*Gwen’s POV*
"Gwen?" Darick called out to me, pulling me from my daze.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said suddenly, resolute in every decision I’d ever made.
“What do you mean?” Darick asked as the light from the candles flickered in his eyes.
"I'm saying I want to be with you, and I'm choosing to be with you. Not because of a blood oath, but because…well, because I love you, too."
Darick’s eyes softened, and he reached over, delicately, and slid a hand under my chin. "But it's dangerous to be with me,” he whispered as he gazed into my eyes with an intensity that I had never seen before.
"I've been put under a blood oath, bitten by an evil mafia lord, and I've watched multiple gruesome attacks. Why should I be afraid now if that didn't break me?"
Darick studied me, his glowing eyes flickering back and forth between mine. "Who are you, Gwendolyn Jones?" he asked.