Page 74

Brokenly, Bryan nodded. More tears flowed down his cheeks.

I shot up from the couch, hardly even aware of what I was doing. But I couldn’t listen to this anymore.

Tobias looked up at me and grimaced. “Michael, wait—”

“Sorry,” I muttered, forcing one foot in front of the other until I reached the front door.

I shoved it open.

The harsh light of day washed over me, causing me to blink rapidly.

I closed the door behind me and lurched out onto the porch, where I dropped onto the sun-baked and peeling wooden steps leading down to the long gravel driveway.

I couldn’t be in the house anymore.

I couldn’t look at what Danny had done for a second longer.

I couldn’t hear the others talk about how they had been forced to save the young man by turning him into a vampire. Icouldn’t stand to look at Bryan’s broken expression, filled with guilt and fear, knowing that Danny had put it there.

Because his humanity was gone now.

If I had known how fragile it really was, we would have just left. I never would have untied him in the first place. What had I been thinking?

How could fate shove us together—five years ago and then again and again, every day since—only to rip us apart like this?

The door creaked open behind me. It was followed by footsteps on the wooden porch. Then Thierry settled down beside me on the stairs, even though it meant he was bathed in sunlight.

“How is your arm?” Thierry asked. “And your other injuries?”

“I feel fine.”

I dragged in a shuddering breath, feeling afraid I might lose it at any moment in front of Thierry.

“That’s good,” he said, sounding awkward.

Silence fell between us.

“I lost my twin brother the same way.” Thierry said at last. He spoke the words simply, but I couldn’t help but hear the raw pain in his voice. “He was the kindest person I’d ever met. Innocent. Naïve. And so dedicated to the church that he was planning on going into seminary. He was nothing like me. Then he got turned into a vampire.”

“Sorry,” I muttered again. By which, I meant fuck off and leave me alone.

Thierry didn’t take the hint. He added, “Our maker forced him to kill. He did it because I wouldn’t cooperate with what he wanted. He was very interested in the idea of twins, you see.” Thierry paused and something went thicker in his voice, and I understood: centuries hadn’t blotted out the pain for him. He added, “And he made me watch it happen.”

I scowled at the driveway rather than look at him. I found myself grappling for something to say, but there was nothing.

“Nathaniel was going to send someone else tonight,” Thierry told me, after silence had stretched between us for a long time. “Simone, perhaps. She’s the oldest vampire on the western seaboard and she could have controlled Danny without a second thought. Or Pierce, maybe. His own progeny. But I offered to come instead.”

That caused me to glance over at him sharply. I blinked a few times, feeling confusion wash over me. I’d gotten the impression he had been forced to be here.

Thierry gave me a pained smile. Here in the light of the too-bright day, his eerie blue eyes were so pale they were almost white. And they were filled with sadness. His sharp edges were entirely gone. His defenses, for the first time since I had met him, were completely down.

“No one really understands what it’s like to love someone with everything you have, and for them to be in a state that’s far worse than death. For a monster to be walking around, wearing their skin. It’s a pain I wouldn’t wish upon anyone.”

“Right.” Something clenched shut in my chest at his words. It hit me all over again: Danny was gone. He wasn’t coming back.

“Nicolas was gone. I could see it in his eyes.”

“Please, just stop. I can’t hear this.”