Eternal [HS]

Chapter Thirty-Nine

"ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT THIS?"

Niall's face is a mixture of skepticism and worry unlike anything Jo has seen. Finding out that Adeline Monroe of all people is the famous "Benjamin" behind Sacrosanct had shocked them all, but the idea of having to turn her into a vampire seems to scare him more.

Mitch's living room looks wildly different from how it did when she woke up an hour ago.

Citing "ancient ritual" was the only concise answer to her confused face when she stepped into the room from the shower to see what they transformed it into. Hundreds of tea light candles are meticulously arranged on the floor with barely-there gaps left for them to weave their way into the kitchen or to the staircase in the main hallway. The fire flickers dancing shadows all across the room, and she finds it strangely beautiful. Curtains drawn, the room is only lit by the orange tones of the fire as she stands in the center of the chaos.

The couch is pushed out of the way, and, in its stead, a bed of cushions covered by a smooth red thrown blanket that looks like it'd lull her right to sleep if she laid on it, but she doesn't. Not yet anyway, not when she's standing in front of two vampires who aren't nearly as keen on turning her as she is to be turned. It's no secret that they would prefer to be the humans they once were if given the choice.

Partly, she understands. She has the mortality they long for, but what they don't understand is that she is willing to sacrifice anything, even her human life, to kill Adeline herself and save Harry.

"I already told you a million times, I want you guys to turn me," she says without a smidge of space for them to doubt.

Niall and Mitch stand in front of her, the latter holding a small bag she hasn't a clue of what the contents are. In her half-asleep state of exhaustion and grief the other, they had explained the process of turning from human to vampire, but she has only retained the basics of it: drain the entire body of blood and replace some of it with the blood of a vampire.

The only catch is that she must die to make the transformation.

Technically, she died months ago. What happened in the alley was enough to hurt her with no chance of recovery...until Niall saved her and carried her through the gate only seconds before she was gone for good. This, however, would mean actually dying, not hanging onto that thin thread connecting her to life, but dying completely before being injected with vampire blood.

Mitch is the one who breaks at long last. His features harden, jaw clenching with the understanding that this situation is out of his hands—seeing as she'll go through the gate and kill herself in the process if they don't help.

"Fine, lay down on the cushions," he says, then his voice drops into a soft tone that is only reserved for the few people he considers dear friends, "I'm only going to warn you one more time...you have to be ready to die. Signing your soul away isn't a pleasant experience."

Without a second to waste, she nods once, holding his gaze, and sinks down onto the plush bed of cushions surrounded by a sea of candlelight and shadows. The blanket is soft beneath her palms, and she forces herself to engrain the memory of it into her mind as one of the last she'll ever have before her life is forever changed.

It's worlds better than her other potential last memory before death that was composed of blood, snow, and the dead bodies of multiple male vampires littering the ground. This time, two friends are in her line of sight, along with the comforting warmth of fire and a cozy blanket beneath her back. The only thing, or person, that's missing is the very person she's doing this for. Even though it's impossible now, she wishes he were the one turning her instead. She adores his friends, that fact cannot be mistaken, but her trust for him is on a different dimensional plane than her trust for them.