Steele's POV
For as long as we have existed in secrecy beneath the humans, we were just as much a mystery to ourselves as we became to them. But for what we had learned in unison and apart, nothing was more apparent than the finality of death. It came for us all in the end, no matter what blood pumped beneath whatever skin you wore for protection. Until this moment, I accepted it as a part of fate. But in this moment, I would have fought the reaper himself if he dared to take her from me. It was a battle he was already beginning to win as her tremors stilled into sporadic jolts of her stronger muscles and her skin was no longer that soothing warmth I compared to a perfect embrace. Instead, I was losing her completely.
But then my eyes caught on the bite of her skin. If I bit her again,
