Daughter of Nyx (Book Three)

Chapter Twenty

Twenty minutes later, she was eating, because she said she would.

Bonding when already low in blood wasn't smart, though, she was glad she did it. She could feel him and she didn't grieve him being gone.

Her loved ones sat with her as she told them about the phone call and Ramon's kindness to help keep her safe.

"The next thing to worry about is the meeting with the owner of the house. I have no idea why she would want to meet face to face, her having to fly over from London."

"Eccentric people live all over the world. I'm sure there is no reason to worry," Elliot said before glancing at Nikolas.

Nikolas met her eyes, the gray as calm as the wind before a storm. "We'll need to do something to celebrate."

"That would be amazing," she said, smiling. "A night where there is nothing to worry about, no fear, no panic. Just..."

"Us," Elliot said and she nodded.

"Us," she said.

Why did his smile send a shiver down her spine?

She frowned but Caleb spoke up. "So, have you been thinking about ideas for renovating? Modernizing?"

One last glance at Elliot and his unreadable eyes then she gave her attention to her blue-eyes love.

At one point, she asked Trey if he would go with her to the signing and he rolled his eyes. "You know I won't let you go alone.

Time passed and ideas were shared and had she ever been so content? She could only imagine what it would feel like when Jaylen was beside her and Trey had bonded with her. That was the only sour note of the night.

She hated what he was going to go through for her. But he was right. It was his choice. And she would do nothing to diminish it. She wouldn't beg, or plead. She wouldn't offer herself to take some of his torment, which she had considered awfully hard. This was his, in the most personal sense of the word. And she knew, she would have to go through it herself.

Draven may care about her...sometimes... but she knew the depth of his need. And she could only hope that he never ordered her to claw through her own skin, break her own ribs, to tickle her beating heart. Because she was human. She couldn't pull it out and put it back in. Jonathan's words came back to her. If you take a heart from another vampire, and if the body is fresh enough, the blood recognizes blood. The perfect transplant with zero chance of rejection. Probably less than zero if it's your own heart.

Hands touched her shoulders. It had to be him. Could he read her face? Did he know that she grieved for him?

She sat up straight, not willing to make less of his ordeals either. He didn't get to make a choice and that made it so much worse.

Touching the fingers gently rubbing her shoulders, she threw herself into conversation and barely thought of whiskey.

After a while, she excused herself to go to sleep.

She didn't want to, but there, again, were things she had to do the next day. Almost forgetting, she texted Ramon the time for the walk-through. Praying it wouldn't wake him up, she hit send. She would email Mrs. Davies when she woke and let her know what was going on and when she could be expected to arrive.

The sadness didn't come at the thought of selling. Not now. Not after listening to the others talking about it and showing support and excitement. There were going to have to be additions, because there were a lot of them and as much as she might want it, she wasn't going to curl up in a pile of vampire flesh every morning and everyone needed space. No matter how thrilling the idea was, that was a no. How big of a bed would it need to be anyway? Could she find one big enough, even if she wanted? Perhaps a sunken bed, so that no one fell out... What would the contractor think? Why should she care? Sheets... Maybe a few mattresses and just get...