Chapter 23
Talin
I couldn't stop touching him.
Every few seconds, my fingers found Elias's face, his chest, his hands, reassuring myself he was real and alive and here. The sun was rising over New Orleans, painting my bedroom in soft gold, and for the first time ever, Elias didn't have to hide from it.
He sat on the edge of my bed, still wearing the blood-stained shirt from last night.
Judy had insisted we take him to a human hospital after stabilizing him with her magic and Killian agreed, if for no other reason than he wanted to know what Elias was now.
The ER doctor had been baffled by Elias's vitals.
His heartbeat was too slow, his temperature was too low, and his pupils dilated strangely.
But he found nothing broken. Just severe shock and exhaustion.
"He'll heal," the doctor had said, puzzled. "Give it time and rest."
Dae swiftly wiped his memory and we left the hospital. Time and rest. Two things Elias hadn't needed in over a century.
I traced the line of his jaw, my thumb brushing over his short beard. His skin felt warmer than before, but his dark eyes tracked my movements like the predator he used to be, and maybe still was, patient despite the clear exhaustion lining his face.
"You should sleep," I whispered.
"Can't." His voice sounded like he'd gargled with shards of glass, but that would heal too. "I keep thinking I'll wake up and this will all have been a dream. And my real life is the nightmare."
"Which part? Coming back human or—"
"You being gone." His hand caught mine, pressing my palm against his chest where his heart beat steady and strong. "That part was the nightmare, little witch. This?" He gestured to his transformed body. "This is just... different."
Different didn't begin to cover it.
Indirect sunlight streamed through my bedroom window, the morning rays not quite reaching where Elias sat. I watched him stare at the golden light pooling on my hardwood floor with an expression of wonder so raw it made my throat tight.
Slowly, carefully, he stood and moved toward the window, stopping just before the light touched his bare feet, hesitating.
"We don't know if it's safe for you to be in the sun," I reminded him.
"Only one way to find out."
He extended his hand into the golden stream.
I held my breath, every muscle tensing, ready to yank him back if his skin started smoking. But… nothing happened. The sunlight painted his olive skin in warm tones, highlighting the dark hair on his forearms. Elias's breath hitched.
Then he stepped fully into the light.
It illuminated him like a god, touching his face, his shoulders, soaking into his dark hair. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, and the look on his face was so transcendent I had to look away, feeling like I was witnessing something intimate. Something that wasn't meant to be shared.
"It's been over a hundred years since I've felt the sun," he whispered.
Tears burned behind my eyelids, overflowing onto my cheeks as I turned back to him. I'd spent the past few hours terrified, angry, overwhelmed by the magnitude of what Elias had sacrificed. But watching him stand in sunlight for the first time in over a century...
"Come here," he said softly.
I went to him and he pulled me into the light with him, wrapping his arms around me from behind. We stood there together, the morning sun warming us both as we enjoyed just being alive.
I felt the exact moment something shifted between us.
His thoughts brushed against mine like silk, fragments of emotion and sensation rather than words. Wonder. Gratitude. Love so fierce it stole my breath.
And beneath it, a darker current.
Hunger.
Not the violent bloodlust of before. This was gentler, more human, but unmistakably there. Elias wanted blood. My blood, specifically, though the craving wasn't the all-consuming need vampires experienced.
"I can feel that," I said.
"I know." His arms tightened around me. "I can feel you feeling it. This is... different now, too, I guess."
Different was an understatement. Not mind-reading exactly, but I could sense the shape of his consciousness pressed against mine. Could almost taste his wonder at the sunlight, his lingering pain from the transformation, his absolute certainty that I was his.
"Tell me what else is different," I said.
Elias was quiet for a moment, taking stock of his new existence.
"Everything is slower," he finally told me. "My heartbeat, my breathing, my healing. Time is slower." He laughed without humor. "As a vampire, I would have healed in an hour."
"But you're healing?"
"Yes. I can tell. Just at... human speed.
Or close to it." He paused, and I felt him shift his weight behind me, something he wouldn't have done before.
He could've stood completely frozen for hours and not been affected.
"I wonder how long I'll live now, and if my blood is worth anything to you anymore. "
I hadn't even thought about that. "You gave up your immortality."
"No. I just traded one kind for another." His lips brushed my temple. "I don't want any kind of eternity without you, Talin. Even if I only live a normal lifespan now, this is better."
I turned in his arms, needing to see his face. "What else?"
"The thirst." The hunger was back in his voice.
"I still crave it. But it's not a live or die need anymore, more like a strong preference.
Like a good whiskey. And regular food smells really good to me now.
" He grimaced. "Which is going to be an adjustment.
I haven't needed to eat in over a century. "
"And the sun?"
He glanced toward the window where morning rays were beginning to slant more directly through the glass. "I can feel it pulling at something in my skin. Not burning yet, but uncomfortable. Like standing too close to a fire."
"So maybe we shouldn't tan by the pool just yet."
His dark eyes searched mine. "Does this bother you? What I am now?"
"Does it bother you that I'm a witch who just got you killed?"
"I didn't die."
"You could have."
"But I didn't." His hands framed my face, thumb tracing my cheekbone with devastating gentleness. "You wouldn't let me. Just like I wouldn't let you go."
"You were going to die for me," I said, the words trembling with fury and grief. "You went into that dimension knowing you'd burn away to nothing, and you grabbed that thread anyway—"
"Yes."
No hesitation. No regret.
"I can't—Elias, if you had died—" My voice broke.
He pulled me closer until I could feel his heartbeat against my cheek. Real. Alive.
Mine.
"But I didn't. And you know why?" He tilted my chin up, forcing me to meet his eyes.
"Because the moment I felt you slipping away, felt Marcus's magic burning through our bond, I knew there was no version of existence where I survived losing you.
And not just because of the blood bond. So I made a choice.
I grabbed that thread and I pulled. All I could think was that you had to live. "
I couldn't breathe past the emotion clogging my throat. "I was so scared."
"So you understand why I did it." Not a question. A statement of fact.
And gods help me, I did. If our positions had been reversed, if Elias had been the one trapped in that dimension with Marcus's binding thread wrapped around his wrists, I would have done the exact same thing. Consequences be damned.
We stood there in the morning light, holding each other, and for the first time since this all started, I felt like I could finally breathe.
Then Elias's stomach growled.
We both froze. Then I started laughing. Great, gulping laughs that bordered on hysteria. Elias stared down at his abdomen in betrayal.
"I forgot that happens," he said, sounding genuinely disturbed.
"When did you last eat?"
He thought about it for a minute. "1864? A few hours before Killian turned me."
Over a hundred years. Gods.
"Come on." I grabbed his hand and pulled him toward my tiny kitchen. "I'm making you breakfast."
"I don't even know if I remember how to eat."
"Then you're about to relearn."
I scrounged through my cabinets and fridge, assembling something that resembled a meal. Eggs, toast, some questionable bacon I hoped was still good. Elias watched me cook with an expression I couldn't quite read.
"What?" I asked, cracking eggs into a pan.
"You're taking care of me."
"Of course I am. You literally burned away your immortality for me. The least I can do is feed you."
"No one's taken care of me in..." He trailed off. "A very long time."
Something in his voice made me look at him. Really look at him. Elias had been a vampire for most of his long life—strong, immortal, needing nothing and no one. Before that, he'd been a field medic in a war, taking care of others while his own government betrayed him.
When was the last time someone had simply cared for him? Without expecting anything in return?
I turned off the stove and turned to him.
He sat at my small kitchen table that was tucked away in the corner, looking somehow smaller than he had when vampire strength had lined his frame.
The transformation had stripped away some of his muscle mass, leaving him leaner.
More human. But still devastatingly hot.
And honestly, I wouldn't care if he was thin as a rail or if he gained a hundred pounds.
Which was good, because either of those was a real possibility now.
"Let me take care of you," I said quietly. "Please."
His throat worked. Then he nodded.
I served him breakfast and watched him take his first bite of solid food in a long, long time. His face went through several expressions. Surprise. Confusion. Then cautious pleasure.
"It's... good," he said, sounding amazed. "I forgot food could taste like this."
"That's because my cooking is amazing."
"Or because everything tastes incredible when you haven't eaten in over a hundred years."