Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 139178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
A pause. “I’m not,” Eve said at last. “But I want to be like you, Ellie. I never want to be jaded or flippant like so many of the vampires I see. They take nothing seriously, just coast through existence. I don’t want that. I want things to matter to me all my life. I want to feel, to experience, to be alive.”
In that moment, Eve sounded more like her much younger sister than she’d done for centuries. Putting one arm around her, Elena hugged her tight. “I can’t imagine you ever coasting.” Eve was too much a force of nature. “But I’ll check you if I ever sense it—and you do the same to me.”
“Deal.” A long inhale as they drew apart, Eve taking up her previous position against the potting bench, while Elena continued with her deadheading.
“How’re you enjoying being in charge of Illium’s ground troops while General Siu is on Refuge leave?” Raphael had the feeling that Illium was testing Eve out in preparation for a significant jump in rank and responsibility, but that was a conversation they’d had in private. Elena wasn’t about to put the possibility on Eve’s shoulders and stress her out.
“I wasn’t sure he made the right call, to be honest.” Eve hitched herself up to sit on the potting table. “But I like being the boss bitch.” A grin. “I’m not insufferable, I promise. My friends would soon set me straight if I was—but yeah, turns out I’m good at overseeing ops, keeping the troops in line and on target.”
Elena pointed her planting snips at Eve. “I could’ve told you that the first time I saw your homework. Jeez, I’ve never seen so many neat charts and cross-references.”
Eve cackled, a sparkle in her eyes. “I’m throwing you an organized-to-the-minute baby shower when it’s time, by the way. My niece or nephew deserves to be celebrated.”
“You’re going to spoil them, aren’t you?”
“Nah, that’s for Lady Caliane and Lady Sharine. I’m going to back them against their parents and make sure they get away with mischief.”
Elena put down the snips. “I’m so glad you’re here, Eve. You’ve never told me why you decided to become a vampire, but I know part of it was because of me.” So she wouldn’t be without family as she walked into eternity. “Thank you.” Words too small to encompass all she felt.
But Eve shook her head. “Sure, I wanted to be there for you, Ellie, but I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t have this need inside me to see the future unravel.” She swung her legs. “Amy, she always wanted the white picket fence and the two cute kids and devoted husband, a pet or two. She was so happy with her life.”
Elena nodded. “She told me once that she’d had a life far more amazing than she could’ve ever imagined.” Elena’s half sister had been eighty-eight at the time. “That if she had a regret, it was that she hadn’t married Maynard the first time he’d asked, instead of making him wait two more years.”
I was scared he didn’t really love me. Not enough.
Another ripple of pain caused by Slater’s murderous acts. Jeffrey had loved his second wife—Eve and Amy’s mother, Gwendolyn. But not like he’d loved Marguerite. His daughters had known. It had bruised Amy’s heart, made her hesitant to take the risk of giving her love to a man.
But Maynard loved me from the first day he met me to the day he took his last breath, Ellie. He loved our daughters just as much. He healed me in ways he didn’t even know—and, oh, what a life we had. What a beautiful, astonishing life.
“That sounds like Amy.” Smile soft, Eve touched her fingers to a nearby bloom of delicate pink. “Me? I always had this itch under the skin, a frustrating awareness that my body wasn’t strong enough to see and do all I wanted to see and do. If you influenced me, it’s only in showing me another pathway.”
Their eyes met.
“I’ve had a dazzling immortal life, Ellie. The only thing I need at this point is to find the love of my immortal life—but I’m content to sow my wild oats until I do.” A mischievous Eve smile. “After all, Raphael didn’t fall for you until he was a thousand five hundred. I am but a spring chicken in comparison.”
Their laughter filled the greenhouse, the plants rustling as if they smiled with the two Deveraux girls who had come through time with their love for each other a bright flame.
* * *
* * *
Raphael kept himself well away from the Enclave house that day, aware that Elena needed this time with the sister Raphael had first met as a child. “She was bright and courageous even at ten,” he told Dmitri where the two of them stood beside a remote section of the Hudson.