And then Liam was gone. Again.

Faris thumped his head back against the wall, a small smile on his lips. “No kisses? I was hoping.”

“You asshole, you just wanted a new arm!” I paced the room, Peta striding with me.

The vampire shrugged. “What can I say, it worked out for both of us.”

“It did not! If you wanted it to work out, you should have just fucked off and let Liam have your body.”

His eyes narrowed as I came back to face him. “Who told you that could happen?”

My mouth went dry. “No one.”

His face smoothed. “Perhaps we should go back to the original conversation.” But my mind was racing. Could Liam take Faris’s body? I had to believe it was possible with what Faris said.

“You still have not told me why you so badly need my blood. Becoming a vampire will not help you defeat Orion.” He pointed to his new arm, so recently a stump.

I cleared my throat and looked up. “No, I don’t want to become a vampire.” I reached inside my back pocket and pulled out the slip of paper that had the spell written on it, and slapped it against his chest.

Eyes narrowed in the dim light, he read it over. “What is this for? I see it is a spell, but that is all I can glimmer from it.”

“It will speed up my pregnancy, so the baby comes sooner and I can recover, which will allow me to—” I wasn’t even finished speaking before Faris threw the spell back at me in a crumpled ball.

“You would risk your child for the convenience of not being pregnant?” The fury on his face was not something new, but the reason for it was. Peta put herself between the vampire and me.

I smoothed the paper out, folded the spell, and tucked it into my pocket, keeping my eyes on his face. I had to convince him, this was the only way. “What would you do if you only had a few months with Angela? That after those months you would probably never see her again, that those months were all you had? What would you do to extend that time?”

The anger slipped out of him, and he deflated until he was sitting back in his chair. “Anything, I’d risk anything for her.”

A nod was all I could manage. Emotion clogged my throat and I needed a moment to let the feeling pass before I could speak again. “I want time with my baby, Faris. And while I will tell everyone else I’m doing this so I can recover quicker, get back into shape, the truth of it is . . . I’m being selfish. I want as much time with her as possible, before I have to leave her behind. Probably for what will be forever.”

My eyes filled with tears as I spoke, then overflowed and dripped down my face onto my t-shirt. I slumped into the chair opposite him.

“It will be harder for you to leave her, if you have more time.” He moved so he could crouch in front of me.

“I don’t care. I want her to have as much time with me as possible.”

His arm was across my knees and he leaned into me. “You know for sure it’s a girl?”

“Yes.”

He put his forehead against mine and we sat like that, together in our grief. His long gone, and mine so recent.

A minute passed and my tears dried. Faris stood and walked across the room. There was a tinkle of glass bottles and I turned in my seat to see him pulling an empty crystal decanter off a shelf. The decanter was very thin, more like a vial, but the cut of the glass made it decorative.

“I need your help.”

I moved to his side. He handed me the flask. “Hold it just below, here, like this.” He showed me where. A flash of fangs and then he bit into his wrist, holding the wound over the open vial lid. “A few drops are all you should need.”

The crystal glass filled within ten seconds, and he took his wrist away and then handed me a tiny cork. I put the stopper in, pressing it hard to make sure there would be no leakage.

“Thank you.”

His lips twisted up into a grimace of a smile. “Maybe I’m not such an asshole.”

I gave him a smile, though I knew it was tired. Hell, it felt like it was going to fall off my face. “Maybe.”

Beside me, Peta grabbed at my shirt and tugged me back to my chair, all but shoving me into it. She was right, I was exhausted. “You’re sure they will go away in the morning sunlight?”

“Positive.”

“And Blaz will be okay?”

“Positive.”

I wrapped myself in the blanket, cuddling down into it. “I’m going to sleep for a bit.”

And there was no answer, because I was already gone into dreamland.

In the early hours of the morning, I startled awake, dreams of blood and fire chasing me through my sleep. I stretched and then froze. I wasn’t in my chair.

I was in Faris’s arms. Before I could say anything he was placing me back in my chair.

“You wouldn’t shut up, talking and moaning in your sleep. You were driving me crazy.” He all but snapped at me and I was a bit taken aback.

“I didn’t fucking well do it on purpose.” I returned his tone and upped the ante. In other words we were back to our usual relationship, the tears and stories of just a few hours before and the bonding that came with them, gone in two sentences. Better that way, in the long run. No doubt I would start to trust Faris and then he’d turn on me again. That was his M.O. Taking trust and trashing it the minute you really needed him.

Standing, I stretched and stared at the door. “It’s quiet out there.”

“Dawn is coming, they’ll be heading back to their little hidey-holes soon. Won’t be long and you can leave. An hour at most.”

The rumble of Blaz waking rolled through my head, his memory of the pygmy demons and how they swarmed him, how they’d been chattering my name. A rush of fury and fear shot from him to me.

RYLEE!

I flinched and clapped my hands over my ears, even though it did no good. “Blaz, I’m fine. Be there in an hour.”

His panic ebbed, and I let out a slow breath, letting him see through my memories of the night.

Faris saved you?

“Yes.” I was acutely aware of Faris across from me. The vampire sat in his chair, semi-slumped and his eyes at half-mast. “What will you do once we’re gone?”

“What do you mean?” He tipped his head back, baring his throat to me.

I lifted one hand and waved it at the door. “I mean, how can you survive these demons?” What I was trying to figure out was did I have to invite him to come with me? The part of me that was touched by his story and the fact he’d comforted me (even if I’d been asleep) was okay with the idea of him coming with us. That other part of me, the one that remembered all the fucking awful things he’d done, the lies and pain he’d caused. Yeah, that side didn’t want anything to do with him, or have him anywhere near when I would be fighting to get through the last of my pregnancy.