Davy lifted her arms up. She closed her eyes, too, and started to say the words.
And Gavin moved.
His hands grasped both sides of her face, and as she stiffened in reflex, he snapped her neck. He let her fall. He didn’t catch her. This wasn’t a normal being. Another vampire and he knew they would have a few hours before they woke. This was Davy. She was something entirely else, and he had no idea how long she’d be out.
He turned to Tracey and Gregory, saying, “We have to go. Now.”
They both nodded, and in the blink of an eye, the vampires were gone. They snatched the humans with them.
Davy’s body was left on the ground.
Davy’s eyes snapped open, but she didn’t move from the ground. She remained there, staring at the sky, as she realized what happened.
“Well.” The Immortal sat next to her, her legs crisscrossed. “I can’t say that I didn’t think this was going to happen.”
Davy turned her head to the side. She knew only she could see The Immortal, dressed just as herself, but she didn’t care. In fact, as she remembered Gavin snapping her neck and the others were gone now, she didn’t care about that either.
In fact, she didn’t care to comment back to The Immortal so she remained there and looked back to the sky.
She used to care . . .
Why had she cared . . . What had she cared about?
It was nagging her, in the back of her mind, but she couldn’t remember. Humanity. That was what she had been talking to the humans about when Gavin broke her neck. Was that what it was? Was that what was missing from her now?
“I’m dead,” she spoke out loud, as much to herself as to The Immortal.
“Yep.” The Immortal sighed, sounding impatient. “You are. Welcome to the official world of Immortality.”
“My human body is dead.”
“And you’re still here. Still talking. Still breathing, well—” The Immortal leaned over and pressed her ear to Davy’s chest. She paused, then straightened back up. “—you don’t need breath anymore, but you’re still breathing because that’s what is natural to your body.”
“Like vampires.”
“I guess.” The Immortal let out another sharp sigh, glancing around. “I think we should get going. The Mori aren’t far now. We can get there before nightfall.”
Yes. That was what Davy had been thinking about—the Mori. She needed to get there. She needed to take their magic. She wanted their power too. That was all she’d been focused on before, but now, she had a moment to rethink. Her neck being snapped wasn’t something
to be taken lightly. This was important. It meant something important . . . or it should.
Davy moved her head, her eyes finding The Immortal again.
She was just like herself. Her brown hair was longer. Her dark eyes were watching her back, but while Davy felt shut off inside, The Immortal’s eyes had a glimmer of rage, impatience, and thirst. She wanted more. She needed more. She was going to demand more. Davy was separate from The Immortal right now. Before they had been walking side by side. Their hands had grazed each other’s. Davy knew the others couldn’t see The Immortal, but she was among them as much as they were. But there was distance between herself and The Immortal right now. Davy could think for herself . . . or so she thought.
She mused to herself, “What if I stayed here?”
“That’s a joke, right?”
Davy shook her head. The sky was clear, but some stars were starting to show. It’d be dark in a few hours. She could do it. She could stay there. She could watch the rest of the stars appear and she could wait, do whatever she wanted. The Mori weren’t leaving. No one was going anywhere. She could do as Gavin had requested for the humans. She could rest—that was what she would’ve done before.
She had been human before.
She would’ve needed to sleep as well, just like Cal and Spencer.
Davy frowned, marring the lines on her forehead. She brought them to her for the very reason she just tried to kill them for. Humanity. Weakness. Emotions. She had been trying to hold onto it, but it was gone.
She knew that now.