Page 135 of Origins of Eternity

“Thank you,” Arwen said.

Zara left them alone, and Arwen walked into Iro’s bedroom. Surprised to hear the shower running because Iro was supposed to be sleeping, she walked into the bathroom and saw her there, wiping blood off her body. That made Arwen feel both horrified about what had happened hours ago and so grateful that Iro was still here. She undressed and climbed into the shower.

“Hi,” Iro greeted.

“You’re supposed to be asleep.”

“I’m feeling much better. And the sun is down now, so it’s okay to be out.”

“Better, huh? I see only two fully healed stab wounds, babe.”

“The rest need to be cleaned anyway.”

“Then, let me,” Arwen requested. “How badly do they hurt?”

“I’m okay,” Iro said. “You can clean them if you want, but I already did while you were talking to Zara, who may or may not like Alexia and Sarah. Did I get that right?”

“We’ll see.” She chuckled and wrapped her arms around Iro’s neck. “After this, it’s back to bed for you.”

“You need to eat.”

“I did. Your delivery guy stopped by, so I’m okay.” She kissed Iro’s neck. “Zara will call us when it’s done.”

Iro’s arms went around her waist, and she said, “Arwen, we shouldn’t stay here.”

“In DC?”

“This house. Alexia and Sarah told you that they didn’t do anything with Cassia’s call-to-arms list, right?”

“Yeah. They’re going to tell them all that Cassia is dead and that they shouldn’t expose vampires because they would be doing so without her support.”

“Well, that’s something, I suppose, but someone might still get the idea that they can take over for Cassia. I’d give it a year or so before I start hearing about dead bodies piling up and the unexplained deaths.”

“Really?”

Iro nodded and said, “If you want to stay here, we can, but not in this house. I’ll buy another one in the name of a company or something. We’ll move in as soon as we can, but we also might have to leave sooner than I promised earlier if someone makes a move.”

“You think they’ll come after us?”

“I don’t know. It depends on what she told them about me. But if they start doing things that risk us being exposed, I’ll have to–”

“Fight them?”

“Kill them, yes. I can try to talk to them how I did with Cassia first. She was much stronger and older, and we had a connection that ran for so long; her compulsion could have broken because of that. I’ll practice to get better, and I will have to be careful, but yeah, I can’t risk us being found out.”

“Okay. So, we move,” Arwen said.

“We?” Iro asked, hopeful.

“Into a new house here first and maybe somewhere else later, but if you’re going off somewhere to fight for all vampire kind and prevent people from dying, I’m going with you.”

“Youare?”

“I am,” she replied.

When Iro leaned to kiss her slowly, Arwen heard her grunt, but it wasn’t her usual grunt that would’ve told her that Iro was turned on. Instead, it was pain. Iro was still hurting, and Arwen needed to get her to bed.

“Iro, baby, let’s get some sleep. We can talk about a new house and maybe you teaching me how to fight to save humanity tomorrow.”