by R. M. Webb
“Don’t be silly. It gave me an excuse to hold you close while I carried you here.” I smile and consider sitting up, but I like it here, with him stroking my cheek and smiling down at me.
“How did you know? That I was looking for you?” A strange look - guilty and embarrassed - flickers across his face. I sit up, closing my eyes as the world spins.
“I knew you were upset.” I don’t like the way his voice sounds, but I open my eyes to meet his and it’s like my soul rejoices at the connection. “I could … feel … you. Get a sense of your thoughts, your emotions.” There’s an apology in his eyes and I’m not sure why.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s a vampire thing. The more blood we exchange, the closer we are. I’ve been able to tune into you for a while now. Kind of like eavesdropping.”
I remember the day I stood in my kitchen, fully aware that Thomas would be here soon, but unsure as to how I could be so sure. “And you could, what? Give me thoughts?”
“Kind of. Not reliably. It’s challenging enough to create a connection while you’re still human. I was never sure if you got the thoughts I sent to you.”
“One. I’m pretty sure I got one.”
“I’m sorry I never told you.”
“So you’ve known how upset I’ve been?”
“Yes. It’s been hard to stay away, but I kept thinking your sorrow would fade.”
“And now?”
“When I realized what you intended to do, I realized that by staying away from you, I wasn’t protecting you, I wasn’t keeping you whole. I was still destroying you. Only rather than making it a quick process, me taking your life and you awaking on the other side of mortality, I was destroying you one small agonizing piece at a time. I realized that I destroyed you the same day I destroyed your cupcakes.”
“You haven’t destroyed me.”
“You were ready to kill yourself.”
“But I’m not now.”
He smiles at me. “No. You’re not now.”
“Thomas, as long as I’m by your side, I think it’s safe to say that you’ve saved me.”
We fall into silence and I let it wrap around me, not ready to think about what might be coming next or when he might be leaving or where we’ll go from here. All I know is that right now, in this very moment, I’m with him and I’m really, truly, ok. For all the times that I said I was fine and didn’t mean it, for all the times I said I was ok and I wasn’t, I am now. With him.
“What now, Rachel?”
It takes me a moment to realize that it was Thomas actually asking the question and not my own private thought. I purse my eyebrows together in question. “What do you mean, what now?” My stomach is flip flopping all around inside me, nerves tingling the edges of my fingertips, the tip of my nose, that current of electricity pulsing across my lips. The world starts to swim again. How long has it been since I’ve eaten?
“I mean just that. What now? Where do we go from here?”
Could it be? Is he really going to leave again? I had just that moment of truly being ok and now it’s gone. I don’t know what to say, so I just open my mouth and let the truth fall out. “I can’t live without you. I need to be in your life. I need you in mine. I need to know that I have you forever because you make everything ok. At first I wanted to be a vampire so I could escape the tedium of growing old and having to struggle to make ends meet, but now, I just want to know that I have forever with you. As many days and nights at your side as the world will allow because I don’t feel normal without you. I don’t feel whole without you. I’m just not ok without you.”
“So what now?”
“You know what I want.”
“Say it.”
“I want you.”
“You have me.”
“Forever.”
“Forever’s a long time.”
“Not long enough.” He smiles and I swallow. “Thomas? Make me yours.”
He leans down, his lips brushing mine before trailing down my jawline to the soft spot at my throat. “You already are, Rachel. You already are.”
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Need more Thomas and Rachel? They live in R. M. Webb’s Immortal Memories universe, and show up in other books. Head over to www.rmwebbfiction.com to find more information on the Immortal Memories Series. While Thomas shows up briefly in Façade, he plays a major part in Unleashed. You’ll get to see how Rachel met Thomas from his point of view.
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Books by R. M. Webb
Immortal Memories series:
Façade
Unleashed
Reclaimed – coming soon!
Also in the Immortal Memories Universe:
Til Death Part One
Til Death Part Two
Til Death Part Three
As always, thank you for taking the time out of your busy life to read!