All Just Glass - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [53]
Adia had been so wrapped up in his words she was startled when he fell silent and she suddenly realized he was much closer than he should have been. She moved to raise her knife, and he shoved her backward, sending her off balance—but only long enough for him to step back again, keeping her from attacking.
“What option do we have?” she asked. “Should we just forget all the deaths this generation?”
“Do you want to survive?” he snapped.
“Sacrificing all we believe in to preserve some semblance of our flesh would destroy our line as surely as any of your kind could.” She had already accepted that this might be the end. If their line had to die, she would rather die with dignity than beg for leniency and fade into obscurity.
“I’ve seen enough genocide in my time, witch,” he said. “You don’t want to choose that path. Find an option. Be creative. Use some of the wit and intelligence I know your line possesses and come up with something.” She started to object, but he spoke over her. “And don’t give me that line about how Vidas don’t compromise or make deals. It’s crap. There is no such thing as perfection.”
“Maybe not,” she admitted, thinking of the many mistakes she had made in the past day alone. “But that doesn’t mean we stop trying.”
Jerome shook his head. “Would you like to see what perfection looks like in reality, Adia?” he asked.
There was a challenging light in his eyes, along with a hint of anger. Part of her wanted to rise to that challenge, but part of her sensed that if she did so, she would regret it.
Refusing, however, had never been a choice.
CHAPTER 17
SATURDAY, 4:50 P.M.
SARAH GAPED AT Kristopher, struggling to control her anger and the bloodlust that seemed to rise and tangle with it, like the two were feeding on each other.
Her family was trying to kill her. As if that weren’t sufficient, she had dreamed Kristopher’s memories of his dead first crush and then heard from Kaleo’s favorite bloodbond that she would be a good little vampire, before having a short discussion about how vampires occasionally utterly ruined human lives for fun. Then she had a flashback to Nissa’s committing murder, and now Kristopher thought he could fix it all up with a Broadway musical?
Kristopher seemed taken aback by her response. “I thought it would be nice to spend an evening focused on something other than a situation we have no power to change right now.” Though he didn’t say it out loud, and tried to squash it before she heard it, another thought sneaked through to her: I want to show you there are still things in the world worth living for. “If you don’t want to see a show, we could do something else, anywhere we want. Have you ever wanted to visit the Louvre? It’s past ten o’clock in Paris right now, but I could call Kendra, and she could have it opened for us.”
The words felt like a blow. She was on the verge of tears and had no idea why.
“Damn it, Kristopher!” Sarah shouted. “You nearly died today. I nearly killed my cousin. We are being made top priority by every hunter my mother has ever met—including everyone I ever called family. Your people are in danger, mostly because you and I showed absolutely no common sense or self-control—”
“You chose to live your own life,” Kristopher said challengingly.
“I didn’t choose anything. You chose for both of us, remember?”
Kristopher had waited, perfectly mellow, through most of the tirade, his expression clearly asking, So? It was only then that he flinched.