Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Slowly, I pointed to the woman. “Your grandmother?”
“Yes. Her name was—”
“Anna,” I said softly.
The memory of that same face, but smaller, softer, with wider eyes and a shy smile, made my chest ache.
“How did you know that?” Lucy asked, her brows pulled together in confusion.
I cleared my throat. “I was there,” I said quietly, still looking at the stern woman in the photo.
“Where? What are you talking about?”
“I was part of the team that led her and other children through the Alps,” I explained, looking up into my mate’s bewildered eyes. “There were four of us. I remember her because she carried one of the younger ones on her back.” I stopped.
I didn’t want to take out that memory and examine it.
“She escaped from Austria,” I said, tapping my finger on the photo.
“You were there?” Lucy asked, like she couldn’t quite grasp what I was telling her.
“The United States hadn’t joined the war yet,” I explained. “So our hands were tied. We did what we could.” I glanced down at the photo again. “It wasn’t enough.”
“You saved my grandmother’s life,” Lucy said slowly.
“I was part of a larger network,” I argued, unwilling to take on full responsibility.
“Oh my god,” she whispered, looking down at the photograph. “That’s insane.”
“Improbable,” I agreed.
“Everything is connected, isn’t it?” she said, shaking her head. “Like a giant spider web.”
“The world is smaller than we realize.”
“You saved her,” she said softly, reaching out to cup my cheek. “How many did you save?”
“Not enough,” I rasped.
I didn’t like to think of that time. The misery, the fear, the inability to fight for what we knew was right. So many people had suffered. So many had died.
“You’re incredible,” she whispered, running her thumb along my cheekbone.
“She wore a dark-brown coat,” I said, uncomfortable. “And a dark hat with a little bobble on the top of it. She was tough. Quiet. They were all quiet.”
“I can’t believe you remember her.”
“I remember them all,” I replied. I pulled my face away and rose from the bed, gathering the food wrappers and garbage.
“We don’t have to talk about it,” Lucy said, handing me a half-eaten sleeve of crackers.
“I don’t like to think about it,” I replied, taking the wrappers out to the garbage in the kitchenette. When I came back into the room, she’d stuffed her treasures back into her bag.
“We could’ve finished looking,” I told her.
“Another time,” she said, carrying the bag back to the dresser. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” I shook my head.
“We all have things we’d rather not revisit,” she replied, walking toward me. She wrapped her arms around my waist. “I just want to say one thing.”
“All right.”
“You saved my grandmother, not knowing that eighty years later you would kidnap me from a hotel room. How cool is that?”
I chuckled. “Pretty cool.”
“You still look like shit,” she muttered.
“I’m fine.”
“Oh crap,” she breathed. “You need blood. That’s it, right? When’s the last time you had it?”
“You were there,” I replied dryly.
“I thought you needed it every day?”
“You needed it more.”
“Well, I’m good now,” she said, tipping her head ridiculously far back. “Do your thing.”
I choked and started coughing.
“What?” She jerked her chin down.
“I’m fine,” I said, herding her toward the bed. I turned off the light and unplugged the projector on the way, blanketing us in darkness.
“This is part of it, right?” she said as I threw the crumb-covered comforter off the bed. I wasn’t about to sleep in that shit, and with the heat keeping our body temperatures higher than normal, we wouldn’t need more than a sheet anyway.
“Part of our relationship?” I asked.
“Yeah. The whole mates thing.”
“Yes, it’s part of it.”
“Well, then.” She crawled across the bed and flopped onto her back. “Get to it.”
“Part of it,” I clarified, slower as I got in beside her. “Just like anything else. You’re healing. I can wait.”
“I’m practically healed,” she argued, rolling toward me. “I’ve eaten…a lot. I’ve showered. I’m good to go.”
“As tempting as that sounds…” I joked. To be honest, it did sound tempting. Very fucking tempting. I’d been ignoring the craving since the night before, instincts urging me to feel her skin between my teeth and her blood in my throat to assure myself that she was alive, but I wasn’t an animal. I wasn’t going to die if we waited a few days. She’d lost a lot of blood, and her body was still recovering.
Lucy huffed and pressed herself against my side. “What if I told you that I need it?”
“Is that what you’re telling me?”
She was quiet for a moment. “I thought I was going to die,” she said softly. “And I’d never see you again.”
“Baby,” I whispered back, turning to face her.
“And you’d be left here without me.” The words were so soft that a human probably wouldn’t have heard them.
“I would’ve been right behind you,” I replied, tipping her face up so I could see her eyes.