Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Tears welled in my eyes, and Ajax kissed them away, nothing but pure love radiating down our bond. I rested my head against his chest as we continued to watch the sky light up, convincing myself this is what the afterlife would look like—just a slice of bliss with Ajax beneath a midnight sky.
17
AJAX
“As you can see,” Gabriel said, pointing between the two different scans up on the lighted board in the infirmary. “Unfortunately, it’s advancing.”
No. No. No.
I could have denied it all I wanted to, but the evidence stared me in the face. The tumor wasn’t just advancing, it was conquering.
My throat threatened to close and I locked my jaw to keep from cursing, stroking my thumb over the back of Grace’s hand as we sat in the chairs Gabriel had brought out for tonight’s meeting—the chairs we’d needed because Grace was rapidly losing her ability to keep her balance for any length of time.
“That’s why…” Grace swallowed. “The words…” The stricken look on her face would have brought me to my knees if I’d been standing.
“Yes.” Gabriel leaned back against the exam table. “That’s why it’s harder for you to find the right words.”
“And her balance?” I asked, doing everything I could to choke my feelings down for Grace’s sake. I felt her terror through the shimmering bond that linked us, and forced my lungs to suck in a deep breath.
Rage swept through my veins, all-but overwhelming my common sense.
Vampire males were biologically programmed to slaughter any and everything that threatened our mates. Had it been Gabriel with a dagger at her throat, I would have ended him in less time than it took a heart to beat.
But it wasn’t Gabriel threatening to take my mate. It was fucking cancer, and it wasn’t like I could slay a disease.
“About the balance.” Gabriel sighed, gesturing to scans he’d taken yesterday. “There are two new lesions.”
Breathe. You have to breathe.
But how the fuck was I supposed to breathe when there wasn’t any air?
“New ones?” Grace asked in a small voice.
Gabriel nodded. “Here and here.” He glanced at me, then quickly looked back to Grace. If I looked as dangerous as I felt, I couldn’t blame him. “I’m so sorry.”
Grace forced a smile and shrugged. “It’s what I…” She blinked once. Twice. “Expected. It’s been over two...” Her smile fell. “Blocks. Things. Time.” Her head swung toward mine and the panic in her gaze cut through me like a knife.
“Months?” I suggested.
“Months.” She agreed. “They only gave me three to start with.”
Which meant I had less than a month left. She was going to die.
“You already knew that,” Grace said to me.
“Stop reading my thoughts.” I snapped my shields down.
“Not my fault that you’re pretty much blaring them my direction.” She turned back to Gabriel. “So I have what? Weeks left?”
Gabriel glanced at the scans. “I’m sorry to say that I’m going to have to agree with the original prognosis, especially with these new lesions. Weeks are a best-case scenario, and if you seize…”
Grace straightened her shoulders, and I pulled my shit together. If she could handle this, then so would I. The last thing my mate needed was to be comforting me when she was the one…dying.
“What can we expect?” I asked after clearing my throat.
Gabriel sighed, and the reluctance in his expression told me to prepare myself. “You’re going to go downhill fast,” he said softly to Grace. “The rate of growth from last week, and still untreated?” He looked back at the scans like they might have changed in the last five minutes.
“What’s the timeline look like?” Grace asked.
“Hard to say. We’re at the phase where things will begin to move exponentially. You’ll lose your gross motor functions soon. Your speech will decline. You’ll lose the ability to care for yourself.”
“I can take care of her.” The response was automatic.
Gabriel nodded. “Of course. And when the time comes and swallowing fails you, we’ll prep for a feeding tube to keep your body as strong as possible so you can fight.”
Grace snorted. “If this is a fight, then I’m getting my ass handed to me.”
“What about surgery?” I asked, leaning forward.
“I told you I don’t want that,” Grace snapped. “I don’t want to spend my last days recovering from an attempt to hack out the tumor, or throwing up from radiation, Ajax. If it was any other kind of cancer, I’d consider it, but this is glioblastoma. The mortality rate is pretty much…everyone.” She yanked her hand from mine.
“I understand completely that this is your choice.” My voice lowered lethally. “But don’t I at least deserve to know what options there are if you were to change your mind?”
“Guys.” Gabriel waved his hand. “Surgery isn’t an option anymore. Not that it really was before, but the spread is…” He looked at me with something worse than compassion. It was pity. “There’s nothing to do at this point. She should really say her farewells to the people she loves outside these walls.”