“Gloria!” Ana jolted awake, disoriented and confused. At first, she didn’t recognize where she was; part of her was still in the small bedroom she shared with Gloria in the Bronx.
Then reality settled into her bones and her confusion faded.
Gloria was dead.
Along with the hopes Ana had for a happy life with her baby sister.
Alone in the dark, her throat parched and her bones aching, grief overtook her … until she suddenly heard Gloria’s childish voice, “All those nights I prayed for you, Eliana. For you to find your prince. And now you have. You’re Ana now and you have.”
A soft giggle followed.
Automatically, Ana’s gaze darted around the room. Nobody there. But … she’d heard the words clearly. The happy giggle still vibrated in her ears.
Gloria.
Maybe it was just a figment of her imagination or wishful thinking or a delusion aided by her turning … but vampires were real, for God’s sake. Who’s to say that really hadn’t been Gloria’s voice. Not the voice of the person Gloria had become after she’d left to live with her father’s parents, but the voice of the innocent and loving little girl she’d been before that.
To that girl, Ana whispered, “I’ll always love you, Gloria. Always.”
In the past, she’d had to take care of herself. She’d also taken care of Gloria as best she knew how. The ache that she should’ve done more would probably never dissipate, but her life had changed. There was another person determined to take care of her.
A man. A vampire.
“Ty,” she called out.
In seconds, he was there. He immediately climbed into bed beside her, whispering words of reassurance and thanking her for choosing a future with him.
Ty had turned out to be her prince, after all. He’d changed her. Turned her in a way even Miguel hadn’t.
He’d awakened her from the evil spell that had imprisoned her for her whole life.
As he kissed her, the hunger inside her grew—the yearning for blood and sex—but at the same time, her soul was nourished by being in his arms.
She hurt. She grieved. She needed.
She loved.
In other words, she lived.