18. Grace

Chapter 18

Grace

S ometime in the middle of the night, I woke to a sharp pain in my arm, a rush of liquid entering my body beneath my skin, and a deep sense of wrongness and danger. I bolted upright in bed, already swinging my fists to fight off whoever was above me. But they hit nothing. Even though I could feel someone in the room with me, there was no one within reach of my bed. I glanced down at my arm and panicked when I saw a needle sticking out of my it. I jerked it out quickly, but I knew it was already too late. I could feel whatever I'd been injected with start to affect me.

"Sebastian!" I cried, terrified, as I started to lose feeling in my hands, and then my arms. I couldn't raise them anymore to fight off my attacker. I started gasping for breath. My lungs felt like they were going to collapse. My heartbeat slowed.

"He's not here," a female voice said.

"Who are you? Why are you doing this!?"

A figure stepped into the sliver of moonlight coming in through the window, and all I could do was stare.

It was the woman from the zipline.

I also recognized her now as the girlfriend of one of the two guys that had gotten kicked off the ship after they'd laid their hands on me. She'd had blonde hair at the zipline place, but it had obviously been a wig because her hair was dark brown now.

But… hadn't she broken up with that guy? Hadn't she called him and told him what a scumbag he was, and that she never wanted to see him again?

She watched me like a beetle beneath a microscope as my breath started growing more shallow, as I lost all strength and couldn't support the weight of my body sitting up anymore. I fell back against the pillows, gasping for breath, fighting to keep my eyes open.

"The love of my life tossed me aside once he laid his eyes on you," she whispered.

So, blame the guy, not the girl, you psycho!

All the sudden, my door was ripped open and off its hinges. Sebastian stood in the opening in a full, terrorizing fury, his crimson eyes blazing. Faster than I could blink, he ripped the woman away from me. I managed to keep my eyelids open long enough to see Gray leading the woman away in cuffs. She didn't fight him. She went calmly.

Sebastian picked up a vial off the floor, cursed when he read the label, and tossed it away from him before bellowing for Micaela to radio the doctor. It shattered against the wall. Micaela, who stood in the broken doorway looking completely ashen, immediately got on her radio and ducked into the hallway. More people flooded the space outside my missing door, their backs facing our room, all of them looking like they were ship's security.

Sebastian dragged me onto his lap, and bent over me protectively, tears running down his face. He listened to my heart, and my gasping breaths, and felt the cold of my body.

He knew what it all meant just as well as I did.

I was dying.

He cupped my face with his hands. "Open your eyes, angel," he demanded.

I tried several times but couldn't. They were so heavy.

"Grace, open your eyes."

This time, his words were layered with power. So much power that I could feel a hush all around us, and without me being aware, my body opened my eyes. I wasn't in control. Rather than being angry that he'd neglected to tell me he could take control of my body as a master vampire, I was instead relieved that I would get to see his beautiful face one more time. I catalogued his features, though my eyes kept blurring on me. The shape of his lips. The love in his eyes.

"Grace, I have to change you, or you won't survive. Do you understand me?"

Oh! Yes!

I could vaguely feel tears run down my numb cheeks in relief. I had forgotten that Sebastian could change me, that he could save me.

All I wanted in that moment was to live . To live a long, happy life with Sebastian, with Kazi and my friends. And I vowed to myself that if I made it out of this alive, I would be like Sebastian. I would make every moment of the rest of my life count.

My head jerked like I was a broken automaton, but it was enough. The guards put the door back in place, blocking us from prying eyes, and Sebastian kissed my mouth. "I'm sorry I can't make this more pleasurable this time," he whispered. "Next time I will, I promise."

I started seizing, and my eyes rolled up in my head. Distantly, I heard Sebastian curse, and then there was a sharp prick of pain in my neck. I lost consciousness after that and remembered nothing more.

I woke up to bright sunlight. I groaned and rubbed my eyes, then as the previous night hit me, I went still.

"Sebastian?"

"I'm here."

I turned to see him sitting in a chair beside the bed.

"What are you doing?"

"Watching you."

"That's kinda creepy," I teased. I had to tease him, or I would cry. Sebastian looked like a wreck.

He rubbed his scruffy face. It looked like he hadn't had a chance to shave yet, because his chin and the area around his mouth were covered in dark stubble.

"I almost lost my soul mate last night, Grace."

I winced and sat up gingerly, wanting to comfort him. "I wasn't too happy to be dying, either," I assured him. I patted the bed next to me. "Come sit."

Sebastian's nostrils flared. "If I get in that bed, I'm going to make love to you."

I blinked at him in shock, and a faint smile touched his lips. "You've always been hard for me to resist. But between almost losing you last night and then giving you a piece of my soul to change you into a dunamis, my iron-clad control is at its limits."

I ran a hand through my snarled hair. "A dunamis?" I looked at my hand and my body, expecting it to look different, but the only thing that appeared different was that my eyesight was sharper. "I thought you changed me into a vampire?"

Sebastian shook his head. "I can if you want me to, but changing you to a dunamis was enough to rid the morphine overdose from your body and set you on the path to healing." He leaned back, away from me, and laced his hands together. I could see them trembling with my sharpened eyesight.

"A dunamis is the half-step between human and vampire. In ancient times, they were a vampire's dearest companion. Vampires have long lives. They see many friends and loved-ones pass from this existence to the next. A dunamis has the immortality of a vampire, some immunity against poisons and illnesses, and a stronger body, as well as keener eyesight, hearing and sense of smell. They're not as durable as vampires, but they're much more durable than humans, and they don't suffer in the sun, or need to drink blood for nourishment. It's gone out of fashion now, but it used to be that every vampire household had a dunamis in it."

I could see why it had gone out of fashion if a vampire had to give up a piece of their soul in order to grant it.

"Thank you, Sebastian," I whispered. I smiled, trying to set him at ease, which I could still see he most definitely was not. "If I promise not to kiss you, can you hold me?" My words ended on a hiccup, and before I knew it, I was crying and shivering.

Sebastian cursed and drew me into his arms, wrapping them around me tightly. "Shh, it's okay." He ran his fingers through my hair soothingly and rested his chin against the curve of my neck as I sobbed in his arms.

I'd almost died last night.

And after everything that I'd gone through, I couldn't believe some woman had tried to kill me because her fiancé had straying eyes. I knew I had a draw on people as a siren, but Sebastian had assured me people still had a choice. That I didn't take over their free-will.

Speaking of free-will, I pulled my face away from his chest and scowled at Sebastian. "You made my eyes stay open," I accused. "When were you going to tell me you could take control of my body?"

He chuckled. "I was going to tell you before we married, I promise."

"Hmph."

I leaned into him, sighing. "I'm assuming she's been sent by helicopter to a jail cell somewhere?"

Sebastian nuzzled my neck, making my arms erupt in goosebumps. "Even better, she was a paranormal, a fox shifter, so she'll be tried in a paranormal court of law and be sent to one of our maximum security prisons."

He pulled away from nuzzling my neck to look at me, his expression sorrowful. "I'm sorry I wasn't here, Grace. I got a call last night while you were asleep. She'd gone around and released all the lifeboats. None of my crew saw her do it, they just realized the lifeboats were gone. She'd also somehow shorted the warning system that would normally be sent to the Bridge when a lifeboat is released. We had to stop the ship and go back the way we came to retrieve them. By the time I realized it might be someone trying to get me away from you, I ran back here, but she'd already injected you with the morphine. She'd timed everything perfectly. I'm so sorry you had to go through that."

I remembered the woman's emotionless eyes and shivered. I could well believe it of her. She had seemed ruthlessly intelligent, but also completely lacking empathy. It was terrifying to think that there were truly unhinged people like her out there in the world.

"You did everything you could," I told him softly. "I never doubted that. Yeah, it was scary, but we came through it okay. That's all that matters. Thank you for saving me." I rested my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes. "Besides, I'm hoping I'll get a few new powers."

Sebastian rubbed his chin along the crown of my head as he hummed in thought. "You'll likely just have the enhancements I told you about, in addition to whatever your siren powers are. So far, you've demonstrated a siren's ability to know the souls around her, a sonar blast when in danger, an assumed ability to manipulate water, a siren's natural ability to calm storms, and a siren's natural magnetism. I'm not anticipating that the new dunamis abilities will change or hinder any of your siren abilities."

"I'm glad we're working on testing the sonic boom and water manipulation. You would think I would have at least spotted the water manipulation one before now."

"You were too much in fight-or-flight mode in the human world. I understand why you felt the need to just focus on the thing that kept landing you at the police station. And you said that you hadn't done much swimming in the last few years, despite your skill in the water. It was just the right combination of circumstances that made your ability come out that night. The odds of that happening normally are pretty small."

I shrugged, still wrapped in his arms. "I guess. I'm just glad we learned about it, and we're working on it. I'd hate to hit Mama with a sonic boom when she beats me at cards for the fiftieth time."

Sebastian smiled. "Unless she's dealing cards underwater, I think you're good. It's a good water defensive move though, so we'll keep working on it." He started nibbling on my ear and I shivered for a different reason altogether.

"Sebastian?"

"Yes?" he said hoarsely.

"I think we'd better get married. Soon. I don't fling before marriage."

He chuckled warmly right next to my ear, and the sound and his warm breath against my skin made my stomach swoop. "I would never have asked you to. How does two o'clock sound?"

I pulled back so I could see his face and gaped at him. "Today?" It came out in a high-pitched squeak, but I couldn't help it. Get married? Today!

Sebastian cupped my face with his palms. "I love you, Grace. Please say you'll marry me and be mine forever. Please allow me to love you all the days of your life. Please allow me to spoil you, in the bedroom and out. Please allow me to treat you as you deserve to be treated so that you never doubt your worth again."

I swallowed, my eyes burning fiercely. I blinked quickly to keep the tears from spilling over. As far as marriage proposals went, that had definitely been a ten.

I kissed his full lips, then smiled. "Let's get married."