They stared at each other for a long moment. The tranquility of their afternoon had been shattered, and he wondered whether Skye would choose to separate herself from him now rather than continue a relationship that ultimately had to end.
Then she said, “I don’t think you’ve thought this through.”
“Skye, I’ve had centuries to think about what it would mean for a mortal to get involved with a vampire.”
“You’re not listening to me.” She tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear; her pale blue eyes met his steadily. “Balthazar, Redgrave and his tribe want to enslave me for my blood. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of them are coming here. Hasn’t it occurred to you that maybe—maybe the only way to stop them—is to change my blood forever?”
He didn’t understand. Or did he? But no. She couldn’t mean that. “What are you saying?”
“It’s possible the only way to change my blood so that Redgrave can’t use it is to change me.” Skye’s voice shook slightly, but she continued on, resolute. “To turn me into a vampire, like you.”
“Absolutely not.” Balthazar could see the logic of the idea, but it was distant, far behind all the many emotions that told him to refuse her. “You don’t know what it means to be a vampire, Skye. You don’t know what it means to die.”
“Do you think I want to die? I don’t. But you’re not the only one who can look into the future and see hard choices.” Breathing out sharply, Skye looked away from him for a moment; when she turned back, there was a fierceness in her gaze that took his breath away. “Well, we agree on one thing. We need to seize the moment.”
Then she kissed him, more hungrily than ever before, and within seconds he had pulled her down onto the bed, willing the world to go away for them both.
The rest of the weekend was one long blur of her lips against his. They didn’t argue about their different ideas about the future, at least not explicitly. Instead they focused on how best to keep Skye alive and in Darby Glen, for her parents’ sake and for her own.
This involved some serious tactical thinking. Balthazar had already emailed Lucas and Bianca to talk about who could help protect her, or how best to dissuade the vampires from searching for her. Apparently Bianca’s parents were spreading a counter-rumor that Skye was only an illusion Redgrave had planted in Lorenzo’s mind, and the stories about her were all another of his well-known, elaborate tricks. This was now being whispered through all the gathering places that served similar purposes to the fallen Evernight Academy—small, secluded schools, retreats, and centers where the undead came together, including a rehab center in Arizona. This was a good first step, but it could only help so much, Balthazar thought. The vampires who went to these places were, by definition, the more civilized among them, the ones who wanted to live among humans without causing undue harm. What they had to worry about were the wild ones. The ones who never came near Evernight Academy, who cared less about appearing human and more about taking prey wherever they could find it.
And even the civilized vampires might miss the old days of the wars, the days when they had a prince … but that was something to worry about later. Skye’s dilemma was all he could concentrate on now.
Lucas had come up with the idea of notifying Black Cross about the coming vampire incursion in Darby Glen. As much as Balthazar disliked the idea of relying on a band of vampire hunters for any reason, he had to admit—the surest way of scattering a pack of vampires was to set an even larger pack of hunters on them. Lucas was going to attempt to reach out soon, which meant Black Cross would be on the scene, in force, before long.
Balthazar wasn’t sure how long he could remain out in the open once Black Cross arrived. They never allied with vampires, ever; to them, all vampires were merely animals. But he’d face that when the time came. Whatever it took to remain with the woman he loved, he would do.
They never parted once until Monday. That morning, at dawn, he ran with Skye toward his car, the better to get her home to change for school.
As she bounced onto the passenger seat, she said, “I don’t know how I’m going to keep a straight face during homeroom.”
“You’d better. I don’t want to be arrested for indecency.”
“After this weekend, you could be arrested many times over.” Skye beamed at him.
“I don’t want to take advantage of you,” he blurted.
She gave him a look. “It’s a little late for that. Besides, I’m legal, consent-wise. You knew that, right? The ‘arrested’ thing was just a joke.”
Balthazar, who had grown up in an era when women Skye’s age were usually married and giving birth to their second or third child, had other things on his mind than some arcane legal limit. What mattered went deeper than that. “Skye, I don’t want you to look back and feel like you … didn’t have any choice. Like you were only with me because of the intense situation you’re in.”
Skye leaned over and kissed him, long and slow, mouth open. When their lips parted, she whispered, “I want to be with you, too. I know that, absolutely.”
“Okay,” he said, a smile spreading across his face.
As Balthazar put the car in reverse, he thought he saw a flicker of movement at the corner of his eye and turned sharply to look at it—but it was nothing. Maybe the reflection of a bird on one of the Findleys’ windows, or the swing of a curtain. Redgrave was nowhere near, and it felt for a moment as if they had time for everything in the world.