Page 243 of Blood Day

Loving others created a different platform to fight upon. When all a vampire lives for is to feed himself, he lacks a certain amount of motivation to survive.

But when someone else—someone like Lily—relied on that vampire for strength and purpose and safety, he suddenly had a lot more to fight for.

I understood that now. It was the biggest lesson I could have learned in life, one I was fortunate to experience before death had completely consumed my mind.

Because now I had a reason to live.

Khalid might have been using that reason as a way to manipulate me into working for him. But I didn’t mind. Because for Lily, I would do anything.

Including indulging her in an ocean swim.

Which I did so now.

I stripped us both out of our clothes and pulled her deep into the water, forcing her to rely on me for balance.

And allowed her faith to wash over me.

Her trust in me was a beacon of hope. A discovery Ilonged to treasure. An experience that would always make me feel that much more alive.

My forbidden flower.

My future.

My forever.

Epilogue

KHALID

Willyou join me in the front seat now, little mirage?I whispered into Emine’s mind.

Her blue-gray irises flickered as she met my gaze in the mirror.I suppose.

Rather than exit the vehicle, she phased into the front and buckled herself in, the display of power making me hard. It was a constant problem I had around her, one she refused to help me fix even with all our little games.

I wanted her to beg.

But she never did.

Which was why I hadn’t actually fucked her yet.

Oh, everyone else would assume that I had—something I wanted them all to think. It helped me protect her and our shared secrets.

Because my darling mirage was something very unique indeed.

I’d noticed it the evening we’d met when she’d attempted to bow upon seeing me in the infirmary. That wouldn’t have been very extraordinary in this world, as humans were taught to supplicate.

Except no one else had been able to see me lurking in the shadows.

Not only that, but she’d seenme.

“My Prince,” she’d breathed as she’d nearly killedherself by rolling off that hospital bed to fall to all fours on the ground.

The nurse in the infirmary had chastised her, threatening to just end her right then and there for being such a “stupid little cunt” for “seeing things that aren’t there.”

But I wasvery muchthere.

As the nurse had soon learned when I’d ended her life before giving the little mirage my blood as a reward for her startling ability.