Rachel Caine: Last Breath

He was gone before Shane could make some kind of smart-ass remark. As, Claire could tell, he’d been about to do.

“Don’t,” Claire warned him, and put her finger to his lips. “Just enjoy the moment.”

“I am,” he said. He met her eyes, and in that moment, she could see absolutely everything in them. Everything he felt. All the fear and the anger and the horror and the determination.

And the love. So much of that.

“Sun’s up,” he said. She blinked and realized that outside the open door of the Bloodmobile there was a pink blush on the horizon. A new day. Maybe the last day.

He took her hand and led her out into it, and despite everything, despite the stillness and the danger and all that she knew, Claire took a deep breath of fresh, clean air and thought, We’re going to win. We have to win.

And standing there with the sunrise washing over them, driving away the clouds, she thought that maybe, just maybe, it was possible.

“Wait,” Shane said, and pulled her to a stop as she started to follow Michael, who’d already made it to the shadows, down the sidewalk toward the square. “Claire.”

“We shouldn’t stay out here even if the sun’s up. The draug—”

He put his hands on either side of her face, looked down at her, and said, “I want you to understand something. I hate this place. I hate Morganville. I hate the vampires. But I swear to God, I will fight to my last drop of blood for Michael and Eve and you . Do you understand? If you want to run, if you want to go right now, I’ll go. But I’m not going without you.”

“If we run, what’s to stop Oliver from letting everyone die?” she asked him. “From doing just what Amelie would have done?”

“God, Claire—stop thinking about them. Think about you. Just you.”

“I am,” she said. “I can’t face being a coward. Not this time.”

“Then we stay,” he said. “And when we get out of this . . . and we will get out of this . . . I want you to promise me one thing.”

“What?”

He swallowed, and shifted his weight a little uneasily, and then said, very quietly, his lips almost touching hers, “Promise me you’ll marry me. Not now. Someday. Because I need to know.”

Claire felt a flutter inside, like a bird trying to fly, and a rush of heat that made her dizzy. And something else, something fragile as a soap bubble, and just as beautiful. Joy, in the middle of all this horror and heartbreak.

“Yes,” she whispered back. “I promise.”

And she kissed him, and kissed him, and kissed him, while the sun came up and bathed Morganville in one last, shining day.

As always, I need a sound track to keep me going as I write! So here, for your listening pleasure, is a list of the songs I used on my own personal track list. Please buy the music, don’t torrent it; musicians work hard to make beautiful things, and only you can make sure they can continue to do so.

"You're Going Down" Sick Puppies

"Bullseye" Aly & AJ

"Fighter" Christina Aguilera

"Harder to Breath" Maroon 5

"NeedYou" Travie McCoy

"Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT Remix)" Metric

"Town Called Heartbreak" Patti Scialfa

"Don't Fear the Reaper" Heaven 17

"I'm Gonna Make It" Sanders Bohlke

"Land of Jail" Gram Rabbit

"Never Underestimate a Girl" Vanessa Hudgens

"The Hard Stuff" Wired Desire

"Young" Hollywood Undead

"Sail" AWOLNATION

"99 Problems" Hugo

"The Big Bang" The Knifings

"In Love with You" Jared Evan

"Play with Fire" Hilary Duff

"Dead Girls Are Easy" The 69 Eyes

"Black River Killer" Blitzen Trapper

"So Bring It On" The Cheetah Girls

"The Stone" Ashes Divide

"Dirty Angel" Voodoo Johnson

"Tape Loop" Morcheeba

"My Confessions" Onesidezero

"Voodoo Banjo" Bonepony

"Power" Shades of Race Cars

"Littleblood" Division Day

"Pretty Buildings" People in Planes

"Show Me Your Teeth" Year Long Disaster

"Grenade" Bruno Mars

"To Lose My Life" White Lies

"New In Town" Little Boots

"Chew Me Up and Spit Me Out" Cobra Starship

"Toxic Valentine" All Time Low

"Ready for the Floor" Lissy Trullie

"To the Edge" Lacuna Coil

"I Won't Tell You" Lacuna Coil

"Spellbound" Lacuna Coil

"What Have You Done" Within Temptation (feat. Kieth Caputo)

"Black Lung Heartache" Joe Bonamassa

"Dream On" Kelly Sweet