“But he has you, and don’t the other witches know you’re like a super-witch and going up against you would be a death sentence?”
“Thanks for thinking I’m awesome, but no, most of the witches in my coven don’t know about my new powers, and we’re trying to keep it that way. What occurred to you?”
“If Lucas hasn’t been a human for over a thousand years, then he’s susceptible to a ton of germs that weren’t around when he was alive.”
“What?”
“Think of it like this: you take someone from Rome in the 300s and bring them here, into the modern, dirty world. Their bodies won’t be equipped to fight off certain things. I’m no expert on this, but we’ve seen it in modern medicine before. Someone lives in complete isolation, and then when they come into contact with others, they get really sick from something that wouldn’t keep most from going into work.”
A chill goes through me. “So…what are you saying, Abby?”
“I’m saying if part of Lucas has become human, a common cold could kill him.”Chapter 5“Are you breathing?” I fidget in the driver’s seat of the McLaren, waiting for a car to pass so I can pull out of the parking spot. I threw away the bloody blanket and helped Abby sweep up the salt on the floor before we left.
“No,” Lucas says, looking me as if I just asked if the sky is purple.
“Are you sure? You said you still inhale and exhale as a habit.”
“Most vampires do, but it’s not functional breathing. Look.” He leans back in the seat and becomes perfectly still. I watch his bare chest not rise and fall for a good two minutes. “Not breathing.”
I nod and look back at the road. I didn’t tell Lucas that Abby heard a heartbeat. I wanted to, but I couldn’t get the words to come out. Not there, not with Phil watching.
Though part of me thinks Lucas already knows. That he can feel it and can hear the faint beating coming from deep inside his chest.
“Where are you going?” Lucas asks when I go down the block toward his house on North Orchard.
“To your—Eliza’s house.”
“I told you, I don’t want her to know.” He looks at me with annoyance on his handsome face. “Let’s go home.”
Lucas officially moved in with me after our wedding, and we’re crammed into my little farmhouse as the renovations are completed on the estate he bought me several months ago.
“My purse is in the house. With my phone.”
The annoyance on Lucas’s face grows.
“It’s not that I can’t be without it,” I go on before he can make a jab about me being addicted to my phone. “But Eliza will wonder why I left it, and you two had plans to hang out. She’ll know something is up.”
“I’ll call her and tell her I changed my mind.”
“Lucas,” I start and flick my eyes to him. “She’s going to find out. You can’t avoid her, especially after we just went two weeks without seeing her.”
Lucas looks straight ahead and just nods. Eliza is a grown-ass woman and, more importantly, a three-hundred-something-year-old vampire who was raised and trained by Lucas. She’s lethal.
Yet she’s the closest thing Lucas will ever have to a daughter of his own, and while Eliza can be a royal pain in the ass sometimes, he does whatever he can to protect her.
“Fine,” he huffs and lets his eyes fall shut. He needs to sleep for a few hours before we make the drive back to Indiana. We have time before sunrise.
I reach over and put my hand on his thigh. My heart is still racing, as it has been since Lucas was slashed across the stomach. I know exhaustion is going to hit me hard as soon as we get into the house, but right now, I’m still all jittery.
Slowly, I park the McLaren in the garage and rush around to help Lucas out. He waves his hand at me and struggles to get up himself.
“Let me help you,” I tell him, fully aware that some people have issues letting others help them in general. Lucas has been a big bad vampire for years. This has to be so weird to him.
“I’m—”
“Don’t even,” I warn. We get so far as opening the door to the house before Eliza comes rushing through the house.
“What the fuck is going on?” she demands, blue eyes flashing as she takes in the sight of Lucas.
“Help him in,” I tell her, struggling under Lucas’s heavy frame. Eliza pushes me out of the way and slips her arm around Lucas, easily able to hold him up.
“What the fuck is going on?” she repeats, voice cracking. “What happened?”
“Are you alone?” I ask, shutting the door behind us and taking my shoes off, realizing now just how much blood is all over me.