“Are you in very much pain? Do you think you can make it home, or…?”
Looking into his gorgeous eyes and being surrounded by the scent that turned my stomach to mush, I was sure I’d never love another person as much as I loved the man standing in front of me. He was so caring, so gal ant, so passionately in love with me that I could al but feel it seeping into my skin through his fingertips. And, truthful y, nothing had ever felt so good.
“I can make it. I’m okay,” I assured him, reaching up to lay my hand over his. “Thank you for what you said to Savannah.”
Bo shrugged.
“Why thank me? It was the truth.”
“I guess I just didn’t realize that you saw me that way.”
“You’re perfect and that’s exactly how I see you. You’re warm and compassionate, you’re strong and capable.
Everything about you makes me want to be a better person.”
Even as my cheeks flushed with what little blood was left circulating in my body, I felt my heart swel to the point of bursting at his words.
“I can think of a thousand reasons I don’t deserve you and that just makes me love you that much more.”
“It’s no more than I love you,” I said quietly, mesmerized by Bo, by his touch and his eyes, by the sweet magic of the moment. I was captivated by the sheer pleasure of his words, especial y knowing that, in al likelihood, he’d be gone from my life one day.
“Ridley, I’m going to find a way to work al this out. I won’t leave you to spend eternity alone. Time can come and go, but I’l never leave your side.”
I wanted so desperately to believe him, but I just didn’t see a way for that to happen. Rather than letting facts ruin the moment, though, I simply nodded in agreement.
“There’s nothing I want more.”
His eyes scanned my face, as if he was taking in every fading detail and committing it to memory.
“I love you, Ridley Hel er.”
He said it with such conviction, such sincerity, I couldn’t help but smile as my heart fluttered around in my chest.
There were no words that I needed to hear more than those.
“I love you, too, Jonathan Bowman, Boaz, Bjorn, whoever you are that stole my heart. Whenever it is that I final y die and leave this world, I’l die loving you.”
Bo dipped his head and brushed his lips over mine in the most loving, heartfelt kiss we’d ever shared. It was tender and sad and it said al the things that we both knew deep down, but refused to speak aloud. It said that forever might not come for us. It said that our days were likely numbered and that our ending might not be so happy. It said that we have now—right now—and that’s it. We have no promises for tomorrow, only right now and we had to seize the day, the hour, the moment.
When he leaned back and our eyes met again, volumes were spoken, though neither of us said a word. Instead, through our silence, we were agreeing to leave it unsaid until later.
Without a sound, Bo reached down and took my hand. He led me back to Sebastian’s, back to our room, back to our hiding place.
The house was dark and quiet when we returned. I could only assume that Cade was sleeping since he was, in fact, mostly human and that Annika was either resting or hunting.
Either way, I didn’t care as long as she wasn’t around.
Bo led me straight back to the room that I was beginning to think of as “ours” and shut the door behind us. When he turned to me, the look on his face clearly indicated his intentions. Excitement skittered along my nerves and within seconds I could smel the passion warming his blood.
My mouth watered and I felt the subtle shifting in my gums that I was starting to associate with my teeth becoming fang-like. Desire slithered through me like a sensuous snake, intertwining with the need for blood in a way that was making it hard to separate one urge from the other.
The shril chirp of my cel phone barely penetrated the haze that was overtaking me. Bo had no such problem, though. It broke his focus instantly.
When I made no move to dig the little square out of my pocket, Bo slid his fingers into the snug slit of my jeans and worked it out. I could’ve cared less about the phone. Heat seemed to shoot out from his fingertips and set my core on fire.
“Savannah,” Bo announced softly, holding the phone out to me.
I wanted to turn and throw it through the window, but there were no windows in “our” room. Instead, I sighed and begrudgingly took the phone from him.
“Hel o?”
“Omigod, Ridley! They took Devon. They took Devon!”
The sensual fog lifted immediately, my mind honing in on Savannah with sharp clarity.
“Who? Who took him Savannah? What are you talking about?”
She began to sob.
“I think it was my mother.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
I had no idea what to say to that. I could tel by Savannah’s voice that her heart was breaking.
“I couldn’t see her this time, but I heard a woman whisper and it sounded like her. And I could smel roses,” she cried miserably.
“Savannah, was she alone? Did you hear anything else?”
I knew I could count on her picking up on any extraneous sounds. Since she’d lost her sight, Savannah’s hearing was probably nearly as sharp as a vampire’s.
“I think there might’ve been someone with her,” she sniffled. “I could see a tal , dark shape, but nothing clear. It sort of looked like the silhouette of a man, but there was something around him, almost like there was something coming out from him, from his back.”
I thought of Sebastian flexing his dark angel’s wings that night in the hidden room, the one just above my head, and I wondered if that was what Savannah was somehow seeing.
“Did you hear him say anything?”
“I heard the woman whispering to someone, asking if he was sure ‘he’ was the one, I guess referring to Devon.”
“Okay, wait. Back up and tel me exactly what happened.”
“You and Bo had just left and Devon was standing outside my window. He was getting ready to come inside when I saw his head jerk around. I guess he either heard or smel ed them or something. Anyway, he backed up and turned around and then everything happened so fast, he was just there one minute and gone the next.”
“Is that when you heard the voices?”
“Yeah. When Devon turned around, I saw the shape kind of come over Devon, like the darkness sort of swal owed him up, and then the woman asked if he was the one. No one ever answered her, though. The darkness just sort of melted away and they were gone. But I could smel her, Ridley. She smel ed like roses. She smel ed like Mom.”