The Brightest Night (Origin 3)

I stared at him. “Okay. I can do that.”

“Good. Great.” Luc’s jaw worked, and then his head tilted to the side, toward me. He opened his eyes, and the pupils were all white. “How do you feel? Did you get enough?”

“Did I…?” I shook my head. “I just fed off you, and you’re asking how I am?”

His brows knitted. “Why would I not?”

I stared at him, feeling tears crowd my eyes once more. “I love you,” I whispered.

Expression smoothing, a small smile appeared. “I know.”

My hand balled in the front of his shirt. “Thank you—”

“Don’t thank me for that, not for doing what I needed to do.”

His features blurred. “When am I supposed to thank you, Luc?”

“When I do something worth thanking me for.” The light receded from his pupils while I wondered what in the world he thought was worth more than what he’d just given me. “You saw something, didn’t you? When you fed?”

The question brought forth the image of me dressed in a sheet, swinging a lightsaber. I knew what I saw. It was me dressed as Princess Leia for Halloween. I knew that because Luc had told me about it.

“I saw your memories,” I whispered.

“Yeah. Should’ve warned you that could happen. When an Arum feeds, they can see memories and sometimes capture emotions. I wasn’t sure if you would, but I wanted to be prepared in case. I wanted you to see some of my good memories.”30Luc had needed more than an hour to recover. He’d needed the rest of the evening, but by nightfall, he’d been back to feeling like himself. Mostly. He’d fallen asleep pretty early, and I tried not to be too worried about that. Luc said he just needed to rest for the evening, and he’d be back to normal. I had to believe that.

As I’d lain beside him, no longer feeling like my stomach was trying to eat itself, an idea came to me. I’d quietly slipped out of bed and moved silently through the house. I gathered up several cans of food I didn’t think Luc or I would miss and placed them in a paper bag, along with a few bottles of water and another pack of fresh bread, but this time I added in something else. My eyesight had definitely improved, because I easily found an old notepad and pencil on the dark kitchen counter. I wrote a quick note to Nate, asking if he needed anything in particular. Dropping the pencil and a blank piece of paper in the bag, I started toward the door when I felt the presence of a Luxen. I didn’t think I was feeling Daemon, unless he was trying to get Adam to sleep and had roamed into the backyard.

Placing the bag on the counter, I cracked open the door. The scent of rain followed the wisps of cool air as I scanned the stoop and the backyard. The tingle of awareness increased—

“You sensed me, didn’t you?”

I didn’t jump at Grayson’s voice, for which I wanted to pat myself on the back. I stepped outside, closing the door behind me as Grayson appeared, having walked out from the narrow pathway that separated the house from Daemon and Kat’s.

“I did,” I admitted.

He tilted his head. “Well, that takes the fun out of sneaking around.”

My newly improved eyes could make out most of his features. He wasn’t looking at me but rather toward the bedroom. “I would say I’m sorry, but that would be a lie.”

Grayson smirked.

“Are you patrolling or something?” I asked.

“In other words, why am I here?” he countered.

I couldn’t see his eyes, but I could feel his gaze. “Pretty much.”

“I ran into Hunter.”

The muscles along my neck tensed. “He told you, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Of course he did.” I sighed, folding my arms. “I bet he took great pleasure in explaining what I had to do.”

“He did.” There was a hint of a smile on his face, but it was quick.

I now knew why Grayson was here. “Luc’s okay. He’s just sleeping right now. I didn’t take too much or hurt him,” I told him, cheeks heating as I focused on the firepit. I knew I shouldn’t be embarrassed. Obviously, this was something Arum had to do, and I didn’t have a choice. Not really. “And it’s not like I wanted to do it. We argued for most of the afternoon about it, but I…”

“You had to do it,” he finished, surprising me. “There is no way Luc would’ve allowed anything else. He probably would’ve sat on you until you fed.”

I coughed out a short laugh. “Probably.” Glancing over at him, I saw that he was staring toward the bedroom once more. “I won’t hurt him,” I blurted out. Slowly, Grayson faced me. “I know I did in the woods, but when I went after Sarah, I wanted to protect him. All of you. And the idea of doing anything that could hurt him, even if I don’t have control of myself, scares the living crap out of me. I couldn’t live with myself if I did.”