Consume. Melissa Darnell

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СКАЧАТЬ didn’t want to, but I could hear my dad’s thoughts as he struggled for some new and more compelling argument to try with me. As my dad, he hated having to push me on this issue. But as a representative of the vampire council, he was duty bound to. He would be forced to badger me endlessly until I gave in.

      I gritted my teeth and held up a hand to stop him. “Fine. We’ll go back to Jacksonville. But only when Tristan is ready. Until then, until he’s sure he’s in control, we’re staying right here. Okay?”

      “Agreed.”

      Tristan stayed out at the ridge all day. By sunset, I couldn’t take it anymore and had to join him.

      “How are you feeling?” I asked, reaching out to him and then hesitating before dropping my hand at my own side again. Maybe he still wanted to be alone.

      He continued to stare out at the sky, now slowly darkening beneath the early winter sunset. “I remember everything. Dad and Mom, Emily and Gowin. You and me. The Clann and the vampire council. The battle at the Circle, and Gowin’s sucker punch through my back. You turning me.”

      I froze, fearing my nightmare was about to come true. Did he hate me for the selfish decision I’d made, for my inability to let him die?

      He finally turned his head to look at me. “Thanks, by the way.”

      “Sorry about the amnesia. I didn’t know about it till after I’d turned you, since I never had it. I didn’t know it would be so complete or last this long.”

      He gave a half shrug and returned to staring at the sky. “It’s over. That’s all that matters.”

      I nodded in silence, not knowing what else to say. After spending so many days trying to adjust to the childlike and helpless Tristan, I had to readjust to the return of the old Tristan. Except he still wasn’t quite himself.

      For instance, he hadn’t reached out to touch me in any way yet.

      “Sorry. Guess I’ve been a little lost lately.” Sighing, he reached out to take my hand and gently tug me closer.

      As soon as his hand touched mine, warmth spread over my skin and the tension melted from my whole body. It was going to be okay now. We’d made it through the hardest part.

      I sat down beside him before relief could make my legs give out beneath me, wrapped an arm across the small of his back and rested my cheek against the muscled curve of his shoulder. “I missed you. The real you, I mean.”

      “I missed me, too.” He raised our joined hands to press a slow kiss to each of my fingers.

      I raised my head, and he leaned over and kissed my lips. A heady mix of relief and love rose up through my body, stealing my breath and driving me to wrap both arms around him. The intensity of the emotions surprised both of us, and when we stopped to catch a breath, one corner of his mouth rose.

      “Wow. You really did miss me, didn’t you?”

      “I was afraid....” Too many emotions pounded through me to put them into words...the gut-wrenching fear of losing him when he nearly died, the horror of discovering I’d temporarily turned him into more animal than man, the responsibility of keeping him safe from his own actions and the fear of screwing up as his sire, being terrified for months that I’d only saved him physically but might never have the real Tristan back, the agonizing guilt and worry over whether I’d made the wrong decision after all by turning him. It was too much to describe out loud, so I simply let him see and feel all the emotions and memories inside my head.

      “Hey, it’s okay now,” he murmured, cupping my face and using his thumbs to brush away my tears of relief. “I’m not going anywhere ever again. It’s you and me till the end of time. Or at least until you decide you can’t stand me anymore.”

      He pressed a slow, lingering kiss to my forehead, then each cheek, the tip of my nose and then my lips again.

      And I was finally whole once more.

      The moment Dad exited the cabin and got close enough to us for me to pick up his thoughts, though, I remembered my promise to him and the tension flowed right back into me.

      I sighed and rested my forehead against Tristan’s. “Did you hear what Dad said earlier about the council’s newest request?”

      “About our going back to Jacksonville?”

      I nodded, my throat making a dry, sticky sound as I tried to swallow past the growing tightness within it.

      “Yeah, I heard.” He hesitated. “I also heard the part where my sister and mother want us to come back, too.”

      “Yeah. The Clann wants to be sure you’re...you know, in control of everything.”

      “Okay. So we’ll go back to Jacksonville.”

      I leaned back to frown at him. “You’d actually spy on your friends and family?”

      “I’d never tell the council anything that could hurt the Clann. But if I were the council, I’d want to keep a close and constant eye on the Clann, too. You’ve got to understand, collectively sometimes the Clann acts like a bunch of scared cattle ready to stampede whether it makes sense to or not. Look at how they tried to keep us apart for so long.”

      “Yeah, well maybe they had a point there. Look at what ended up happening to you.”

      “Hey, I’m happy that you finally turned me. Now we can be together without you worrying about draining me every time we kiss.”

      “True. But at what cost? You’ve lost your family.”

      “I didn’t lose them. My mother made her choice. She sided with the Clann over me. Besides, you and your dad are my family now. Right?”

      “Yeah, but, Tristan, your mother and sister still love you, too.”

      He didn’t say anything for a long time, staring in silence as the sun disappeared beneath the curve of the earth and the sky deepened into dark shades of purple.

      When he finally spoke again, his voice was quieter, deeper. “Your dad’s right, Sav. We might be able to help prevent another war. If the peace treaty fails, it’s not just the vamps and the Clann who would be hurt. It would be your friends—Anne and Carrie and Michelle—and any other humans who got caught in the cross fire. Not to mention Ron and all of the Keepers.”

      He draped an arm around my shoulders, and I nestled against him, resting my head in the hard curve where his shoulder and neck met. I wished I could burrow even deeper, somehow get away from his words and the entire world around us.

      But there was no way to escape my own mind or the realization that Dad and Tristan were both right. Much as I hated it.

      “Is it so wrong of me to just want to be with you without a panel of judges constantly weighing in on everything we say and do?” I whispered.

      “No, it’s not wrong.” He slowly rubbed my back, his broad, strong hand soothing my nerves. It was every bit as comforting as a cup of Nanna’s homegrown chamomile tea used to be.

      Silence fell like a soft СКАЧАТЬ