by Pam Godwin
Her mocha skin creased with concern as she studied my eyes. She might’ve been my mother’s best friend and Eddie’s biological mother, but she’d been a mother to me in every way that mattered.
I gripped her wrists, and a sudden sheen of tears blurred my eyes. “I died, Shea.”
“I know,” she said softly. “Salem told us everything.”
Everything? I doubted that. Even so, there was one thing he didn’t know.
“I saw her.” More tears gathered, clinging to my lashes. “She…she spoke to me.”
Shea was a strong woman, one of the strongest people I knew. So when that brave chin of hers quivered, I lost it. A sob bubbled up and brought with it a gush of emotions I could no longer contain. She held me as I cried, and the sound of her tears made me weep harder.
I told her about my death, the brilliant light of my mother’s aura, the words we’d exchanged, and the peacefulness she’d radiated. My voice wavered through the details, and when I reached the part about the dimming light and the rush of coldness, a sharp inhale sounded behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder and found my fathers standing inside the open door. By the tormented looks on their faces, they’d heard every word.
“We’ll catch up later, baby girl.” Shea cupped my face and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Go easy on them, okay?”
Me go easy? If Salem told them everything, that advice should’ve been directed to them.
She headed toward the doorway and squeezed Jesse’s hand on her way out.
I climbed out of bed, shocked by the energy and strength in my legs as I hurried toward them. They didn’t grimace or smile or move to hug me, their postures rigid. The mere fact they weren’t yelling at me gave me pause.
“What’s wrong?” I scanned them from head to toe, taking in their bulky frames, rugged trousers, and heavy boots.
Nothing looked out of place, but everything about them felt…off.
Roark flexed a hand at his side, and I zoomed in on the torn skin on his knuckles.
Oh, no. I stepped toward him and grabbed his wrist. “Please tell me Salem wasn’t on the other end of this.”
He pinned his lips together, green eyes flashing with unreadable emotion.
The blood around the broken skin had dried, but the wound hadn’t healed. My heart thundered.
“You’re not healing?” Could it be? I looked up at his mouth. “Let me see your teeth.”
His lips twitched and pulled back. No fangs.
I gasped and dropped his hand, careening on unsteady feet toward Jesse and Michio. They bared their straight human teeth before I asked.
“Holy shit.” I clutched my throat. “Did you revert back in every way? Your strength, speed—?”
“Take it easy.” Michio gripped my arm and pulled me in for a hug. “We lost our fangs and all other hybrid traits just after dusk last night.”
“When I died,” I whispered. Hope flared inside me. “What about the hybrids?”
Jesse erupted in a burst of motion through the room. “You sacrificed your life?” He swung back, copper eyes ablaze with fury. “Did you think, for one fucking moment, what your death would’ve done to us?”
“Yes.” I raised my chin, shoulders back. “It was the only way. I had to die for them.”
“Them? The hybrids?” he shouted. “How the fuck did you know that?”
“The punishment for sin is death.” Except I lived.
“Sin?” Jesse glared at me in furious disbelief. “What sins?”
“Romans 3:23.” Roark rested his fingers on his chin, his expression grooved with pain and wonder. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
I’d listened to Roark’s teachings my entire life and sometimes leaned on aspects of his beliefs, but religion had nothing to do with my decision to die. Faith, however, had been the determining factor. Faith in my mother, myself, and mankind.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes,” I said quietly. “I was too proud to forgive. Too cruel to show mercy. I tried everything to fulfill my role as the prophecy, when all I needed to do was just be humble, scared, and human.”
“Christ, Dawn.” Jesse embraced me, but it only lasted a moment. He released me to pace through the room, rubbing his face.
“Did it work?” A ragged breath crept into my resolve. “What happened to the hybrids? Are Salem and Erebus cured?”
“They’re cured.” Michio’s soft voice drifted over my shoulder. When I turned, he said, “We’ve sent out patrols and haven’t found a hybrid within a twenty miles radius.”
“But there are scads of confused, newly-cured humans.” Roark cradled my face in his big hands. “God accepted His lamb’s sacrifice, and he fulfilled another prophecy by raising her from the dead.” His eyes softened, and he pressed my cheek against his chest. “Ye saved them, me beautiful girl.”
My heart leapt to my throat.
“We don’t all share your beliefs, Roark.” Jesse paced around me, his glare burning up my cheeks. “Salem told us what he did to you. After that traumatic experience—all his lying and cheating—self-injury can feel like a way of waking up from the numbness.” He stabbed a finger at the door. “He sent you away, and you—”
“He let me go!” Heat rushed across my skin, and I pulled away from Roark to face Jesse head on. “I didn’t make the decision to die because I was a scorned woman. It wasn’t some dramatic fuck-you to Salem. It wasn’t even suicide. I didn’t end my life. The hybrids did.”
“You didn’t fight back!” Jesse roared. “That isn’t the girl I raised.”
“Jesse.” Roark narrowed hard eyes at him.
“No, Da.” I touched Roark’s arm. “He’s right. I didn’t fight back. When I left Salem, I was devastated and hopeless and miserable. Maybe I wouldn’t have made such a morbid decision under different conditions. But I did it. And it. Felt. Right.” I turned toward Michio and pressed a hand against my gut. “It felt right, Dad.”
Michio wrapped his arms around me. “Jesse knows that. We all do. Doesn’t mean we like it.”
“But they’re cured.” I gripped the back of his shirt. “My death cured them, right?”
“We’ll know more tomorrow when the rest of our scouts return.” Michio rubbed my back. “Per Erebus’ account of the events, he and the other hybrids lost their fangs the moment your heart stopped.”
“What about Salem? Why was he there?” I was beside myself with anxiousness to talk to him and see him and hold him.
“He wanted to make sure you arrived home safely.” Michio rested his hands on my shoulders. “He said when he left Las Vegas at sundown, he still had his inhuman speed.”
“Did he tell you he could run faster than sound?” I asked.
“Yes, and he managed to run most of the distance—”
“Until I died.” I’d stolen his power and strength, had truly emasculated him in every way. My heart sank.
Michio closed his eyes, nodded.
Jesse sat on the edge of the bed and put his head in his hands. Roark joined him, gripping the back of Jesse’s neck and staring at the floor.
Michio met my gaze. “Salem was almost there when your heart stopped. He ran the rest of the way at human speed. He could still see his veins and knew the hybrid venom hadn’t left his blood. So he cut himself, tried to make you drink from his vein.”
“Hoping the venom would cure me.” I rubbed the unmarked skin on my wrist. “He saved me. All this time, those silver things in his blood—”
“They were never meant to save humans or hybrids.” Michio kissed my head. “They were meant to save you.”
“Why did I lose consciousness a second time…after I bit him?”
“Your fucking jugular was ripped out,” Jesse said, his voice rough. “Your body shut down to heal the damage.”
A knot hardened in my throat. “What if I’d bitten him while he still had hybrid traits?”
“I suspect you would’ve carried the venom inside you until y
ou needed it,” Michio said. “Maybe it would’ve prevented you from dying. Maybe you would’ve died from blood loss, and the venom would’ve brought you back. With regard to Salem…I don’t know. Biting him when he was wholly human is probably why he didn’t turn to ash. We’ll never know for sure.”
Wholly human. A sudden thought accelerated my pulse. “What time is it? Has he been outside?”
“The sun doesn’t come up for another thirty minutes,” Michio said.
“Where is he?” I darted toward the door.
“Elaine’s old room,” Roark said.
“What?” I spun around, my blood rising to a boil. “Why would you put him there?”
“Seemed fitting.” Roark flexed his swollen knuckles. “The lad’s bloody lucky to be alive.”
For fuck’s sake. I ran out of the room and down the corridor cast in the yellow glow of overhead bulbs. The comforting scent of limestone and old cement tinged the air, an aroma deeply ingrained in so many wonderful memories.
My fathers didn’t follow me as I darted from tunnel to tunnel, passing numerous closed doors. The residents were still asleep, but not for long. The sun was coming. I picked up my pace.
A moment later, the final tunnel dropped me into a long hall. One of Eddie’s fathers, Paul, stood outside the room that had been gutted and left untouched for twenty years.
His huge eyes widened, his smile bright against his dark skin. “There you are!”
I gave him a fierce hug. “Did you take good care of Shea while I was gone?”
“I try.” He laughed. “You know how it is.”
The trials and tribulations of a relationship? Yeah, I knew. I also knew the effort could bring the purest form of joy.
“We have a lot of catching up to do, but my priority is in that room.” I nudged him down the hall. “I’ll take it from here. Tell Eddie Senior I’m starving and expecting a huge breakfast.”
“You got it.” He ruffled my hair. “Good to have you back, kiddo.”
I watched him lumber away and opened the door to the room.
Two men leapt to their feet, and my gaze went unerringly to the one who held my heart.
Salem stood in a shadowy realm all his own, cloaked in seductive darkness where nothing existed outside of him and me and the connection thrumming between us. No more backward glances. No more distrust. Everything faded away, leaving only the man with the spectral eyes that devoured me head to toe. I did the same, stepping closer to peruse the masculine lines of his perfect form.
My breath caught at the sight of his face. Broken skin swelled around his translucent eyes, his nose bent and bruised. Roark had done that to him, and I’d taken away Salem’s ability to heal the damage.
“I’m so sorry.” I covered my mouth. “And this room…” I grimaced at the cold barrenness of the space. “They shouldn’t have put you in here.”
“I don’t care about the room. Come here.” His command was deep, uncompromising, and deliciously Salem.
I moved toward him, glancing at the other man, and stopped. Erebus grinned at me—a grin that bulged beneath angry lacerations. He sported the same swelling on his eyes and nose, and his arm wrapped around his ribs as if nursing other injuries.
“Did Roark hit you, too?” I asked him, clenching my hands.
“I did.” Salem’s eyes flickered with challenge.
“Why?” My stomach pinched with guilt. “I asked him to stay with me. He’s the reason I wasn’t raped.”
“He fucking bit you. He’s damn lucky to still be breathing.”
Same thing Roark had said about Salem.
I turned back to Erebus and found his blue gaze amid the nasty contusions. “Are you…free? Did it work?”
“I’m human for the first time in my life.” His fang-less smile outshone the bruises on his face. “I’ve never felt more alive. I’d hug you—”
Salem’s growl reverberated through the room.
“I’ll have to settle on simply saying thank you.” He bowed his head.
My own fangs hadn’t returned in Salem’s presence, not that I expected to ever see them again. They’d served their purpose.
A floating sensation lifted through me. “Thank you, Erebus, for staying with me last night.”
“You’re welcome.”
Both men wore borrowed clothes, their hair wet and wounds cleaned. I could only imagine how much blood they’d been covered in—mine and theirs.
“You’re not a captive here,” I said to Erebus. “You’re free to go. Or stay. Breakfast is usually served at seven.”
“I’ll stick around for a bit.” He gave Salem a grin and a chin lift and left the room.
When the door shut behind Erebus, I drew a deep breath and turned to Salem.
He loomed at the back of the room, his black hair messy from tugging, his gaze overly bright and glossy. It wasn’t the gashes on his face that made him look broken and tortured. It was the stiff way he held himself, the vigilance in which he tracked my every move, and the breath he held as if the tiniest movement might spook me into running. Now that we were alone, his entire demeanor spoke of uncertainty.
I looked him directly in the eye. “I forgive you.”
His relief was palpable, parting his lips and loosening the muscles in his face.
“I love you.” I stepped toward him. “I’ve loved you since Canada, and I’m sick to my soul for waiting until now to tell you.”
“Dawn…” he croaked, moving toward me.
I met him halfway and launched into his arms.
“You let me go.” I hugged him fiercely, burying my nose in his neck and inhaling the scent I thought I’d never smell again. “Yet here you are.”
“I never said I wouldn’t follow you. I intended to watch you from afar, to keep an eye—”
“Stalker.” I kissed him. I couldn’t help myself.
He crushed me against him, arms gripping oh-so tightly, and kissed me back. Then we were spinning, and my back collided against the wall, my body pinned in the best way possible. The powerful flex of his muscles wasn’t as strong as it had been. The roll of his tongue wasn’t as lightning fast. But the connection between us blazed hotter than ever.
I’d risen from an emotional numbness and physical death with a clarity that made every touch feel like the first. The slide of his tongue against mine zapped my nerves to life. Everywhere our body made contact—lips, arms, hips, chests—was a static shock. The hungry rush of his breath, the heat of his skin through his clothes, the scrape of his whiskers—
“What the—?” I wrapped my fingers behind his neck to prevent escape. “You have stubble.”
Hardly enough to call it a shadow, the hair growth was indiscernible to the eye. I lifted on tiptoes and pulled him to me, rubbing my cheek along his and relishing the scratchy burn.
“I take it you like it.” He chuckled, and the sound shivered deliciously across my skin.
“I love you.” I kissed him, slowly, melting into his embrace and cursing every inch of cotton that separated us. “I missed you so much,” I breathed into his mouth. “I’ve been so numb and stupid and stubborn I couldn’t feel you. But I feel you now, your heat all around me, the power in your body, your love sparking through our connection.” I licked his lips, bit along his chin, and returned to his mouth, twining my tongue with his. “Do you hate me for making you so human?”
“I fucking love you, Dawn.” He yanked me back for another kiss, bruising my lips.
I pulled back. “When I bit you, did you know you would live?”
“I knew you would live. I could see the venom in my veins.” He captured my mouth.
This man had been ready to die for me, and his kisses would forever remind me how close I’d been to losing him.
I broke the kiss again. “When I lost consciousness, there was an explosion of light. Did you see that?”
He gripped the backs of my legs and lifted me up the wall, wrapping my thighs around his waist and holding me in place with th
e press of his body. “Your bite had an uncontrollable effect on me.”
“You were hard.” My eyes widened. “Did you come? Is that what I felt?”
“Yeah.” He slid a hand into my hair, holding my face as he pressed his smile against my lips. “Not the first time you made me come in my pants. Probably not the last.”
I laughed. “Our love is stubborn and messy.”
“It’s trial and error.” He licked my mouth, nibbling and exploring.
“And forgiveness and acceptance.”
“Command and conquer.” He bit my lips.
“Dusk and dawn.” I bit him back.
“I want you,” he said as a tremor shook through his body.
“Mm. I want you to see the sunrise.”
“I see it, and she’s never been more beautiful.”
The strong thud of my reborn heart rushed through my ears. What if the sun could still hurt him?
“We can view it from my mother’s garden,” I said. “There’s an overhang there—”
“All right.” He trailed fingers across my cheek. “Show me this dawn that will never be as stunning as the one I have.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
With a flutter in my belly, I led Salem toward the statue of my mother amid the blooming vegetation. The garden sat on the roof of the generator room at the bottom of the dam. No one was here this early in the morning. Just him and me and lots of hidden alcoves to quench the hunger burning along our connection. Every time he turned those gorgeous glowing eyes in my direction, he was in danger of finding out exactly how much I missed every hard inch of him.
But the real danger lay to the east, behind the red-rock canyon. The sky paled above the open rafters of the garden. The sun would be up any minute.
I halted just outside the cover of an overhang and the door that led inside the dam. If his skin started burning, protection was a two-second sprint away.
He tipped his head back, taking in the colossal wall of the Hoover Dam. “I knew it was big, but damn.”
“That’s what she said.”
“She says a lot of things.” His lips twitched.
I waved a hand up and down my body. “Five feet of pleasure and a ball of energy. I’m dripping with come backs.”
