Sariel hissed out a breath next to me.
"Sometimes it's best," I held the feather out. "To love for a moment than to never experience it."
"Genesis!" Ethan moved toward me just as Cassius reached for the stem of the feather.
I stumbled backward.
And pointed the edge directly into my own chest.
"No!" Ethan roared.
Sariel turned his back to both men, covering me with his wings as I fell slowly back, my heartbeat slowing in my chest until I didn't feel a beat anymore.
Sariel's face broke out into a smile as his wings blanketed my fall to the ground. His forehead touched mine, and with a brief touch of his mouth against mine, he whispered, "Fear is not welcome here."
"Not afraid," I choked out.
"I know." His eyes blazed white. "There is no greater sacrifice than laying down one's life for the life of a friend."
The room flashed white.
And I knew I was dead.
Ethan
I couldn't reach her in time.
My body screamed and a part of my soul, perhaps the last piece I actually possessed, went dead in my chest as the sound of her heart slowing brought me to my knees.
Dead.
I knew what death sounded like — and I'd just received the final blow of my existence.
Sariel disappeared.
Leaving her body behind. Her lips were blue as if the angel had infused his blood into her mouth before leaving me behind to pick up the pieces.
I let out a guttural moan. Tears streamed down my face. I couldn't hear her heart. I couldn't feel the warmth.
Heat seared my limbs as my blood boiled, killing any of the angel's blood still left in my system.
Cassius slowly walked over to her body and shook his head. "Humans… are not supposed to die for darkness."
I couldn't speak.
It hurt too much.
"Kill me too," I whispered. "Please."
Cassius's eyes flashed. "She wouldn't want that."
"She's dead!" I roared, charging him. "Just kill me."
Cassius flung me across the room. I stumbled against the farthest wall and charged him again.
With a flick of his hand, my body stilled. He'd frozen me, the bastard.
Vampire blood boiled to the surface, heating the ice.
"You'd do anything to get her back, but you take a chance she isn't the same." Cassius sunk to his knees. "You take the chance that you may lose her."
"You mean to make her immortal."
"Only I can bring her back from death."
I turned my head. "You know what your touch would do to her."
"Not with certainty," Cassius whispered. "No."
"She may become immortal — but forever be tied to you."
"But she would live," Cassius said. "It's your choice, but her heart stopped beating two minutes ago. We are running out of time."
The ice completely melted around me. I rushed toward her lifeless body and shook my head in disbelief. "I'd rather she live — a full life — a life she deserves, even if it's apart from me — than survive one more second with her light extinguished from this world."
Cassius nodded. "Grab her hands."
They were cold, so cold that her fingertips nearly burnt me.
Cassius leaned forward, his lips hovering over hers. Eyes white as snow, his face began to immediately heal as his mouth grazed hers, and then he whispered, "Breathe."
She was still motionless.
Blue lines made their way from his temples and neck toward his lips as he blew across her lips and whispered again, "Breathe."
His hand moved to her chest, and with one more exhale, he pushed down and commanded, "Breathe, human."
Genesis choked and then inhaled. I gripped her hands as hard as I could as her fingertips began to warm against mine. Body taut, I waited for her eyes to open, waited to see if they would be white like Cassius's — or green like mine.
She was breathing.
Her heart stuttered.
And then began to take off.
"Why aren't her eyes opening?" I yelled, reaching for her shoulders. "She's alive, she's breathing but—"
"I don't know." Cassius rubbed his face. "It's been a while since I've actually given immortality to a human." His eyes were no longer white but bright blue, his skin pale.
"I'm sorry." I choked on the apology. "I know what it cost you to do that."
Cassius said nothing, rubbing his hands together as if to ward off the chill of his own blood.
He would be weak for days, possibly weeks. After all, he was still part human.
"What do we do?" Her heart still beat, but color wasn't returning to her face.
"We take her home," Cassius whispered, "and wait."
I rode home in the back seat, Genesis cradled in my arms. I kissed her neck — I even bit, hoping my blood would help infuse some of what Cassius had given her of himself.
I was desperate.
I loved her.
And I refused to believe that she would stay in that state, comatose, unable to react to the world around us.
When Cassius pulled up to the house, Alex and Mason were already outside, running toward the car.