Cassandra glanced to Ash who nodded.
Reluctantly, she handed Erik over to him. It was obvious Urian had never held a baby before. Cassandra put her hands on his and showed him how to support Erik's head and hold him so as not to hurt him.
"You're so fragile," Urian breathed at the baby who eyed him sweetly. "And yet you're still alive while my Phoebe isn't."
Wulf took a step forward. Ash tightened his grip.
"Will you stay and guard your family?" Acheron asked quietly.
"My family is dead," Urian snarled, casting a heated glare toward Ash.
"No, Urian, it's not. Phoebe's blood is in that baby. Erik carries her immortality with him."
Urian closed his eyes as if hearing those words was more than he could bear. "She loved this baby," he said after a brief time. "I could tell how much she wanted her own whenever she spoke of him. I only wish I could have given her one."
"You gave her everything else, Urian," Cassandra said, her own eyes filling with tears as she spoke of her sister. "She knew that and she loved you for it."
Urian wrapped an arm around Cassandra and pulled her close. He laid his head down on her shoulder and silently cried. Cassandra joined him as she finally let out the pain she, too, had been holding back.
Wulf felt uncomfortable with their grief. Cassandra was so incredibly strong. He felt Phoebe's loss too, but not nearly as much as the two of them did.
But he would know Urian's grief all too soon.
After a time, Urian let go and handed her Erik. "I won't let your baby die, Cassandra. I swear it. No one will ever hurt him. Not as long as I live."
Cassandra kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you."
Urian nodded and withdrew from her.
"What an alliance, huh?" Wulf said after Cassandra had left them. "A Dark-Hunter and a Spathi united to guard an Apollite. Who would have ever imagined?"
"Love makes strange bedfellows," Ash said.
"I thought that was politics."
"It's both."
Urian folded his arms over his chest. "Would you mind if I slept in the boathouse?"
"Sure," Wulf said, knowing Urian wanted to be someplace where he had memories of Phoebe. "Consider it yours for as long as you want it."
Urian drifted out of the house like a silent phantom.
"Is that what I have to look forward to?" Wulf asked Ash.
"Life is a tapestry woven by the decisions we make."
"Don't give me that pseudo quasi psychobabble bullshit, Ash. I'm tired, I had my ass kicked, I'm still worried about Cassandra, Erik, and Chris, and I really feel like shit. Just once in eternity, answer one fucking question."
Ash's eyes flashed to red so fast that for a moment, Wulf thought he might have imagined it. "I will not tamper with free will or fate, Wulf. Not for you, not for anything. There is no power on this earth or beyond that could make me do such a thing."
"What has that got to do with Cassandra?"
"Everything. Whether she lives or dies depends on what both of you do or don't do."
"Meaning?"
He was wholly unprepared for Ash's next statement. "If you want to save her life, you have to bond her life force to yours."
That didn't sound too hard. For the first time in months, he felt some hope. "Great. Any chance you're going to give me a clue on how to do that?"
"You feed from her and she feeds from you."
A feeling of dread shrank Wulf's stomach. "Feed how?"
Ash's swirling silver eyes met his and the look in them chilled Wulf to his soul. "You already know that answer. It's the first thought that went through your mind just now."
How he hated it when Acheron did that.
"Have you any idea how disgusting the thought of drinking blood is to me?"
Acheron shrugged. "It's really not so bad."
The words stunned Wulf. "Excuse me?"
Acheron didn't elaborate. "It's all up to you, Viking. Will you at least try it?"
What the Atlantean suggested was impossible. "She doesn't have fangs."
"She will if she needs them."
"Are you sure?"
Ash nodded. "It's really simple and yet it's really not. You drink from her neck and she drinks from yours."
The ancient Dark-Hunter was right. It sounded so simple at first. But could he and Cassandra really do that when everything they both believed in forbade it?
"Won't my blood kill her? I thought Dark-Hunter blood-"
"You're not a Dark-Hunter, Wulf. Not really. You never died. You have always been different from the others."
Wulf snorted in derision. "Yet again you tell me something that should have been made known to me years ago. Thanks, Ash."
"Things are always given to us when we need them."
"That's so not true," Wulf said.
"Actually it is. You just have to decide if you're strong enough, brave enough, to seize it and make it yours."
Ordinarily, Wulf would have had no doubt whatsoever about his strength or courage.
But this...
This required both of them.
And it required a lot of faith that Wulf wasn't sure he had anymore.
Cassandra sat there in stunned silence after Wulf had told her of the possible out.
"Are you sure it'll work?"
Wulf took a deep breath. "I don't know what I believe anymore, but if there's a chance, shouldn't we try it?"
"And you're sure this Acheron isn't trying to kill me too?"
Wulf offered her a small smile and refrained from laughing at the idea. "That is probably the only thing that I am certain about. I trust Ash, at least most of the time."
"Okay, then, let's do it."
Wulf cocked his brow. "You sure?"
She nodded.
"Okay then." He moved to stand just in front of her. She tilted her head to the side and pulled her hair off her neck.
Wulf put his hands on her waist.
He hesitated.
"Well?" she prompted.
He opened his mouth and placed his lips on the warm skin of her neck. Wulf closed his eyes as he felt her heartbeat in the vein and he grazed her skin with his teeth.
Mmm, she tasted good. He loved the way her skin teased his lips.
Cassandra cupped the back of his head with her hands. "Hmmm," she breathed, "you're giving me chills."
His body erupted at her words and the image he had of her naked in his arms.
Bite her...
He added pressure with his teeth.
She tightened her grip in his hair.
Do it!
"I can't," he said, pulling back. "I'm not a Daimon or an Apollite."
She looked up at him from underneath her lashes. "Now you understand what I meant when I told you that I couldn't cross over."
Yes, he understood.
But so long as neither of them was willing to do this, Cassandra was destined to die.