Crave

Lia drags Grace by her hair back to the altar, as Grace screams wildly. She hopes Jaxon will hear, but he’s busy dealing with Flint. Lia slams her head into the wall, dazing Grace, yet she keeps shrieking. Grace almost goes unconscious, but Lia smacks her, stating she needs her awake. They enter a secret tunnel, the door closing behind them.

Grace’s rage boils over for Lia, who apparently had her parents killed to bring her to Alaska. Grace wonders why she needed her specifically, vowing that she will take Lia into death with her somehow. When Lia ties her to the altar again, Grace grabs Lia’s head and slams it into the altar’s corner multiple times. Grace slides off the altar and runs for the spellbook Lia has on a podium. She rips pages out of the book. Lia howls and attacks her, but Grace throws the book into the many candles in the room, setting it on fire.

Lia grabs for the pages’ remnants. She drags Grace to the altar again with her intense strength. Lia tells her that she’s spent months preparing and doesn’t need the book; she memorized the spell. When Grace counters that she’s just a human and Lia could use anyone, Lia laughs that Grace isn’t only human. Grace thinks she’s lying. Lia needed Jaxon’s mate for her plan to work: a mate for a mate. She’s going to bring Hudson back with her spell.

Jaxon pounds at the door outside, but vampires can’t come inside until they’re welcomed in. Lia won’t allow him in while Grace’s screams for Jaxon. Lia starts chanting her spell and slices her wrist with a ceremonial knife. Hudson’s energy appears like smoke, which needs to go into Grace’s mouth. Lia tries to pry open her mouth, but Grace doesn’t yield.

Jaxon breaks the stone walls down to enter, attacking Lia. They scuffle until Lia stabs Jaxon with her knife. Grace gets the knife away, stabbing Lia. The magic smoke with Hudson’s dark energy turns to Jaxon. Grace sucks in air to call the smoke to her instead.

The dark smoke enters Grace’s lungs, but Jaxon overpowers it. He controls the smoke with his mind, swirling it into a sphere. The walls keep crumbling, the world spinning, as Jaxon tames the smoke. He fires the energy at Lia, who explodes into dust. Both wounded, Grace and Jaxon walk toward each other. Jaxon reaches her, then faints.

Hysterical that her true love is dying, Grace presses a strand of her dress fabric to the knife wound in his torso. Jaxon is fading, so she cuts her arm with the knife to give him blood. She presses her wounds to his lips so he can drink. Jaxon awakens, sucking Grace’s blood for survival. She gives all she can to him, then falls unconscious.

Grace wakes up disoriented in the school’s infirmary. She struggles to stand and find Jaxon, but the nurse makes her lie back down; she says Jaxon hasn’t left her side except when they need to take her vitals. Grace suffered blood loss and has a dislocated shoulder, but she’ll make a full recovery.

Jaxon enters, yet he won’t come near her. Grace beckons him, assuring him that she’s fine and he owes her for saving his life. She convinces him to lay with her. He holds her in the bed, discussing that Lia and Hudson’s energy are dead. Flint is fine, and the plots to kill Grace should be over. Grace still wonders why she’s so special, why Lia needed her.

Jaxon blames himself for Grace’s hardships. He almost drained her of blood. Grace argues that she willingly gave him her blood. They confess their love for each other, but he tries to break off their relationship since she’s always going to be in danger with him. He can’t risk her life again. Grace protests that they love each other, and it’s simple: If he wants to be with her, she says, “Be with me. Love me. Let me love you” (436). Jaxon agrees, kissing her passionately.

A few days later, Grace’s recovery is going well, so Jaxon accompanies her on a walk. They build a snowman. He gives her a thermos of hot cocoa and marshmallows, and she’s “blown away by how Jaxon always thinks about [her]” (441). She asks him questions about vampires, and he explains their attributes. She asks about Hudson’s energy; they saw Lia die, but did Hudson’s smoke too? Jaxon isn’t sure, but he won’t let Hudson return.

A few days later, Grace returns to her classes. She settles into a routine of homework and hanging out with Jaxon and Macy. She gets closer with the other vampires and studies about them voraciously. Jaxon walks her to class one day, with Grace reflecting that she’s helped him too because he smiles now, tells jokes, and is happier.

In the hallway, Grace notices black smoke behind Jaxon. The smoke cloud forms into the shape of a man who must be Hudson, carrying a broadsword aimed at Jaxon’s head. Horrified, Grace knows she must protect him. Grace grabs his arm and spins them around, so Hudson slices her back with the sword instead.

In a chapter from Jaxon’s perspective, he interrogates Finn on when Grace will be herself again; after Hudson’s assault, she turned into a stone statue. As it turns out, Grace is a gargoyle. Another teacher says that gargoyles haven’t appeared in about a thousand years. The teachers insist that Grace should be able to return to her former self on her own. Since it’s been four days, they conclude that either Grace is choosing not to come back or she’s dead. Jaxon refuses to believe she’s dead, as earthquakes roar beneath him.

Finn believes Grace is holding Hudson’s energy back. She likely absorbed Hudson’s evil into her stone body, and she doesn’t want to release that threat into Katmere. Jaxon fears that Grace is enduring pain to protect him and everyone else. He promises aloud he’ll find a way to separate her from Hudson and kill his brother for good. He can’t continue without Grace, who acted out of love.