Текст книги "Burning Blood"

Автор книги: Pepper winters

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Chapter Six

IT WAS EASIER THAN I THOUGHT it would be to stand.

As the Cryolyt’s numbness kept my pain at bay, that strange power kept building—granting life to my seized muscles. Chills darted down my back as I climbed slowly and unsteadily to my feet.

The world spun.

My chest ached.

But...no pain.

“Mr. Ashfall!” James shouted. “Stay down! You’re bleeding! Stay the fuck down.” He tried to get to me, only for Whisper to slash a claw-tipped paw in warning.

Parrying backward, he yelled, “Why the hell did you take out the knife?! What if you die before we get you treated? What if—”

“Quiet.” I shook my head, unnerved at the strangeness of feeling nothing, the oddness of feeling something else beneath. “Your shouting is so annoying.” Straightening my spine, I brushed down my blood-soaked shirt as if preparing for a board meeting, not a rampage.

James’s eyes popped as the three other guards cursed and danced on the spot with panic. “How are you even standing?!” James choked. “You’re killing yourself.” Pointing at Rook passed out by my feet, he added, “S-She stabbed you. Why is she unconscious and you’re...somehow not?”

The Cryolyt pill continued to strengthen and numb me, spreading out like a blizzard through my blood.

The surgical erasure of pain was suddenly my most favourite thing in the world.

And I was officially done with his questions.

“Whisper...” I flexed my blood-covered fingers, glancing at my predator friend.

The panther froze, his whiskers flaring as if he could smell something different about me—as if he could see the steam billowing through my veins as the pill shovelled snow onto the remaining fires within.

Through some unspoken bond that’d formed over years of sharing a life together, Whisper understood exactly what I wanted.

I arched an eyebrow in the guards’ direction and his lips pulled back in a murderous snarl.

All it took was a nod.

With a roar, he launched forward—a blur of black muscle and death.

With a single lope, he flung himself onto the three huddling guards as if they were made of kindling. Two went down. One staggered into a run. And James—the guy who used to help the nurses strap me to the chair and forcibly take my blood when I was younger—met my eyes for a single, terrified heartbeat before Whisper left the guards he’d bowled over and pounced like a sinuous shadow.

James went to scream but gurgled instead as sharp fangs punctured his throat.

Whisper growled with his mouth full, letting every savage instinct come out to play.

It wasn’t a clean kill.

James scrambled and clawed at the beast, falling onto his back as Whisper pinned him to the wet grass. He kicked and thrashed. He squirmed and punched...but it was no use.

Cartilage gave way with a wet crack. Blood spurted as sharp teeth found an artery.

With a vicious shake of his head, Whisper tore through tendons and windpipe all at once.

James’s arms fell to the side as he died, wide and upturned, rain puddling in his slack palms. Blood poured out in thick choking spurts as Whisper spat out a mouthful of gore then sprinted after the other guards.

They didn’t get far.

It looked as if the panther grew wings as he pounced onto an older guard, all four paws shredding his back as he drove him face-first into the ground. Claws pinned him down, teeth sinking into the back of his neck as Whisper dispatched him as easily as murdering an unlucky antelope.

The other two men screamed and ran as fast as they could.

A streak of bloody midnight galloped after them.

Leaving Whisper to have fun, I headed to James’s corpse.

Dropping to my haunches, ignoring the quick blackout of my vision, I blinked away the spots and popped the clasp on his holster.

I palmed his gun.

The weight of it took me by surprise. The deadly feel of a machine designed to deliver death. I’d never held one, but I’d read enough novels to know the one thing that got everyone into trouble was not removing the safety.

Scowling, I inspected the weapon.

Safety.

Where exactly was—

“Ah.” My thumb found a small switch. I flicked it. And just to be sure, I aimed into the sky and squeezed the trigger.

The BANG almost blew out my eardrums. The kickback sent my arm jerking.

The two sprinting men looked over their shoulders, running wild and messy with Whisper taking his sweet time hunting them.

I’d never shot a target, let alone a moving one, but...there was a first time for everything.

Whisper went to leap onto the back of the slowest guard, but I whistled, stopping him mid-leap. “Come here.”

Instantly, the panther swivelled in the air and raced back toward me. Out of range. Away from my likely terrible shot. Only once he was safely by my side did I open fire.

Bang, bang, bang, bang.

I emptied the magazine.

Most of the bullets missed, but enough landed.

The men’s legs stopped working as blood bloomed, fireworking from their backs with red mist.

Their screams cut off as they tumbled.

And as I fired the last round—watching with mild curiosity as they transformed from alive to dead—Rook finally chose that moment to wake up.

Chapter Seven

FOR A SECOND, I THOUGHT I was suffering a crazy hallucination. A shocking, morbid daydream where the guy I’d slowly been getting to know turned into someone I couldn’t imagine, mowing down men in cold blood.

But...it wasn’t a dream.

And it wasn’t cold blood.

It was premeditated in fire, delivered with flames of fury.

Lucien lowered his arm, the gun’s bang still echoing around us. His slightly glassy eyes met mine.

My pulse skyrocketed, remembering the last few seconds before I’d had an involuntary reboot. Blood. On my fingers. A dagger. Stabbed into—

My gaze shot to his chest where his black shirt plastered to his skin, partly from the rain but mostly from the dark scarlet soaking out of him.

“Y-You’re not dead,” I gasped, struggling to sit upright. My rucksack weighed me down like a soggy boulder.

“No, I’m not.” He swayed a little. “Not yet, at least.”

I squeaked as he broke into a fast, jerky stride.

Closing the distance between us, he dropped to his haunches, placed the gun on the rain-slick grass, and reached into his pocket. Palming whatever it was, he leaned forward, grabbed my cheeks, and squeezed. “Open.”

I tried to fight him off, but his fingers were too strong. My jaw hinged open against my will. With a scowl, he shoved something round and big and bitter onto my tongue before sweeping upright.

“Swallow that and then we’re leaving.”

I gagged, trying to spit it out. But the metallic ball rolled to the back of my throat, refusing to be removed. It started to dissolve, coming alive with the sharp taste of carbonated iron. I swallowed on reflex even as my tongue tingled then went numb.

The sensation crawled down my throat as I gagged again.

As the pill slid inside me, an icy chill feathered outward. It spread from my belly, through my ribs, and into my heart.

The sickly palpitations from too much stress smoothed into steady drums. The jittery weakness in my limbs went still and calm. The taste in my mouth vanished just like all my other symptoms, leaving me eerily void of everything.

It...reminded me of something.

Of a pill Snowflake Corp had been working on that was said to be a miracle aid. I couldn’t remember the name, but it’d been a project overseen by the same researchers who thought they’d come up with a pill for immortality—the same pill that killed my parents.

The lifelong headache that’d refused to abate no matter what I ate, drank, or did, just...disappeared.

While I marvelled at the sudden peace, Lucien stalked to each man lying unmoving on the lawn. Without a word, he snatched three guns from their dead possession. Jamming all three into his waistband, he staggered sideways before gathering his strength and returning to me.

My eyes whipped to his, my fingers straying down my sternum and brushing against my raindrop pendant. I pressed my palm over my steadily pumping heart. No skips. No flutters. No dizziness of any kind. “What...what did you just give me?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Grabbing my wrist, he yanked me to my feet and dragged me toward one of the motorcycles. “All you need to know is you’ll be free from everything that makes you miserable for a few hours, and we need to make every one of those hours count.” His fingers tightened around me as he eyed up the bike. “Can you drive one of these things?”

I gawked at the machine.

I’d ridden a couple of mopeds in the rural villages of Vietnam, but even grassy tracks and very little traffic had caused my pulse to skyrocket. I’d stopped because I hadn’t wanted to be in charge of a moving projectile while having a blackout problem.

“Not really. Not enough to drive both of us.”

He frowned, studying me closely. “Are you lying?”

“Why the hell would I lie?” I shivered, unable to stop myself looking at the guards who’d been alive before I’d passed out and now were somehow dead. Then again, the ‘somehow’ was fairly obvious. Whisper padded toward us as if taking full credit—muzzle glistening red-black and golden eyes full of unrepentant pride. “You already know I’m useless.”

“You’re not useless,” Lucien murmured softly, his onyx eyes burning.

My gaze snapped to his and I suddenly wanted to hug him.

To wrap his bleeding chest with a thousand bandages and find a hundred doctors to stitch him up.

Guilt crashed over me in a suffocating wave.

I moved before I could stop myself.

Touching his chest, I cursed the hole in his clothing and him. The hole I’d caused.

“You’re bleeding so much.” My voice cracked. “How are you even standing?” My fingers became coated in his blood, trying to reverse the damage by touch alone. “You need to sit down. You—”

“I’m fine,” he said automatically, clamping his hand over mine and stilling my frantic pawing.

“You are absolutely not fine.” Panic punched through the pill’s false calm. “You were stabbed. I stabbed you.” The truth tasted horrific. “I didn’t mean to...I shouldn’t have...God, what was I thinking?”

He went rigid, stunned.

He stared at me like he hadn’t expected me to care. Like he’d completely skipped over the part where I would hate myself—knowing his pain was entirely my fault.

Ripping my hand from beneath his, I pressed both of them over his seeping wound. I pressed hard, my red-covered fingers clumsy and unsure, trying to stop any more blood from leaking. “You can’t die. I don’t care how you’re standing or how long that pill will give you energy for but...it’s fake. It’s not real. You’re dying and the longer you pretend you’re not, the worse—”

“You have a talent,” he said under his breath, never looking away from me. “At confusing me.” His heart pounded beneath my palms as he tipped a little closer. “I can’t figure you out. Whenever I think I have, you go and mess me up all over again.”

I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t reply. Every inch of me tripped and burned.

“You’re the reason I’ve gotten this far, and you’ve made it impossible for me not to want you but...everything about you triggers my nervous system into thinking you’re the worst kind of threat.” He chuckled, shaking his head, causing droplets to scatter from his thick hair. “Honestly? You’re kind of exhausting.”

“I’m the exhausting one?” I fought the urge to punch him right where I’d stabbed him. “It’s a constant battle not to pass out in your company.”

“Yes well, you do that often enough, so you’d think you’d be well caught up on sleep by now.”

“I changed my mind. You can die if you want.”

He laughed out loud.

“How are you laughing?” I glowered at him, tears stinging. “Is this what doctors talk about? That thing where people suddenly seem fine right before they die?” Terror choked me. “Are you feeling woozy? Tell me. Are you saying these things because you are dying? Oh God, you can’t.” I mopped up his blood with my bare hands, trying to stuff the cooling liquid back into his body. “Forget what I said. You can’t die. I’m so sorry. I—”

“Rook.”

“Lie down. I’ll go get help. I’ll—”

“Rook.”

“Just let me—”

“Rook!” Something unreadable flickered across his face—shock and stubbornness and something dangerously soft. “Stop it.”

I froze in his stare, ensnared and lost and—

He kissed me.

He ducked his head, slammed his mouth to mine, and delivered the swiftest, hardest kiss before pulling back just as quickly. “I promise you, I won’t die.” Tugging me toward the bike, he added, “And I asked you to stab me, remember? I almost got on my knees and begged. So...you have nothing to be sorry for.”

Before I could respond, he slung his leg over the machine and patted the back. “Get on.”

“What?” My mouth dropped open. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m deadly fucking serious. And I don’t have the patience or life expectancy to argue with you.” He turned the key, fisting the handlebars as it snarled to life. “We’re getting out. Right now.”

I eyed up the space behind him, regretting my choice not to drive.

Thank God the pill protected me from the wobbles of anxiety because if not, I’d probably pass out at the thought of being on the back of a bike with a beginner. A dying beginner. “Please tell me you’ve driven one of these before.”

“Nope. But once again, we’re running out of time. So...get on.”

Whisper snapped his jaws at the roaring machine.

“Move,” Lucien commanded the panther. “I don’t want to run you over by accident.”

Oh God.

The giant black cat slinked sideways, hissing with flared whiskers.

“Get on the bike, Rook,” he barked, his voice swallowed by the engine’s growl.

I hesitated, not because I didn’t trust him but because I’d once again let him down.

I should be the one driving.

I’d stabbed him for goodness’ sake.

“I’m literally aching with the need to get the fuck out of here.” His eyes flicked to the open gates as raw desperation bled through his temper. “I can’t wait any longer. Are you coming or not?” His gaze snapped back to mine and the murderous glint he wore like chainmail turned into yearning so deep, so tragic, it cut through my artificial coldness.

My heart skipped a painful beat.

“I can’t go without you.” His face softened as he held out his hand like a hero offering me a lifeline, instead of a broken villain who’d left the lawn littered with corpses. The fact that no girls had come out. That Laura and the rest remained dry in their pavilions.

If I left...what would happen to them?

“Rook,” he snarled. “Get on the damn bike!” Snatching my wrist, an arc of electricity raced up my arm as he swung me behind him.

I almost fell off the other side.

Releasing me abruptly, he twisted the throttle the second I was sort of on.

Yanking my sodden black dress up my thighs, I wrapped my arms around his lean, muscular waist. His body was unnaturally hot, even in the storm and half-dead. It was like hugging a raging furnace.

Cranking his wrist, he fed far too much power to the engine. We shot forward like a bullet, almost ploughing over Whisper.

I whimpered and clung on for dear life.

“Shit,” Lucien cursed just as the poor cat bolted out of the way. “You alright?”

Whisper hissed.

“Don’t stay so close then.” Lucien tried again. “If you value having a tail, move.”

Whisper pranced away just as we bunny hopped.

I squeaked and burrowed my face against his shoulder blades.

“Hold onto me.” His hands flexed around the handles and added speed.

The guns he’d jammed into his waistband got in the way, but I obeyed, hugging him as tight as I could.

We stopped again as Lucien fiddled with the throttle. “How hard can this thing be? It’s just physics. Speed versus gravity.”

The faintest headache cut through the medicine. His pondering did not fill me with confidence.

With a curse, he fed power slowly this time...skimming his feet over the ground as we crept forward. “There, see? Simple.”

And for a few miraculous seconds, it was.

The bike smoothed out, the engine settled, and Lucien found the balance point.

But then the bike veered sharply, almost vaulting us off.

Lucien grabbed the silver disc over his heart as his feet planted down, stopping us from falling. “Fucking hell.”

He hunched over the handlebars, panting hard as pain tore down his spine so strongly, I felt it down my own.

My pulse skyrocketed. “Lucien?” I swore his energy dimmed. That the heat within him turned into a wasteland of ash and charcoal. “Lucien!”

“No need to yell, I’m right here.” Straightening, he swallowed a groan. “I’m fine.”

“God, you are such a liar!” I clung to him, terror choking me. “You’re dying. You’re trying to ride a motorcycle while dying and—”

“How did I never realise how pessimistic you are?”

“How did I not understand what a pig-headed idiot you are?!”

He chuckled as he fisted the handles again. Sheer stubbornness kept him upright. We surged forward again, a little too fast but at least balancing on two wheels.

“Just...let me concentrate.”

“Is that your way of telling me to shut up?” I snapped.

“Yes, so do it.”

I huffed as Whisper gave me a commiserating eye roll. “Fine. But don’t you dare die.”

A rough, breathless laugh tore out of him. “Relax. I have far too many people to kill to die that easily.”

The bike surged forward again, quick and reckless, carrying us straight toward the gate.

Whisper broke into a run, keeping pace with us in the rain.

The closer we got, the more my heart raced. I trembled with urgency and desperation, needing to cross that threshold and run far, far away.

Lucien inhaled sharply, his chest straining as if he felt the same things.

“We’re almost there.” I patted his rigid belly. “We’ll make it.”

He jolted as if my encouragement meant more to him than I knew.

Adding more speed than I was comfortable with, he shot us the final way.

We roared over the threshold.

We exploded from the palace’s walls.

And as we tore down the long driveway, heading toward the final gate, I swore the world trembled, knowing Lucien Ashfall was moments away from freedom.

Chapter Eight

LUCIEN SUDDENLY SLAMMED ON THE BRAKES, SENDING us skidding.

The bike fishtailed violently as gravel screamed—the world lurching sideways with a spray of white stone. Up ahead, the final archway of the massive Cinderkeep estate loomed—impressive and imposing, yawning wide with freedom.

The rest of the world welcomed us.

No walls, no drones, no cages or pain.

It was close enough to taste.

So why is he stopping?!

He’d driven like a madman down the infernally long driveway, yet now on the cusp of escaping—

His weight pitched forward as he jammed his feet down, narrowly preventing us from falling. His chest jerked—his entire body trembling as an agonising grunt escaped him.

No, no, no, no...

“What’s happening?” I shook him. “Talk to me.”

Whisper streaked past in a black blur, skidding to a halt as Lucien folded over the handlebars, the bike tilting drunkenly.

The sprawling farms beyond, happy houses that belonged to other people, and quaint country roads mocked us. Memories of arriving at this entrance for a fictitious spa weekend crushed me. Of so many women who’d come to either bed or kill him.

“We need to keep going.” I squeezed him. “Right now, do you hear me?”

Whisper chirped as he headbutted Lucien’s knee, his eyes wide with worry, echoing my sentiments.

Lucien tried to raise his hand, his voice slurring, “I’m fine. I just...I just need a minute.”

But then, he coughed.

A wet, racking cough that sent him collapsing forward. His strength buckled and the heavy bike tilted, teetering on plummeting.

“Lucien?!”

He coughed again, spraying blood all over the speedometer.

“Lucien!”

“I’m okay...” He tried to sit upright, to follow through with yet another lie but—

We fell.

In slow motion but somehow far too fast, we tumbled to the gravel. Instinct had me curling up into a ball, drawing my legs up and away from the heavy machine as it crashed like a dead steed.

Whisper growled and ran around us, snapping at the bike as if wanting to disembowel it for hurting his master.

The breath knocked out of me as my shoulder crunched hard. Pain flared, but was quickly swallowed by the coldness of the pill still spreading through my insides.

Lucien didn’t even cry out as he smacked against the ground. His head struck the gravel, the bike pinning his left leg.

Raw panic tried to cut through the frost in my veins. My gaze shot toward escape that was so, so close.

We can’t stop now.

We can’t!

We hadn’t gone far enough. There was nowhere to hide. No one to take us away from here.

This is bad. Very, very bad.

Hurry, hurry, hurry!

Scrambling onto my hands and knees, I crawled toward Lucien. He coughed again; his entire body racked with a gurgling gasp.

Blood bubbled on his lips.

Oh God.

“Hey...it’s alright.” I choked on sobs, refusing to let them make me weak. “You’re okay. You’re okay.” Running my hands over his upper body, I fought the rapidly building horror that this was how his story would end: just a few lousy metres from the gate, never allowed to leave, after all.

Lucien winced as I touched him all over, trying to inject life into his rapidly failing body. Crimson rivulets rolled down his chin as his eyes opened and locked on mine.

“You’re fine. It’s okay.” I tried to pull him upright. “See? You’re okay. Everything is just fine.”

“You’re terrible at this.” He coughed, more blood trickling from his lips.

“Terrible at what?” I glanced at everything and nothing. The trees waved at us mockingly. The rain fell condescendingly. Even the air was our enemy as it made Lucien cough all over again. “Terrible at running for our lives? Because I hate to tell you...you were the one driving.”

A migraine settled over my head like a crown made of thorns.

God, I wasn’t equipped for this.

I wished I was stronger, braver, better.

“No. Your attempts at consolation.” He winced, his entire body tensing. “Repeating those words so often just makes it sound like you think the opposite. That I’m not fine and already dead.” Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he tried to push me away. “Get off me.”

The past seven weeks of obedience almost made me listen but...I was done.

We were so close to freedom, yet so far from the boundary.

He was hurt, yet trying to pretend he wasn’t.

“You know what, Lucien? Shut up.” I leapt to my feet and bent to grab the heavy bike. “We’re leaving. Right now. Even if I have to drag you the rest of the way.”

“I’m on board with that plan.” He tried to yank his pinned leg out from under the machine. “But you won’t be able to move it.”

“Watch me.”

Grabbing the seat and handlebars, I braced myself. I’d never been classified as strong and my headache threatened to make my eyes pop out of their sockets, but I gritted my teeth and hauled with all my might.

The damn thing didn’t move an inch.

“Told you.” He battered Whisper away as the black cat sniffed where he was trapped.

Fear made my temper explode. “Instead of being an ass, how about you focus on staying alive?!”

“I am.” He scowled, trying to pull his leg free again.

“You’re not doing a very good job.”

His gaze snapped to mine. “Careful.”

“No, you be careful! Look at you. You’re bleeding because you made me stab you. You didn’t have any blood to lose because you made me harvest two bags before this began. You didn’t think it necessary to tell me what your plan was. You don’t let me in. You don’t trust me. And now that bastard Marcus Ward is coming and we’re sitting here like stupid ducks!”

He watched me as if I’d sprouted wings or horns—depending on how much I annoyed him. “And there you go again...confusing me.” Gritting his teeth, he tongued his bottom lip where blood stained him. “How is it that having you yell at me actually feels good?”

“Maybe you’re just a masochist.” I shuddered, scanning the wide-open landscape. I felt so exposed. So vulnerable. I didn’t want to talk. I wanted to run.

He chuckled blackly. “After enduring twenty years of torture, perhaps you’re right.”

“Ugh, we don’t have time for this.” My temper continued to crackle and coil. The pill he gave me did its best to ice over my pain but vertigo amplified my headache. “And for the record.” I pointed at him with an accusing finger. “This plan of yours sucks. It sucks so, so bad.”

My gaze dropped to his dagger wound again and I suddenly couldn’t stand him. “Why the hell did you make me stab you, huh? Wouldn’t this have been easier if you weren’t coughing up blood and about to pass out? You’re such an idiot.”

“Quiet,” he groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You’re so noisy. My ears are ringing. Also...” His hand dropped as his head came up. “Don’t call me an idiot.”

“Why? Will you punish me?”

His mouth twitched. “Yes.”

“How?” I shot back. “You’re literally on the ground...like a fool.”

“Keep talking and we’re going to have a problem.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. More of a problem than we already have?”

A low chuckle rumbled free as he tipped his face to the falling rain. “Fuck, you’re right.” Whisper licked his cheek as Lucien added, “At least I won’t die alone.”

My hackles rose and I literally couldn’t control myself. “Argh! I’m tempted to kill you myself, you annoying, pig-headed, stubborn—”

“You sure you want to keep going? I’m keeping notes of how many times you curse me.”

Tears burned my eyes. “I hate you. I hate you because every bone in my body is telling me to run and I can’t.”

His gaze shuttered and any sign of emotion shut down. Arching his chin at the exit and society beyond, he muttered, “Go on then. No one’s stopping you.”

“You’re what’s stopping me!” Pacing around him pinned beneath the bike, I couldn’t stay still. My head pounded. My heart skipped. I felt sick and trapped and useless. “If you hadn’t forced me to stab you, you wouldn’t be this weak. If I didn’t agree to go along with your ridiculous plan, you’d—”

“Still be trapped. Just like every other day,” he cut in coldly, tugging his pinned leg. “They wouldn’t have risked taking me past the wall if they didn’t think I was about to die.”

“So you decided to oblige them and die the moment you did?”

“No. I told you. If you stop jabbering for one second, you’d know I just needed a moment. That’s all.”

“A moment.” I flung my arms up. “Sure. Take a moment. Because we have so many of those before trouble arrives.”

“I think the real trouble here is you,” he grumbled as if we weren’t counting down the seconds to our demise.

“Excuse me?” Ice frosted my bloodstream as the pill failed at numbing the intensity of my emotions. I couldn’t do this anymore. I needed out. I needed him out. I needed to be safe and free, and this idiot was ruining everything.

“I can’t believe I caught feelings for you,” I hissed. “I can’t believe I was stupid enough to fall—”

“Wait. What?” His chin snapped up. His eyes found mine and didn’t let go. “Say that again.”

My lips pressed together as I swayed backward on my heels. “I didn’t say anything. Get up. Right now. If you don’t, I’m going to kick you until you do.”

His gaze stayed locked on mine, sniper-focused but amazingly gentle. “Are you actually worried about me?”

“Oh my God, what do you think this is? Of course I’m worried. I’m fucking terrified!”

“Of dying here?”

“Of watching you die, you fool.”

“That’s twice you’ve called me a fool.”

My gaze dropped to his stab wound and all the questions I’d been choking on spilled out. “Why didn’t you tell me what you planned? Why did you harvest two bags of blood when you knew you would need your strength? Why are you so annoying?”

His lips twitched into a morbid half smile. “So you are worried about me.”

“I’m fucking furious at you. There’s a difference.” Marching to the bike, I bent over and grabbed the handlebars again. “Stop trying to do everything on your own!”

“I am on my own.” He winced as I tried to lift the bike off his leg again. “I’ve been on my own since I was nine.”

“And now, you’re not!” I spat back. “You have me. So shut up. Stay alive. And get out from under that motorbike before I choke you with it.”

The thunderstorm of our argument reached breaking point. Forked lightning shredded both our souls as the air sizzled.

His dark eyes blazed.

He coughed again, a bloom of red appearing at the corner of his mouth.

I hauled on the heavy bike with all my might.

The metal groaned—

His hand shot out, snagged my wrist, and yanked.

My palms smacked against his bloody, fiery chest as I fell on top of him.

I went to push away, but he was too fast.

Wrapping an arm around my waist, he captured me just as his lips slammed over mine.

The savage kiss hit like a lightning bolt.

I combusted as if he’d struck a match and sent us both up in flames.

Brutal and unrestrained, he cut off all my protests, kissing me, bruising me, hurting me. Starving. Suffering. Yearning.

Kissing me as if he was dying.

Kissing me as if it was the last thing he’d ever do in this world.

Our tongues tangled as desire turned us into two broken sacrifices, bleeding out on the threshold of hell.

The strange ashy flavour of his blood filled my mouth as he coughed into the kiss, making me drink what he couldn’t afford to lose.

His life-force made my mind swim, flooding my synapses with fire-hot iron.

The world tilted as a rush of healing tore through me, fierce and violent, racing from his lips down my spine and exploding into every stress and bruise.

And...something ignited deep inside me.

A bone-deep cold.

A sharp, glacial force that blasted from my heart, snapping toward the unexplainable fire of Lucien’s blood.

The two elements touched.

And for a split second, I felt powerful.

Balanced and whole and teetering on the edge of something mind-shattering—

My hands fisted in his blood-soaked shirt.

He deepened the kiss until we were fused together, heads twisting, teeth clacking, common sense completely gone.

I opened for him.

His tongue speared deeper and—

He coughed again.

He tried to pull away but...he’d turned me into a monster.

With a moan, I bit his bottom lip, trapping him.

His eyes flared wide as we glowered at each other, panting and crazed.

For a second, an entire battle played out between us as yet more of his blood trickled down my throat and my teeth sank deeper into his lip.

With a hoarse groan, he twisted his fingers in my hair and kissed me.

Wild and desperate—a final confession before we died.

Whisper prowled around us, headbutting us, trying to get us to unlock but it only made us cling tighter.