“Would I be healed now if you gave me your blood, Nikolai?”“Are you asking me for it?”“If I were, would you give it to me?”

“You would quit the Order for her? Niko asked, the youngest only behind Dante, and a warrior who relished his duty perhaps even more than Dante had himself. I would quit breathing for her, if she asked it of me.”

“If you were mine,” he murmured low under his breath, “I would walk through the fires of hell itself to keep you away from a man like me.”

“From the beginning, Tegan, you were more brother to me than any kin by blood. You still are.”Tegan felt likewise, in spite of all they’d been through. Maybe because of it. “I’ll always have your back, Lucan. You can count on it.”

“Goddamn you. How can you still make me feel this way after all these years? Damn you for leaving me! And damn you for coming back like this, just when I thought you were gone forever and I might finally be able to forget you.”

“I’m bonded to her, Lucan. I love her. If you want to keep me out of this, you’re going to have to kill me right here and now.”

“For us. Kellan, you have to promise me you’ll give me that chance-”“I can’t promise you that, Mira. I can’t promise to put you through any more hurt or distress than I already have.” He took her face between his palms, tenderly smoothing his thumbs over her cheeks and her trembling mouth. “But I will promise you this: I love you. God, I always have.”