets outside, so we were unlikely to be in an inn. A window was cracked open, letting the night breeze in.

“Your handiwork?” I croaked, pointing weakly at my wrappings.

The vampire grimaced. “You’ve been unconscious for three days. Your body’s been fighting an infection, which the salve has mostly dealt with.”

A fresh awareness of the bandages came over me.Raphaelhad dressed my wounds—multiple times, if he was putting salve on.

“Where are we?” I asked to distract myself from the thought. Since Raphael stood next to the bed, I had to crane my neck to face him.

“An abandoned house, about an hour’s ride from the city.”

“Was it abandoned when you got here?”

“Does it matter?” he growled. “Anyway, now that you’re awake, we can be done with this.”

I was going to ask what he meant, but I could only stare as he lifted his wrist to his mouth and bit down, scoring his wrist with a fang. He extended his arm in my direction, inches from my mouth.

Blood beaded on the skin, an invitation.

I tried to inch back, but it was hard with my back still wounded.

“Drink. It will heal you.”

I shook my head, decisive and disgusted. “I’d rather die.” Screw surviving. Not at that cost. I hadn’t known therewas a line for me before—team up with a vampire to escape my sentence? Fine. But become one of those abominations?

Raphael didn’tlooklike an abomination, but I knew just how deadly he was. Even if it felt unfair to judge him for being deadly protectingme.