Total pages in book: 209
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Through the wall of dread and doom, Kyle becomes aware of a suddenly out-of-place energy. A confidence which seems to play and twist in shape as it approaches.
Kyle looks up at the door before Elias does. Softly shuffling footsteps bring the shape of Drake into view.
Drake’s splotchy pink and messy hair is darkened by water, dripping down his face. In his denim jacket, now stained here and there with dirt, he leans against the doorframe and crosses his arms. “Sorry for eavesdropping. Kinda heard everything.”
Kyle remembers at once what he’d left behind when George took him away from here. “Lazarus. Is he—?”
“He’s alright. Doubt even twenty silver bullets could take him down.” Drake picks something off his jacket, flicks it away. “I have a feeling I … may not be seeing him again for some time.”
Kyle hears the weight in Drake’s words. Feels his doubts and his frustrations. Lazarus was truly, deeply wounded by that single silver bullet. He would not have survived a second one. Drake is emotionally shrugging it off, turning a cheek to his own pain, not wanting to think about standing up against his brother.
“Stop creeping around inside my heart,” says Drake.
Kyle’s Reach has a mind of its own sometimes. “I’m not.”
“Just teasing.” Drake smiles halfheartedly, then lets out a sigh. “Anyway, I can save the Nico guy.”
“Save him how?” comes Elias, standing by Kyle’s side.
“You pick up a trick or two, living with vampires.” Drake lifts his arms to stretch, lets out a yawn, claps his hands. “So should I do it? Go save the guy? Be the hero? I’m bored.”
Kyle senses something slippery in Drake’s heart. “You know how to draw blood from passed out college kids. Doesn’t exactly make you a surgeon. What are you suggesting to do?”
Drake settles back into place against the doorframe. His eyes grow soft as he gazes at Kyle. “I think you already know.”
Kyle stares back. “Y-You mean …” He’s so mentally drained after the night they’ve had, it’s difficult to believe what Drake is suggesting. “Wait. You know how to do it?”
“Seen it,” says Drake, then adds, “once or twice. Never done it myself. From what they’re saying, Nico won’t survive the night. I can give him many more nights to live. As in … all of them.”
All of them.
All of the nights, forever. From this moment until eternity.
Elias realizes with a start what they’re talking about. “You’re not gonna … gonna turn him, are you?”
“Do we want him to live or not?” asks Drake almost sweetly.
“I don’t … I don’t think that’s …” Elias looks back and forth between Kyle and Drake in shock. “That’s not our choice to make. Nico deserves a say in the matter. He should get to decide if—”
“Too late,” says Drake, then winces.
Kyle turns his ears toward the wall, listens. The doctors and nurses are heatedly arguing, trading orders, stressed, hearts heavy. The machines are going crazy, beeping. “What’s going on?” cries Raya. “Why isn’t he talking? Excuse me? Hello?” A specific kind of emotional heat has consumed the room and everyone inside it, working with fleeting hope to save a life.
Everyone save for Nico, from which Kyle hears only silence.
“Well?” asks Drake. “Shall I go and play God?”
The machines keep beeping, both Kaleb’s and Nico’s.
Raya keeps asking for someone to tell her what’s happening.
Kyle can almost feel the sword through his own body, with a second’s attachment of his Reach. He presses a hand to his belly as if to suppress the ache.
Then: “Y-Yes,” he breathes before he’s completely certain.
Elias looks at him. “Kyle …”
Drake nods. “I don’t take this responsibility lightly,” he says, “but I will say, before I depart this room, I find it incredibly sexy that you’re letting me do this. Let’s hope I don’t fuck up, alright? Pray for me.” With that, Drake slips from the doorway.
For half a second, Kyle considers telling him to stop, that he’s changed his mind. But something keeps him silent and glued to Kaleb’s bedside, frozen in place.
“Kyle …” Elias comes closer. “Are you … Are you sure …?”
“No,” he mutters back, “about anything, about any of this … no, I’m not.”
Elias studies Kyle’s face, then pulls him close, giving his man the comfort of burying himself in his chest again. Kyle closes his eyes tightly, but can’t seem to contain his Reach. The outrage of the doctors when Drake enters the room. Raya’s confusion. Even Drake’s hesitation as he approaches the table, dismisses the others from the room, takes over with shaky confidence. “Whatever your last sunrise was,” he then says to the unresponsive Nico, “however many years ago it was before you became a prisoner … I hope you cherished it. I regret to take the rest of them from you. But maybe someday in the future, you’ll come to appreciate how little a price it was … to still be alive and among loved ones.” Drake’s heart is full. Kyle even senses something close to love swelling inside it as he says, “You don’t know me, but soon, we’ll be brothers, and for the rest of your nights, you will never again be alone.”