Eve POV
By morning, my mind was made up.
All night, I'd lain awake staring at the ceiling, the weight of everything pressing down on my chest. Marcus's words. Drake's claims. Salem's revelations. Lucius's mark. It was too much. My head pounded with it, my body trembled from exhaustion, but somewhere between the darkness and dawn, my resolve hardened.
I wasn't going to be anyone's pawn. Not Marcus's, not Drake's, and certainly not Lucius's.
I just needed two days. That was it. Two days to finish what I'd started. Two days to get the last of Lucius's blood, perform the dark magic I'd been preparing for months—my own private voodoo—and then vanish.
Vanish, leaving behind every tangled mate bond, every stupid vampire and their sacred traditions, every dangerous promise and curse. They could all drown in their chaos without me.
