“Let me go,” Ginny shouted. “Please.”
Was that her voice?
She sounded almost possessed, but caring was beyond her at that moment. Who cared about anything when her heart was being wrenched up to her jugular, over and over again? He’s in there. He needs me.
“Jonas!”
The lights sizzled in the hallway, dimming, brightening, like a pulse. And then came another roar, this time of her name.
Her lungs seized, her skin feeling like shrink wrap on her bones.
With an agonized whimper, Ginny twisted in Roksana’s grip, noticing that Tucker and Elias were now holding her back, too—and that made them the enemy.
“Let me in,” she begged, eyeing the apartment door like it was heaven’s gates.
“Not until you listen,” Elias snapped, the steel band of his arm wrapped around the breadth of her shoulders from behind. “Believe me, I’m on your side. I know you going in there is inevitable, but we need to prepare you first.”
Roksana pressed a cool hand to Ginny’s check and nodded at her slowly. “He’s okay. He’s going to be okay.”
Apparently that was exactly what she needed to hear, because she dropped like a puppet with severed strings, Elias and Roksana lowering her the rest of the way to the floor. “Why does he sound like that? What’s wrong?”
The slayer sat in front of her on the floor, cross legged, and took Ginny’s hands. “This might be a little scary. We should have drunk more tequila.” She shifted. “Last night, when Jonas tasted your blood, it became obvious to him that you are his mate.”
Warm pleasure blew across Ginny’s senses at the word and she stared longingly at the door. “What exactly does that mean? His mate?”
And why do I like it so much?
Roksana hesitated. “Well…”
“I had an inkling when I saw the way he behaved around you,” Elias said quietly behind her. “But it’s not supposed to be possible for our kind to have a mate…twice.”
Jonas’s words, spoken days earlier, came back to her. I felt something like love once, a long, long time ago. Probably before your parents were born.
“He’s had a mate before,” Ginny pushed through bloodless lips.
“Briefly,” Tucker confirmed. “Very briefly. But the length of time doesn’t matter. It’s fate. A connection. For Jonas, both times his mate has been human.”
“Which is not only very unusual, Ginny,” Roksana said slowly, her gaze uncharacteristically sympathetic. “It comes with some…difficulties.”
“What are they?” Suddenly none of them would look at her. Not even Elias, who didn’t seem the type to hesitate while delivering bad news. “Just tell me.”
“A vampire senses his mate, but until he tastes her blood, he remains Silenced,” Roksana explained. “Last night…you made his heart beat again.”
Pure joy caused her lungs to seize. “How is that a bad thing?” Ginny cried. “Is he…human now?”
Tucker squatted down beside her, sympathy etched in his features. “Far from it. Still can’t be exposed to the sun, still has his abilities and needs blood to sustain himself. He’s actually more vampiric than before—and Roksana is right. It comes with a lot of complications.” He sighed. “Now that’s he’s tasted his human mate’s blood, he can’t drink from anyone or anywhere else.” He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Or he can…but it won’t make a dent in the thirst. Won’t nourish him and he’ll…”
“Weaken,” Elias said succinctly. “Die.”
Ginny’s ribs caved inward. “No.” She shook her head and tried to gain her feet once more, pushing at Roksana’s traitorous hands. “You weren’t going to tell me this? You thought I would let him die?”
“He made me promise,” she said, lunging to her feet in between Ginny and the door, fending her off with outstretched hands. “Put yourself in his position. He doesn’t want you to spend your life as a…as a-a—”
“Snack,” Elias pronounced. “A permanent one. Every day of your life.”
The ground shook under the intensity of Jonas’s next bellow. Dust puffed down from the ceiling, distracting her three friends long enough to allow Ginny to lunge for the door, shaking the handle. “Open it. Let me go to him.”
“Think first, sweetheart,” Tucker said, oh-so-casually laying a hand on the door to keep it closed. “He’s our friend. He saved our lives, once upon a time. We don’t want to watch him die any more than you do. But he made his wishes clear.”
Ginny’s mind went back to their conversation in the alley outside the bar. Before she truly knew what they were talking about. “Elias said he wouldn’t want to keep me away if he knew the separation was causing me pain.”
“Pain that will subside if he…” Elias paced down the hallway and halted, hands on hips. “When he eventually goes.”
Every snapping nerve ending in her body screamed at her to get inside the apartment, but she bore down hard on the impulse, attempting to break through the hold desperation had on her. Something inside of her was alive, like a current. And it ran directly to Jonas. But she was her own person. She was a single, solitary woman and in that moment, a trail diverged in front of her.