Free Blood Legacy (PULSE Vampire Series #6) by Kailin Gow

face.
     
    “Then make me forget,” she said. Her voice shook. “Use compulsion – make the pain stop. Make me forget I ever had a brother – it would be better than this. Anything would be better than this.”
     
    He stroked her softly. “No, my love. I won’t do that, either. Your love for Justin will live beyond him – do not act so rashly. Believe me, I want nothing in the world more than to spare you pain. But I cannot do what you ask. I love you too much to turn you – or to make you forget. These are easy ways out – but they are paths to darkness.”
     
    “But if he turns – Justin, I mean…we’ll have to stake him,” Kalina sobbed harder. “And Octavius, I don’t think I can…”
     
    “I’ll never make you do that,” said Octavius. “It will not fall to you to make that choice, that impossible choice. I promise you that.”
     
    Kalina looked up at him with wide eyes. “Then you will?”
     
    “I will do whatever I have to do to keep you safe. And I won’t let you have Justin’s blood on your hands.”
     
    “It’s already there,” Kalina whispered. “Oh, Octavius – don’t you see? It’s already there!”
     
    She sobbed herself to sleep, and as the sun crested over the castle ramparts, marking high noon, she at last fell into drowsy, exhausted oblivion. Octavius watched her sleep, stroking her hair and pressing his lips to her forehead. Letting her cry it all out. It was better that she slept, he reasoned – better that she did not feel this pain. She would have to feel it all the more keenly when she woke. Yes, Octavius knew – he would have to kill Justin as soon as he woke up. It was the only way to save him. Every moment that Justin spent alive and conscious as a vampire was a moment during which Justin would suffer unimaginable torment. Better to stake Justin just as he awakened to this new life, preventing him from ever truly understanding what a vile beast he had become.
     
    Octavius stood, tucking Kalina gently into bed. How beautiful she was, he thought, her half-naked body sparkling as the light of the early afternoon streamed through the stained glass window. Her cool, pale skin made all the whiter by her black lingerie. He wanted to press his lips to the neatly embroidered lace. But he let her sleep. Better to stifle his own desires, he knew, than to wake her and force her to contend with her loss anew.
     
    Octavius went to the adjacent room, filling an enormous marble bathtub with hot water. His muscles ached just looking at the tub, which took up half the room, standing on gold-plated claw-feet. It had been days since he was able to take a hot bath – he had spent so long in the Alps, growing sweaty and tired as they searched in vain for the Carriers. His contacts in St. Petersburg had told him that Olga had been spotted around here, but more he did not know. He was beginning to despair. Their food and water would begin to run out soon – they were running out of time.
     
    He removed his dressing gown and sank his muscular frame into the water, feeling its warmth against his skin, imagining it was not water at all but a lithe female frame. Her frame.
     
    He had felt her pain the moment Molotov showed up at the inn. He had known immediately that things were too dangerous, that he needed to get there in the space a human heartbeat – to save her. But he had failed her. He had not come in time. He had been a fool to send her so far away – he should have kept her and Stuart near, under his protection. He had protected his own heart – so sure he would not be able to see Kalina under his roof, married to Stuart – but at what price? Had he been less selfish, he wondered grimly, had he kept Kalina with him, succumbed to the pain of wanting her, then would Justin still be alive?
     
    At least he had saved Kalina. He could be glad of that. He knew her blood was valuable, but he wouldn’t put it past Molotov to kill her all the same, sacrificing money for honor: