"Yet you're beneath me, legs wrapped around me, begging with your body if not your words."
He's right. I am begging, silently but desperately. The marks have made me hungry for him in ways that transcend logic.
"This is just biology," I protest weakly.
"Biology doesn't explain why you chose me at the auction. Why you sought my chambers specifically. Why even your murder attempt was half-hearted." He grinds against me, and I gasp. "You want me, Yorika. Not just physically. You want what we could be together."
"Which is?"
"Hunters. Partners. Mates." Each word is punctuated with a roll of his hips. "The Collector is still out there. Your sister and hundreds of others need vengeance. We could give it to them."
"After we fuck?"
"After we complete the bond properly. The fucking is just the pleasant part of a necessary process."
I laugh despite everything. "You're impossible."
"I'm yours. As you're mine." He starts unbuttoning my clothes with shadows while his mouth finds my throat. "Say yes."
"To which part?"
"All of it. The hunt. The partnership. This."
The realm shudders suddenly, violently. Not a tremor from Nezavek's dissolution but something external. Something trying to break in.
We both freeze.
"What was that?" I ask.
His eyes darken from burning gold to something closer to ember. "The Collector. He's testing the wards."
Another shudder. Stronger this time.
"How long until he breaks through?"
"Hours. Maybe less." He doesn't move off me. "The bond is stronger now but still incomplete. We need."
"To finish it. I know." I pull his face down to mine. "Then stop talking and complete what you started."
"Here? Now? While he's attacking?"
"Where else? When else?" I bite his lip hard enough to draw that dark essence that passes for his blood. "Unless you'd rather face him while you're dissolving and I'm only half-anchored."
He snarls something in a language that predates human speech, then claims my mouth in a kiss that feels like possession and surrender combined.
The realm shakes again, but neither of us stops.
We have a bond to complete and a monster to face.
NEZAVEK
The realm doesn't just shudder. It cracks.
Reality splits along invisible seams as the Bone Collector forces his way through dimensions. The incomplete bond between Yorika and me burns like a beacon, giving him exactly what he needs: a frequency to follow, a weakness to exploit.
I roll off Yorika immediately, shadow forming into armor, but it's already too late.
Ice explodes through the wall of my chambers. Not physical ice but crystallized reality, frozen possibility made solid. The Collector steps through the breach, and the temperature drops so fast that frost forms on every surface.
