My eyelids finally come apart and the first thing I see is Daimon’s face hovering over me. His face is framed by the dim glow of yellow light above us. His blue eyes are rimmed pink and full of relief.
“What… where… where am I?” My voice is husky. My throat raw and parched, probably from the loss of blood.
“We’re still in Tenerife. How are you feeling?”
“What time is it? I… I have to go. I have to go to Monaco.”
I attempt to sit up and a blinding pain lights up my left side. Daimon grabs my shoulders and gently pushes me down, but not before I notice the intravenous lines snaking out of my arm.
“You’re not going anywhere right now. You have to rest,” he murmurs, brushing my hair away from my eyes. “Vengeance can wait.”
The word vengeance hits me like a kick in the chest. “You were right,” I whisper, looking into his eyes. “About Nick. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. I was—”
“Shh. You don’t have to apologize.”
He strokes my hair and leans down to kiss my forehead. His new beard brushes against my brow and his lips are cool against my hot skin. So soft and familiar, yet still so new.
“These days apart have felt like years,” I whisper, my throat thickened with emotion. “I didn’t want to kill you.”
“I know, chérie. If you wanted to kill me I’d be dead.”
I chuckle and the smile on his face makes my heart feel full. “What happened to me? How bad is it?”
He closes his eyes and hangs his head for a moment. He doesn’t have to say a word for me to know it’s serious. Every second I wait for him to break his silence feels like an eternity.
“Daimon, please. Just tell me.”
His eyes find mind, but his gaze is burning through me. My heart pounds an agonizing beat inside my chest. Then, finally, he speaks.
“The baby is gone.”
My throat constricts until I can’t speak or breathe. No, I try to say, but nothing comes out. Nothing but tears.
“Breathe, Alex,” he urges me.
I shake my head wildly as Daimon’s face begins to flicker and my vision begins to close into a tiny speck.
What did I do to deserve this? I was born a mutant and I’ve spent eighteen years paying for a sin I didn’t commit. And now this? My father dead. The hope of a child gone.
What do I have left?
The arguing gets louder as I open my eyes, but I can’t understand any of it. All I see is a single incandescent lightbulb hanging overhead, illuminating steel beams that criss-cross an industrial ceiling. I’m in a warehouse.
I try to sit up and the sharp pain in my side reminds me of my injury. I take a deep breath as I lie back, trying to hear my thoughts over the sound of the arguing. Then I remember.
Daimon said the baby is gone.
My eyes sting and I grit my teeth against the pain, but I can’t hold back the tears. “Why?” I mutter through my grief.
The arguing stops. The silence is followed by hurried shuffling, and Daimon is at my side again. The curves of his beautiful face, hardened by the argument, begin to soften as he gazes into my eyes.
“You’re awake.”
“Why did this happen to me?”
Daimon’s face screws up as he shakes his head, unable to provide an answer.
“I… I just wanted someone to love… to love me.” I squeeze my eyes shut to block out his face. To hide from the shame.
He grabs my face to force me to look at him. His lips tremble slightly as he presses his mouth into a hard line, trying in vain to suppress his emotions.
“I love you, Alex. I’ll always love you.” He kisses the corner of my mouth and more tears roll out of my eyes and onto his fingertips. “In the light and in the dark. With a mask or without. I love everything about you.”
I reach up slowly and coil my arms around his neck to pull him closer. He buries his face in my neck and allows me to weep as he caresses my hair.
“It’s okay, chérie. You’re with me now. Everything is going to be okay.”
I squeeze him tighter, savoring the sensation of his solid chest against mine. Breathing in the slightly briny fragrance of the ocean mixed with the woodsy scent of his skin. I nuzzle my cheek against his neck and draw in a deep breath.
“I missed you,” I whisper against his skin. “I knew you were alive. I knew you’d come back.”
He chuckles and the sound sends a sweet chill through me. “I can’t even be angry with you for trying to kill me. I am hopeless.”
I loosen my hold on him and grab the sides of his face to look him in the eye. “Not hopeless. This isn’t over. We’re not finished. We have to kill her.”
His eyes narrow as a slow smile forms on his gorgeous face. “What I have planned is much more satisfying than a simple assassination.” He kisses the tip of my nose as a bald man in a white coat begins hanging another bag of fluids on an I.V. stand next to me. “Rest, chérie. You’ll need your strength.”
The bald man presses a button on a machine and Daimon and I both watch as the fluid travels through the line and into my arm. He begins to draw away, but I lock my arms around his neck and pull him in for a real kiss. He tastes a bit sweet and metallic, but the cool sensation of his tongue in my mouth is better than any pain medication. Almost as soon as a painful longing sweeps through me, the medication kicks in and my grip on his neck slackens.
He pulls away and kisses my forehead. “Sleep, chérie. I’ll be standing right here when you wake up.”
The next time I wake, I’m surrounded by darkness. I’m not on the hard steel table anymore. I’ve been moved.
“Daimon!” I whisper frantically.
I hear movement in the dark and suddenly the room is flooded with light. I blink against the bright glow of the lamplight, blue spots obscuring my vision. Then Daimon appears at my side.
“How are you feeling?” he murmurs as he kneels next to me.
I’m lying on a sofa in an office. I blink a few more times to clear the spots, then I reach for his hand and see the bandage on the inside of the crook of my arm. The I.V. line is gone and I’m dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt.
“Where are we?”
“We’re still in Tenerife, in the warehouse. We moved you so you’d be more comfortable. How are you feeling?”
I move my hand to my side to touch my injury and grunt at the searing pain that results from this brief touch. “I’m fine. I need to get out of here.”
I grit my teeth as Daimon helps me sit up. Then he sits next to me and wraps his arm around my shoulder. “Do you feel well enough to travel?”
“We’re going to Monaco?”
“Not yet. You’re not ready physically, or mentally.”
“What does that mean?” I turn my head to face him and just this small movement causes a sharp pain to explode in my side. “What do you mean, I’m not ready mentally?”
“Alex, you’re not able to see beyond your pain right now.”
“I’m fine!”
“No, you’re not,” he growls. “Let me make this very clear, you are not going to Monaco until you’re ready. And you are far from ready, Alex.”
I glare at him, but he stares right back at me, never blinking. “I will leave when I’m ready to leave.”
He lowers his gaze for a moment, taking a beat before he peers into my eyes again. I can already sense that I’m not going to like what he’s about to say.
“Alex, we need to talk about what happened. You can’t set off on the path of vengeance without any contemplation.”
“You said you have a plan! Whatever you have planned is fine with me. I just want to get out of here.”
He shakes his head. “No, that is not how you operate. And it is certainly not how I operate. Neither of us will be jumping into this mission with hot heads.” He grabs my chin and forces me to look him in the eye. “We need to talk about what happened, between you and me. And we need to talk about your father… and the baby. We have to talk about this or it will destroy us both.”