Chapter 11

The night we got back to the garage, he made dinner.He'd simmered a pork rib soup with dates for two hours. When he carried the soup over, the rim of the bowl wasn't too hot. He'd tested the temperature with his fingers. His power was very weak now, too weak to even read temperature reliably. He tested it three times before he decided it was right.I took a sip. The salt was just right. Exactly like before."Lucian.""Mm.""Your power. Can you ever get it back?""No," he said, his tone light. "The bloodline source went to the Council. It can't be undone."No power was fine. Two ordinary people was good enough, as long as we never had to be apart again.

Chapter 12

But the good times didn't last. One morning my cousin Caleb Holt showed up.He stood at the garage door in a black hunter's uniform, a silver stake at his waist, three more hunters in the same gear behind him. The sun caught their silver gear and the glare hurt my eyes."Nora." Caleb said my name, his voice cold as winter iron. "Come out."Lucian came out of the kitchen, a spatula still in his hand. He saw the men at the door, his expression unchanged, only set the spatula down, wiped his hands, and stepped in front of me."What's this about?" he asked.Caleb glanced at him, his eyes full of disgust. "Lucian von Karstein. The Council already stripped your power. You're nothing now. This doesn't concern you. Move."Lucian didn't move. He stood there in that black coat washed pale, the leather shoes with the hole in them still on his feet, no weapon in his hands. But he stood very straight, back upright, chin lifted slightly."Her business is my business," he said.Caleb sneered. "You do

Chapter 13

The night he merged with the bloodline source, I sat on the folding cot in the garage and watched him across from me.He sat cross-legged on the floor, the box in front of him. The dull red light rose from his palm, not a wisp this time but a whole sheet of it, like flame and like blood, climbing up his arm.His brow was tightly furrowed, his lips pressed into a line. The merging hurt. I knew, because I'd hurt the same way every time the curse activated.I didn't disturb him. I just sat there and watched.After about an hour, the light sank slowly into his chest. He opened his eyes, and the color of his irises had changed, from dull brown back to deep red, deeper and heavier than before, like blood that had set for five hundred years."Done?" I asked."Done." He stood and flexed his fingers. The old chilblains were still there, the calluses still there, but there was something new in his eyes. Not power. Certainty. He was certain of who he was again."How does it feel?" I asked."Like

Chapter 14

It took us three days to finish cleaning the windows of the castle in the birch woods.He said he wanted to sell the castle. I asked why. He said he'd gotten used to the garage, and the castle was too big, a waste for two people. I knew the real reason he wanted to sell, and it wasn't because of the waste. He didn't want me living in the place where he'd been stripped of everything. He'd stopped caring about that, but he was afraid I cared. He was always afraid of the things I didn't know about."We're not selling," I said."Why?""Because it's yours," I said. "You can do without everything else, but I want you to keep this."He looked at me and said nothing. His eyes reddened, but he didn't cry.The first day, cleaning the windows, I stood on a ladder to reach the highest pane, and he held the ladder below. His power had fully returned, and steadying a ladder cost him nothing. But he held it seriously anyway, fingers hooked around the rung, his eyes always on my feet."Move a little t

All Chapters of Love You to Death: Chapter 11 - Chapter 14

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14