Page 103

“My blood. I hoped whatever was wrong, it would be strong enough to bring you back.” He pulled her against him again. “I was going to turn you.”

Leah hugged him back just as fiercely. He was rattled to the bone, his big body shaking. That said something about his feelings for her, didn’t it? Was it selfish to think of that now?

“I’m fine,” she said, infusing as much calm into her words as possible. “I’m fine.” Then more of his words registered. She pushed back from him. “Turn me?”

“Yes.” Panic and grief clung to him.

Leah pushed back the instinct to recoil from the thought. A vampire. He’d turn her into a vampire. Could she live with that? She’d spent two-thirds of her life hating vampires until she’d fallen in love with one, but just as not every human was the same, not every vampire was Julian. What kind of vampire would she be? Everything was moving too fast. He didn’t want to discuss their future, yet he would turn her?

When she remained quiet, his expression sobered. “You don’t want to be a vampire?”

“I… I don’t know… I don’t know if I can.”

His blue eyes blazed with predatory intent. “I won’t let you die.”

Hope fluttered in her chest. He had to feel something for her if he was willing to give her immortality, but he was also doing what she’d feared. Taking away her choice.

“What if… what if we can fix whatever is wrong with me while I’m still human, then you won’t have to turn me?”

His implacable expression didn’t change. “Explain.”

She had a few seconds to think about what had just happened. She’d fallen asleep, then a tearing agony had exploded in her head. That was all she remembered before waking up.

“I think something is wrong with my implant,” she said. “If we take it out, this won’t happen again.”

“Then let’s go to a hospital now.”

Her eyes widened. “Wait! The sun’s still up!” The digital clock on the nightstand read four twenty-three p.m.

“We can’t wait. The basement is connected to the city’s sewer system. I can get us there.”

She placed a hand on Julian’s arm as he helped her up. “Promise me you’ll let the doctors do their job, and you won’t turn me until the last possible second.” She matched his fierce scowl and demanded, “Promise me.”

For a second, she thought he’d argue, but then he nodded. “I promise. Now get dressed.”

Her fingers trembled as she pulled on her jeans, the reality of the last few minutes crashing into her. She didn’t remember dying. It had just been a sea of empty blackness.

Blackness she couldn’t escape.

She didn’t want to die, not yet. Yes, Julian could turn her, but what if something happened? What if they ran into Hunters in the sewers? What if the conversion didn’t take? Was that even possible? Could she risk it?

They were alone, or as alone as they were going to be, for the next twenty-four hours. She had to tell him. Maybe she didn’t have another twenty-four hours. Terror locked her in a steel grip. She hadn’t feared dying before.

When Julian had shown up in chains, she’d wished she were dead instead of him being subjected to Dmitri’s torture. Now that there was hope, she wanted to live and spend her life with him. So maybe being a vampire wouldn’t be terrible if she was with him.

Her heart racing, she licked her lips. Why was it so hard? The words had been on the tip of her tongue since the moment she saw him in the facility.

“Julian?”

“What is it?”

When he turned to her, she drank in his harsh yet handsome face, those ice-blue eyes that looked straight into her soul, the full lips that she could kiss all day and all night.

Her Protector. Lover. Friend.

“I love you!”

There. It was out.