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That would be a forever change, too. All he had to do was deliver Kambyses to the hunters as agreed. Or he could finish him himself now with his bare hands. This time, the beast wouldn’t stop him.

“If that is what you choose, then so it will be,” Kambyses said with a sigh of reluctant acceptance. In his heart, he had already abdicated his throne of blood and darkness. He no longer cared. “But I don’t think you will.”

Fiercely cold wind swept over Dominique’s bare chest and back, but the promise of the eternal blood warmed him. The last of it—the very last blood he could pull out of Kambyses before he died—would be the most potent blood of all. It would brand his soul…and reshape it.

The beast as he knew it would be no more.

He leaned forward, eyes fixed on the sinewy neck and the fat vein he had tapped there before. He inhaled the ancient one’s scent. The smoky essence sparked only the barest memory of fear. Something new held him captive now, something quiet and considering. Something waiting. Waiting for him.

“Why is that, old man? Why do you believe I won’t end us all?”

Kambyses caressed Dominique’s cheek with bony fingers, the tender touch of a father. Millennia of ghosts haunted his smile. “Because you want to live, Nico. You want to live…for her.”

“Oui,” he whispered. A simple truth. The only truth that mattered. Gently, he cradled the old one’s head in one hand. “I do.” His lips slid over the paper-smooth skin, mouth throbbing with hunger. “I want to live.”

And he knew that he would.

Forever.

43

Dark Lord

Jackson’s phone vibrated. Seeing who it was, he hesitated. He still hadn’t decided if he wanted to take the call by the time it dropped into voice mail.

Beside him, stretched out on the overstuffed sofa in the Striker mansion’s palatial living room, Cassidy remained oblivious. Exhaustion claimed her halfway through the movie. Before that, she had stared at the screen, blank-faced, reacting to nothing.

Though all but catatonic with grief, physically there was nothing wrong with her anymore. The hospital cut her loose late in the afternoon, and he had braced for a fight about where she would go from there. He didn’t get one.

“I can’t deal with the cottage yet,” she said on the ride home, her quiet voice flat. “Too many memories.”

Unwelcome memories also greeted her at the house, where elaborate holiday decorations were on full display. The sight of garlands, lights, and glitter made Cassidy’s face pinch. “It’s Christmas already?”

“Next week.” He stopped himself from adding that her recovery from a near-death experience was his best Christmas present ever. She had lost her mother in December, and now she would have another heartache to associate with the holiday season.

“Well, ho, ho, freaking ho,” she muttered and tuned out for the rest of the day.

So much for turning to Jackson in her time of need. She was running from pain, not toward the safety he offered. He tamped down a prickle of bitterness. This would take time, he knew it would. Even if she never learned what really happened to the vampire and the deal he’d struck with the hunters to save her, losing Dominique could shatter her. That much was painfully obvious.

He would keep his part of the bargain. He would be there for Cassidy for the rest of their lives in any way she would permit—friend, lover, husband, foe. Anything. Whatever it took. It was what he owed her for dragging her into this mess and all the lies he spun for her. It was what he owed Dominique for the sacrifice the vampire made for her. And it was what he owed himself for the love he still held for her.

All around him, the house felt like an enormous set of steel and concrete lungs holding a breath. His parents and the domestic staff weren’t due back until late tomorrow at the earliest. This morning, their houseguest, a hollow-eyed Monica Davis—formerly Sol—informed them calmly that she wanted to go home. All the fire and venom had left her, all compulsions mysteriously released. Garrett bought her a first-class ticket and drove her to the airport himself. Her family would meet her at the gate in Seattle, eager to embrace the daughter and sister who had vanished months ago without a trace.

Samantha had brought over some of Cassidy’s clothes but didn’t stay. She was impatient to get back before sundown for Serge, her vampire buddy. How much did his sister know of what was about to happen? Would she hate him for the rest of their lives?

The phone vibrated in his hand. Uncle Garrett again.

End credits scrolled on the muted TV. The clock on the fireplace mantle read well past midnight. Plenty of time for Garrett to meet Dominique in their facility at the municipal airport, take delivery of his incapacitated sire, and put an end to them both.

Put an end to them all.

Everywhere.

Jackson had bowed out of being there, telling his uncle that Cassidy was too frail to be left alone. Also, as the Foundation’s senior hunter, Garrett should have the honor of this ultimate kill. But was there more to Jackson’s reluctance? After all, his whole reason for being would disappear when the Foundation shut down. There would be no outlet for his grief and anger over his murdered brother, and…

The phone. Again. For fuck’s sake! Was Garrett so thrilled about what he’d done he couldn’t wait until morning to share all the gory details? That didn’t sound like his cold-blooded killer of an uncle. Jackson’s brow gathered in doubt. He took the call.

Garrett was talking before Jackson could open his mouth. “Talk to me, kid. What’s going on there?”