Afterlight

I didn’t want to sound like a baby, although it felt as though fire ripped through my veins. “I feel fine.”

“You are a terrible liar, chère,” Eli whispered. “I’ll tell Estelle. She can get you something for the pain.” His soft lips pressed against my forehead. “I’ll be right back.”

I couldn’t move; my body felt stiff and weighted. But my other senses worked fine, and I smelled . . . the salt water. Not old, briny air, but fresh, salty air. A breeze drifted over my face, and I felt the warmth of the sun beaming in through . . . something.

“You’re at Da Island, baby,” said another familiar voice.

I smiled. “Preacher man.” I tried to find his hand, but I couldn’t move.

He found mine, and I felt his large calluses as he cradled my palm. “You know how to make an old man skip a heartbeat, dat’s right,” he said. “I almost lost you, baby. If it wasn’t for dat Eli and his brodders and sister, and his modder and fadder . . .” He let the words drift off. “I’d take a stick to your backside if you was well enough.”

I smiled again. “You can make good on that as soon as I can lift my own arms.”

Finally, my fuzzy sight became clearer; I looked into Preacher’s dark, handsome face. “What happened?” I was on a cot in an open-air cabin on Da Island. Seagulls screamed overhead; the smell of the ocean engulfed me. It was like . . . heaven.

Preacher looked down at me and tapped my nose. “Dat’s a story for your Eli to tell. He was right dere after you passed out.”

“Who threw me?” I asked.

“That was me,” Luc said, walking up. “No one’s ever accused you of being a lightweight, huh, Riley?”

I squinted through the filtered sunlight and smiled. “Since I can’t lift my arms, I’m flipping you the bird in my mind,” I said. “Thanks, Luc.”

“No prob, cuz,” he answered.

Estelle arrived with . . . whatever it was she concocted, Eli by her side. She gave me a sip of it, handed the cup to Eli, and left. He sat beside me. “What do you remember?”

I thought a few seconds. “Everything up until your brother tossed me,” I said. “Valerian?”

Eli’s gaze hardened. “Dead.”

Relief gripped me. “Victorian?”

Eli glanced away, then returned his gaze to mine. “Not dead, but he’s gone. Ned can’t pick him up.”

“Oh,” I answered. “I remember seeing . . . bodies. Blood.”

Eli’s face grew grave. “Some of Valerian’s newlings made their first kill on the guys down at the river. Six in all, and they escaped with Victorian. Phin and Luc cleaned up while we gathered you and the others to bring here.”

“How did you manage that?” I asked, trying not to think about the innocent boys whose lives are now those of monsters.

“It wasn’t easy. Newlings desiring their first kill are . . . tenacious. But we managed. They’re all here.”

“Riggs? Todd?” I asked, then remembered a desperate mom on TV pleading for information about her missing son. “Jared Porter?”

“Yeah, they’re here, too. They’re all fine, Riley.”

Tears came to my eyes; I couldn’t help it. They leaked out the sides and down my cheeks and into my hair, and I couldn’t even lift a hand to wipe them. “Can I see Seth?” I asked, my voice trembling.

“Not yet,” Eli said, wiping my tears with a finger. “His rehab is going to take a bit longer than yours.”

My eyes sought his. “Why can’t I move my body?”

Eli knelt on the ground beside my cot and leaned close to me. God, I’d never seen a more beautiful man in my life. I couldn’t believe he was really mine.

A smile cracked his pale features. “So you consider me yours, huh?”

I smiled back. “You jackass. I’d smack you, but . . . why can’t I lift my arms?”

The smile faded. “It’s been over a week, Riley, since that night at the cemetery. You were bitten. Both Arcos brothers—they both drank. You collected some of their venom.”

“There’s venom?” I asked, horrified. “You never told me there was venom.”

The slightest of smiles returned. “Yeah, there’s venom. That’s what causes the tendencies. You didn’t get much, but you did get some—from two very powerful strigoi vampires.”

I frowned. “So . . . what does that mean? Am I paralyzed for life?”

Eli shook his head. “No, not by far. It means you are going to have tendencies, Riley. You and Seth both will, but yours will be . . . different.”

I thought of Ned Gillespie.

“Yeah, like Ned. Only . . . way different.”

My mind whirled. “Could you please let me finish my own thoughts and say them before you answer me?” I asked with a smile. “Now. How different?”

Eli pulled his knee up and propped his arm against it. With his fingers, he played with my hair. “Only time will tell. It’s too early to know.”

I tried to let that congeal in my brain. It really was too much to take in at one time. So much had happened, and in such a short amount of time. “As long as my baby brother is safe, and okay,” I said, “I’m totally content.”

“Totally?” Eli asked, and leaned closer. He dragged a finger across my bottom lip.

“Can you kiss me, or is it too dangerous?” I asked.

“Dangerous for whom?”

I smiled and gave him a somber look. “Thank you, Eligius Dupré. You saved me. You saved my brother, and I will be grateful forever.”

He leaned over me then, brushed my hair back, and cradled my face. “I had no other choice,” he said quietly, and lowered his lips to mine. He kissed me gently, as though afraid of hurting me. It was soft but possessive; it was a brand, and I relished it. Eli’s unique taste and scent lured me, and had I not been paralyzed, I would have pulled him to me and never let him go. He raised his head and sought my eyes with his. “Is that a fact?” he asked, grinning.

“Yeah,” I answered. “That’s right.”

His gaze grew serious and bored straight through me. “Mine,” he said, matter-of-factly. “You’re mine, Riley Poe.”

My insides seized, and I didn’t think a man could ever say another thing to me so incredibly possessive or romantic at the same time. I smiled.

Eli knew exactly what I was thinking.

Estelle’s hoodoo medicine kicked in, and my eyelids grew heavy. I fell asleep with Eli’s fingers entwined with mine, but even after my body slumbered, my brain continued furiously. At least, I thought it was my brain. At first. Until a familiar voice crowded my thoughts.

I will come for you, Riley Poe. That potency which rushes through your veins has lain against my tongue. It’s inside of me. You’re now a part of me, like my venom runs through you. We are meant to be together, forever. I will come for you. . . .