“For what?”
She gave me a sad smile. “You know what. ”
Like a door unlocking, memories slid into place. And the last one was of a pale stranger looming over me and the hot taste of blood. “Oh—no. ”
“It was the only way to save you. He never would have allowed it otherwise. And I’m just as guilty as him—they were here because I asked. ” She swallowed. “I wanted you to have a choice. I didn’t want you to die. ”
“Am I…” like you was what I was going to say, but it was clear that I was not. My skin still had color, and I could hear my own pulse. Anna had a pulse too, being living and all, but hers was not like mine.
I knew because I could hear it, beating inside her.
“Oh, no,” I said again, more quietly.
She shook her head. “You can tame it, Edie. You’re not one of us, yet. And nothing says you have to be. Daytimers die all the time without knowing another drop of vampire blood. ”
“I would have never—” I began.
She stiffened and looked over her shoulder at something I couldn’t hear, then leaned in to whisper quickly. “You’ll have a week of almost invulnerability before the blood goes thin—and don’t think ill of me. No matter what stories you hear. ”
I nodded because I knew I was supposed to, even if everything was still too much for me to take in. The door behind her opened up, and Asher arrived. What would he make of daytimer-me?
“Edie?” he asked, looking at me in relief. “You’re alive. ”
I nodded hesitantly. “So far?”
He crossed the room to me in a rush and took me in his arms and I knew everything would be all right.
“Oh Edie—” His arms folded around me and he held me to his chest. “I couldn’t just let you die. ” My beloved, ever strong for me, broke down into sobs. I hopped off the table I was on and fit under his arm just like I always did. He held me close and kissed my face, his hot tears sticking between us.
If our positions were reversed, I would never let him die. It was unfair, even if this … was unthinkable. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” I tried to soothe him, running my hands through his hair. “We’ll just pretend this never happened. We’ll be fine. ”
He held me like he wanted to press me inside himself, and I would have been fine with that. After all we’d been through I didn’t want him to ever let me go again. “I can’t believe we made it. We survived. ” I assumed that if all this had been done for the sake of our child, I in turn still carried it. “Did anyone else make it out?”
Asher nodded, as Anna answered me. “They were turned into daytimers like you were, earlier yesterday. Your smaller raft took longer to find. ”
I blinked and pulled away from Asher’s chest. “Turned?”
“They were all infected, as were you. ”
At least I knew vampires existed before one turned me. “Wow. ” I shook my head and dove back into Asher’s safe chest. Everything was over. We were finally safe. Changed, but safe. If we were alive—there was hope. I smiled and looked up at Asher, but he didn’t look happy yet.
“Hey—I’m scared too. But we’ll figure it out somehow,” I told him. And I remembered what the Shadows had told me—“It’s a boy. We’re having a boy. ”
Happiness lit his face, “Oh, Edie—” There was a knock at the door
behind him, and he bit his lips and bowed his head again.
“Is the family reunion over?” someone asked, and didn’t wait for permission to come in.
“Edie, meet Raven,” Anna said, introducing the stranger who entered.
Raven smiled at me, as toothy as a shark. “We’ve already met. ”
“I apologize, but,” Anna went on, her gaze serious and dark, old beyond her years, “my coffin didn’t make it here in time. I was two thousand miles away from you when I was notified. I had to call in favors before I could get here myself. ”
Raven smiled at her in turn. He looked like one of those vampires in the movie Asher and I had watched, with long black hair and clothing that was shiny. “Whoever would think that someday I would be in a position of power over you?”
The private kindness Anna showed toward me left her. “One human life isn’t precisely a position of power. ”
“You’re fond of her or you wouldn’t be here. It’s too late for lies. ” His lips rose up, and between the paleness of his skin and the oil slick of his clothing, he looked like the reflection of something a whale spit up on the beach. He turned toward me, still snarling. “You’re now my servant. And it’s time to go. ”
“Wait—what?”
“Time to go,” he commanded again. And just as when Claire had ordered me, I couldn’t disobey. I let go of Asher and stepped away. Asher stepped with me, trying to hold me back.
“No—” I protested.
“There’s no need to be cruel,” Anna said.
“Let me remind you whose territory you are in, Beastly One. ”
Anna stood taller and got that look in her eye that said she was going to make people pay. “The last Beast alive. I am no stranger to blood. ”
Raven gave her a withering smile. “Right now if I die, she dies. My blood inside her is very fresh. ” He snapped his fingers. “Girl, come. ”