57. Chapter 57
Jordan
“This house is a dream,” Kate breathes from from the bedroom as I towel off in the adjoining bathroom. “I haven’t been somewhere this nice in…forever.”
Wrapping the towel around myself, I stride through the doorway to find Kate gently caressing the piano against the far wall. When we stepped into the room, our attention immediately locked onto the beautiful instrument, transfixed yet also confused as to why someone would put it beside their bed.
As I watch Kate glide around it, I’m starting to see the appeal.
She seems to have relaxed a bit since our earlier conversation. Though I know there’s much for us to figure out, having a small moment of reprieve makes my body less tense.
Striding toward her, I pull her into my arms, letting her curves fit against mine. She clings to me like she can’t bear to let me go, and I hold her with the same urgency.
Kate mumbles something incoherent into my neck.
“Hmm?” My face nestles into her clean hair, getting drunk off her scent.
She pulls back, a bit of anxiety hiding in her eyes. “Play something for me.”
As if I could ever deny her. I grab her hand and guide us to the bench.
My mind flits through what pieces to play, what music may get rid of the final nerves plaguing her.
Letting my fingers flow across the keys, I hand myself over to the music.
It spirals around us, holding us together, keeping us close as our bodies finally recognize we’re the safest we’ve been since Outbreak Day.
While we may have lost everything, at least we have one another.
I play the last note, my fingers lingering like the music as I look over at Kate, who is already watching me.
There’s no anxiety in her gaze now; just pure resolve. “I’ve decided what I want,” she tells me. I twist to face her. “I can’t be away from you. Not now, not ever.”
The beast purrs.
She takes a deep breath. “And if the treatment is no longer viable, or something you want…then I know what we need to do.” Her fingers stroke down her neck. “I want you to do it; I want you to bite me.”
I must have misheard her. “What?”
“I want you to bite me,” she repeats. “Infect me. Let us be together like this, so that if the virus destroys you, it will destroy me too.”
“No.” The thought of her dying—
Her hands come to cradle my face. “Jordan, please,” she pleads, her voice a whisper.
“But—all you’ve worked for, all you’ve tried to do—”
“None of it was real.” Her thumb skates over my bottom lip. “Everything I thought I was doing, everything I thought we were working toward, was a lie.” She shakes her head. “This is what I want.”
The beast’s ears perk up. “Kate,” I rasp. A million scenarios flit through my head, all of them horrifying, all of them showing how terrible this may be.
Her touch turns urgent. “Please. I love you, and I want it to be just us in the end.”
My breath catches. “You love me?”
Eyes softening at my words, she nods. “I do. I think I have for a while.”
“I love you, too,” I say, my emotions feeling too big for my body. She loves me and she never wants to be without me.
A whine snakes from my throat at her eagerness to bind us together. Permanently. The beast prowls forward, it’s eagerness showing. To infect her as she wishes, now that excites it.
She’s finally ready, it croons.
My tongue flits over my canines as my gaze drops to her throat. “Are you sure?” I pant, the beast pressing against every corner of my mind, wanting to feel her.
She swallows, the column of her throat bobbing before she whispers, “Yes.”
I lean forward to press a kiss against her pulse.
She arches into me, seeking me. It’s enough for me to open my jaw wide and sink my fangs into her delicate skin.
Her blood coats my tongue, dancing with my own.
She gasps, her hands moving to my shoulders, nails digging into my bare flesh as I drink from her.
The beast groans, loving the taste, the feeling of binding us together.
My arms snake around her waist and lift her, sitting her upon the piano as I drink.
Dischordant notes fill the room but neither of us care; Kate’s touch turns ravenous, nails leaving my skin to paw at me.
As if she needs more. “Jordan,” she gasps.
Moaning into her neck, I press myself between her thighs, needing us to be as close as physically possible. She gives a breathy moan into my ear and it empties my mind of any rational thought.
No more, the beast warns.
I retract my canines and lick at her puncture wound, possessiveness coursing through me.
Marked, the beast croons, satisfied.
Pulling back, my eyes rove over her face. Her eyes are closed, face smoothed out. No sign of pain or discomfort. “Are you okay?”
Kate nods, a soft smile playing on her lips. “I’m perfect,” she sighs, nails no longer embedded in my skin.
I pull her into my chest, feeling her heartbeat against mine. “You are, my love,” I rasp.
Settling against one another, we breathe as one, content to know we’ll never be apart.