“Oh my God, Astrid,” the one whose scent kept me here groused. “If he’s gone, I have nothing. Nothing. I will follow him till the end of time. And there is no such thing as stilettos that don’t crunch toes.”
“I call bullshit on all of that except the crunched toe part. First of all, Heathcliff’s not gone yet. If you pull a fucking Romeo and Juliet thing and whack yourself right before he wakes up, I will be so fucking pissed I will find you in the afterlife and beat your ass,” Astrid vowed.
“There are only minutes left,” my girl said harshly. “Just leave.”
“Have you tried smacking him in the head or giving him titty twisters?” she suggested.
“Ummm… no.”
“He hates titty twisters. All guys do. Watch and learn,” Astrid said with frightening determination in her voice.
This Astrid was all kinds of crazy and I hoped she wasn’t referring to me in reference to the titty twister. Unfortunately she was referring to me and she twisted with gusto.
I wanted to shove her away. I ached to make sure the one who was mine didn’t hurt herself. I needed… Son of a bitch. I needed to kill Vlad.
I needed to make love to Raquel—my mate.
And I really needed to throw my titty twisting cousin across the room.
Now.
“Off,” I choked out in a voice that seemed to belong to someone else. “Off of me. Now.”
“Holy shitballs on fire, I can’t believe that worked,” Astrid squealed.
I pried open my eyes and was greeted with the gaping open-mouthed stare of my cousin.
“Mother humpin cowballs,” she yelled. “Your eyes are silver.”
“And my nipples are on fire,” I shot back weakly. “Where is she? Did she harm herself?” I demanded as I tried and failed to sit up.
“Do you know who I am?” Astrid demanded. “Do you know who you are?”
I closed my eyes and let my heavy head fall back on what I assumed to be a bed. “I am Heathcliff. You are my certifiable cousin, Astrid. My mate Raquel is somewhere in this room and if she doesn’t come to me right now, I’ll explode.”
“I’m here,” Raquel cried out as she wrapped her arms around me and planted little kisses all over my face and neck. Her tears fell freely and she gently ran her hands over my still sluggish form. “Are you really back?” she whispered biting back her sobs.
“I’m here. I’ve been here, but I didn’t know I was me,” I told her as I tried to remember what had happened. “You made a deal with Roberto?”
“I called in your favor. He brought you back,” she said and waited for my reaction.
“I was dead?”
She nodded and chewed nervously at her bottom lip.
“How in the Hell did he do that?” I asked, shocked. I knew Angels had enormous power, but bringing back the dead… or undead as it were.
“If you’d been human, he couldn’t have done it,” Pam volunteered as she and the King rushed back into the room.
Ethan and Jean Paul followed close behind and everyone stared at me with wonder.
“It’s him?” Ethan asked cautiously.
“Him has a name, asshole,” I said with a fatigued grin.
“Oh good. It is him,” Ethan confirmed as a huge relieved smile stretched across his lips.
“I titty twisted him,” Astrid volunteered with a wicked glint in her eyes.
All the men including myself grunted in phantom pain as Astrid did the motions of a robustly severe titty twist.
“It’s you, but you’re more now, my friend,” Pam said as she examined my eyes carefully.
“Explain,” I said as I gingerly pulled myself to a sitting position with help from Raquel.
“Well, now there’s the conundrum,” Pam said with a chuckle. “You’re a prototype. This has never been done before, but your silver eyes are those of a young Angel.”
“Am I still a Vampyre?” I asked, confused. I didn’t feel any different than I always had other than the sluggishness of having been out cold for a week. “Am I dangerous to you?”
Astrid stepped forward, placed her hands on my face and closed her eyes. She chanted softly and I felt her massive power flow through my body. Her eyes popped open and she stared at me with a perplexed expression.
“You’re not dangerous, but Pam is correct. You are much more than you were before, my cousin.”
“Is this a good thing or a bad thing?” I questioned warily.
“That’s up to you,” she answered vaguely with a lopsided grin.
“That was awfully cryptic for a new Vampyre,” I told her with an arched brow and a matching grin.
“Right?” she said gleefully. “I’m finally catching on to this undead shit.”
“Do you have fangs?” Raquel asked as she gently rubbed my back and rolled her eyes at Astrid.
I reached into my mouth and promptly cut my finger on the razor sharp tips of my fangs as they descended. The relief I felt was absurd.
“I do.” I laughed as I sucked on my bleeding finger.
The taste of blood and the nearness of my mate caused a raging hunger to well inside me. Dizziness overtook me and I slumped back on the bed.
“He needs to feed,” the King guessed correctly.
Everyone began to pull up their sleeves and Raquel halted them with a loud and unladylike clearing of her throat. The laughter and catcalls followed my friends out of the room as they all left. Congratulations about not biting the dust were called rudely over shoulders.