Vampire Apocalypse #2 Cataylst by H.M. Ward

Allowing this relationship with
Will to continue defied everything she’d been taught, and made it
explicitly clear that all hope of finding her betrothed was gone.
Whoever he was, he vanished like everyone else who’d been important
to her.
    __
    Hours passed, but Kahli wasn’t able to sleep.
She just laid there staring at the ceiling. The thought of agreeing
to Will’s request set her nerves on end. She had to do it. Kahli
knew that, but she still didn’t want to. When she couldn’t lay
there another second, she sat up. Will was still reading, hunched
close to the lantern.
    She sat down next to him and said, “There’s
no other choice, is there?”
    Will set the book down and looked up at her.
She couldn’t read his thoughts, but she could feel a nervous jolt
rush through him. Her question startled him. It was so late that
she thought she should have waited until morning, after she slept,
but Kahli couldn’t sleep as long as the question continued to
bounce around in her head. The uncertainty was driving her
crazy.
    “I don’t see another option, Kahli. I wish
there was.” Will swallowed hard, like his throat was dry.
    Kahli looked down at her hands on the table
top. “What will it do?” She glanced up at him slowly. “How much
will you feel? How much will you know?”
    “Everything,” he breathed. “There will be no
secrets, for either of us.”
    Kahli’s eyes drifted to the spot where his
runes started under his shirt. She’d wanted to know where they came
from, and who gave them to him. If he bit her, she’d know, but that
didn’t make her happy. She didn’t want to learn about him like
this. She wanted him to tell her, but Will couldn’t. She breathed
deeply and leaned forward, resting her face in her hands.
    “What secrets do you have left to hide,
Kahlahandra?” Will said softly, his hand touching the top of her
head. There was no compulsion in his voice, but Kahli still shifted
like there was. Her name falling from his lips felt like a
caress.
    “Nothing you won’t pry out of me,” she meant
it to be light and joking, but it wasn’t. It was the crux of the
problem. There was a difference between offering and taking.
    Will took her hand when it flopped down on
the table. “You don’t have to do this now. We can wait.”
    “No, we can’t. I left a trail of blood behind
me. I wanted to get out of there so badly that I didn’t think of
what I left behind. Will, I have to go back and get Cassie and
Cole. And—”
    He cut her off, “And the rest of them. I
know.”
    “There’s only one way to do that.” She looked
up into his eyes.
    He shook his head. “Not tonight. Sleep. If
you still want to—”
    “I don’t want to, Will. I’ll never want to. I
have to. There’s no other way to undo what the King has done, and
after this, there’ll be no way to undo what you’ve done. It’s a
necessary evil.”
    “I see,” Will flinched and withdrew his
hand.
    “I didn’t mean it like that,” Kahli wanted to
scream and yell, but not at Will. It wasn’t his fault. Her voice
softened after a beat, “I would have wanted to tell you everything.
I would have wanted you to know me, but over time. Doing it this
way, it’s like spilling everything out all at once. You’ll see
everything. The good and bad,” she smirked sadly, “But it’s mostly
bad.”
    “I know,” he breathed, “I feel the same way.
There are things I don’t want you to know, not yet .” Thing’s
that you won’t fully understand even when you see them. I’ve kept
things from you, things you won’t forgive me for doing. His
heart sank at the thought and he looked away from her.
    Kahli quietly sat across from him, watching
his face. Will looked nervously around the room. His gaze drifted
from his hands to the walls and finally lifted to meet Kahli’s
emerald eyes. She smiled at him, “There’s no point in waiting, you
know. Actually, if the risk with the King is that serious, we
should have done it