Chapter 17
Saskia stares up at the looming height of the Wall, and I stare at her.
A slight breeze whistles in from the woods, picking up the ends of her hair and sending her scent straight into my nostrils.
As soon as her essence invades my senses, I have to lock my limbs to keep myself from pouncing on her.
From throwing her over my shoulder and running far, far away, where she won’t ever be able to crawl back into this cage ever again.
It would be wicked, yes, but half of me doesn’t fucking care.
The other half, of course, cares more than a million worlds put together. The way Saskia still looks at me like I’m the only thing orbiting her existence makes me yearn to be good for her. To be the exact opposite of a Monster in any way she needs.
“I can see the veins better now that I’m a vampire,” Saskia breathes, and I move up behind her to follow the direction of her pointed finger—toward the glassy cracks in the Wall that writhe and twist ever so slightly, like live vines. “I never saw them moving before. Not as a human.”
She can see better now. I should have suspected, but there’s still so much more for us to learn about this new way of life. When she finally rips her eyes away from the Wall and back to my face, I wonder what else she sees in me now that her senses are so heightened.
“Don’t do this.” The words tumble out of my mouth before I can stop them.
Behind us, Vivian snorts. I’d almost forgotten she was even here with us, the rest of the pack gathered on the opposite end of the Wall, per my orders. “You’d throw me over the Wall if you could, Lucan, tell me to go get it, and walk away without a second thought.”
I wrinkle my nose at her as Saskia laughs. “Don’t tempt me.”
Vivian swats a hand through the air. “She’ll be fine, you love-sick puppy.”
I groan at Vivian’s smirk. She’s probably going to remind me about my earlier heartfelt declaration for the rest of our goddamn lives. And honestly, as long as Saskia comes back, I don’t care. But she needs to come back.
“You need to come back,” I reiterate, ignoring Vivian again as my eyes slam into Saskia’s.
She steps up to me and cups my face with soothing palms, the world shrinking into a cocoon around us until it’s only me and her. “I escaped as a weak little human,” she whispers. “I think I have an even better chance of escaping now that I’m… like this.”
Her eyes flicker down to assess her body again, but I extend a single claw and use it to tilt her chin back up. Back to me. “You’ve never been weak, little nightmare.”
But my weakness is her, so I’m a trembling mess when I fit my lips against hers, slowly this time, savoring the feel of something I wish I could stow away and hoard forever.
Us.
All too soon, though, a cacophony erupts from the distance, and we break apart.
The rest of the pack members on the northern side of the Wall fling their howls at the moon at the same time for the first time in any human’s memory.
Hopefully scaring the shit out of the Guardians and the sentries who are so loyal to them.
“It’s time.” Vivian wrings her hands, all traces of her earlier humor gone. She glances at Saskia’s leathers and knives. “Remember, if anyone sees you, they’ll know you don’t belong.”
“So I won’t let myself get seen, then.” Saskia flashes her fangs in a dazzling smile.
My entire body quivers with the effort it takes to restrain myself from holding her back as she turns to face the Wall again. A sharp inhale singes my throat when she raises a hand toward the thing that has caused me so much pain over the last few hundred years.
Will it hurt her, too, now that my blood pumps through her?
As soon as her palm lays flat against it, I track the shiver that makes its way up her body.
“What’s wrong?”
She jolts at my tone. Shakes her head. “Nothing. Just thinking about how this used to be wood. How once upon a time, you could have burned it instead of the other way around.”
I dip my chin in understanding. “Get that centrifuge and come back to me, little nightmare, and then we will burn it. Together.” I lift one of my fingers in a gesture she’s no doubt never seen before. “And if you get the chance, throw the Guardians one of these for me.”
She nods before reaching up, digging her fingernails into the imperceptible grooves of the Wall, and launching herself upward with a strength and speed that makes me dizzy.
But this time, instead of watching her fall, I watch her climb.