“Then the rumor’s true…we can stroll out in the sunshine?” Galen strode up to the window. He didn’t quite touch the sill. Instead, he remained just outside of the strip of late-day sun. His skin didn’t prickle. Not even a little warm. “Are you sure?” He’d spent the last few months hiding in the Laing mansion getting stronger and fighting the remnants of the damn virus. Now summer had arrived and cabin fever set in. He wanted out. Wanted to walk barefoot through the grass and see the flowers. If the information was true, that he and Anders now how full power…then he should be able to experience the world in vivid color—not the greys, blues and blacks of night.

“Yes.” Anders grasped Galen’s shoulders and massaged them. “That’s what I was told. We’re able to move in the sunshine without fear of crisping because we’ve found our pashas.” He snared Galen in his arms and pressed his belly against Galen’s back. “Why?”

“Just wondered.” He watched the bits of dust floating in the shaft of light. What would it hurt to step into that light? Only a lot if Anders was wrong. But Anders was his pasha, otherwise known as his mate. They belonged together and if they went down, it’d be side by side.

“You don’t trust me.” Anders licked Galen’s neck. “Not a bit.”

The caress of Anders’s tongue on his skin sent a shiver down Galen’s spine. He groaned. Ever since he’d survived the zombie virus meant to kill him for good, he treasured these moments with his lover. Only Anders knew just how close Galen had come to truly dying. Instead of running away, Anders had given his own blood to save Galen.