Page 36 of Crimson Shifter

“Tell me about one of those harder situations?” she asked, settling a little deeper against me.

I smirked down at her. “You want me to tell you a bedtime story, little viper?”

Cassandra smiled back before biting my chest, sucking up a quick mouthful of blood before licking the wounds closed. “I've decided that every time you call me a viper I'm going to bite you.”

I cocked a brow at her, my grin deepening. “That's a delightful little tidbit.”

“So are you going to tell me? Or should I keep biting you?”

“That's an incredibly hard choice,” I said, but I knew deep down what I needed to do. She’d given me a piece of her dark past, and I wanted to return the trust with that kind of story.

“I suppose the hardest thing we've ever had to do since becoming hunters was going into stasis. It was the hardest decision we've ever had to make, and trust me, in our earlier days, when bloodmadness was spreading like an infectious disease, we'd made some pretty hard fucking decisions.

“Saint was walking the edge when bloodmad vampires weren't as common, and the sitting king would’ve been forced to order his execution by our own hands. None of us could live with the idea, so we all made the decision to…retireas the modern day would call it. We said goodbye to friends and family we didn’t know if we’d ever see again. Looking back now, I should’ve realized that it’d been Samuel killing all those innocent human beings and not Saint. He’d been so against going into stasis, but if he’d fought any harder, we would’ve known his plan all along. The kind of patience he had for the long gameterrifiesme.” I sucked in a sharp breath.

“Almost as much as the fact that I didn't have a fucking clue that my own brother was betraying us. Even before that, it’d been an impossible decision because Zachariah had just met his mate?—”

Cassandra gasped, shifting to look up at me in horror.

“Yeah,” I said. “We all felt his pain through our bonds as hunters. It hurt. Almost the equivalent of a death. He had tochoose between keeping his brother alive or his mate, and it was an impossible decision. But he made it in the hopes that he would be reunited with her when we were awakened. I don't think any of us anticipated being asleep for five hundred years, but…that's the hardest situation we've ever been in.”

“I...I don't know what to say,” she said. “Talon, I'm so sorry. Not knowing that about your brother, and then with Zachariah’s mate.” She shook her head, empathy radiating from each of her features. “Has he tried to contact her? I haven't seen anyone around him since he awoke?—”

“I don't think so,” I answered. “I'm sure if he did try to track her down, he wouldn't tell us about it. Each of us, minus Samuel apparently, carries the guilt of that decision, Saint more than any of us. Zachariah would never try to cause us anymore pain by bringing it up.”

Cassandra settled back against my chest, wrapping her arms around me, and holding me just a little bit tighter. She may not have had the words, but I could feel her comfort gliding down that connection we had.

I folded my arms around her, clinging to her like she was clinging to me.

“I hope that he reunites with her,” she said after a few moments of silence. “He deserves that kind of happiness after everything he's been through,” she continued, shifting to look up at me again. “You all do.”

Words clogged my throat.

It wasn't until she’d fallen back asleep that I realized the kind of happiness she was hinting at felt a hell of a lot like falling asleep with her in my arms.

CHAPTER 12

Cassandra

“How was your call with Zachariah?” I asked when Talon padded back into my chambers. It was the second call he’d been able to make in the last two weeks.

I made sure to close the door behind him before he shifted back into his vampiric form.

A muscle in Talon’s jaw flexed, something weary in his eyes. He slid on a pair of sweats as he shook his head. “Nothing new to note.” His voice had an irritated tone to it that made me swallow hard.

“Has something happened?” A pit opened up in my stomach at the thought of more innocents being killed by the Sons of Honor, no doubt with the support of my eldest brother, and quite possibly my mother.

“No,” he said. “Thankfully.”

I furrowed my brow. “Then why do you look so upset?”

“I'm not,” he said in anything but a believable tone.

“I know you're not hungry,” I said feeling nothing but irritation rattling down that connection of ours. “Did Zachariah scold you because we haven't been able to get any information?”

Talon started pacing, as if the irritated energy inside him was too much to take standing still.

“I know it's been a month since we've arrived here,” I continued, my words borderline rambling. “I know that it's been awful and it's hard to see if it's worth it since we don't have any information. I can understand how that would upset Zachariah, but even if Edward shows up tomorrow, it'll be worth?—”