Chapter Fifty-Nine

Three days later we held their funeral ceremonies. I kept it short because I knew that at any moment I would break down and I couldn’t, not in front of their lair. I still didn’t think of them as mine and I’d yet to have that conversation with Nova.

I broke later when everyone was asleep and I sat in the dark room looking out of the windows, letting the tears fall silently. I’d never fully understood Lucas mourning his parents for so many years, but I got it now, I really got it now.

“We need to talk,” I said to Nova the following morning as I sat on the couch that faced the windows.

“What about?” she asked me.

“Staying in Aurora, doing the right thing,” I said.

“Being their Sire …” she replied softly.

“There is no one else,” I said.

“Look at what happened, even before saying you’d take over as Sire,” she said with worry in her eyes.

“That was one man, thinking he could take this town,” I said.

“Yes and who comes looking for him?” she asked me.

“Nova, don’t make this harder than it is