I started down this path wanting to make all vampires bleed, but now here I am—bleeding for one. I feel a tiny sting of shame. It’s still hard to totally shake free of my past. But based on Mom’s journals, I think she’d be proud of where I am. I discovered the same things that she did. She might not have had the power to change those things, but I do.

His thumb trails up and down my arm just above where he feeds, and it’s almost too much sensation. My nerves spark from the magic and the pain and desire. I want more. I wish there weren’t bars between us.

His eyes are open again, bright with more hunger than was there before, a different kind.

And then he pulls away. He breathes heavily as he stares at me, like he wants me through the bars of the cage too. His lips are red with my blood.

For a second it causes a sharp jolt of panic.

He sees it and turns his head. When he looks back, he seems closed off. The cold, practical Roman.

“Sorry,” I tell him. “It’s just…” I’m feeling too many conflicting things at once. What I want in the moment is warring with my past.

“Please don’t apologize,” he says. “I understand.”

He runs a thumb across my wound, even though I don’t need him to heal me now. My skin stitches itself back together, and then he pulls a handkerchief from his pocket and wipes my wrist. He hesitates for a moment before placing a small kiss against my pulse.

I clear my throat. “I’m going to need my hand back so I can focus.”

He nods, and I can tell he’s trying to keep his face serious, but the corners of his mouth tug up as he says, “Whatever you need.”

CHAPTER 35

I wish the magic would play with me and delay my destination a little bit, but when I leave Roman’s cell, it takes me straight to the place I need to go. It’s definitely not where I want to go.

I knock on Diantha and Reina’s sea-green door. Aristelle opens it. Her face gives away nothing as she steps back and lets me in. Everyone except the twins sits around the coffee table in the overstuffed chairs and couches in front of the television I’ve watched Tomb Raider on one too many times. It hurts to stand here in a room I felt safe in, knowing none of it was real.

But I need their help.

Reina’s on her feet, reaching for me, but I hold a hand out to stop her. She blinks and stands frozen for a second, like I’m going to change my mind.

“We’re sorry, Ava,” Diantha says from the couch.

Reina sits back down beside her. “We only did it because—”