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Tessa
Something’s wrong withme.
The realization hits the moment I wake up, and it’s not the exhaustion pulling at my bones or the dull ache in my wrist where Vex’s fangs broke skin.It’s something deeper.Somethingother.
The room is too bright.
Not the light coming through the window, that’s normal afternoon sun, muted by curtains.But I canseeeverything with a clarity that shouldn’t be possible.Every dust mote floating in the air.Every thread in the fabric of Vex’s sheets.The grain of wood in the doorframe across the room looks like I’m standing inches away instead of lying in bed.
And the sounds.
Oh god, the sounds.
Downstairs, someone’s walking with heavy footsteps I recognize as Blade’s from the gait alone.In the kitchen, water runs through pipes in the walls, and I can hear every gurgle, every shift of pressure.Further away, bikes rumble in the garage, and I can distinguish between them, Hollywood’s Harley has a slightly lower pitch than Scout’s.
It’s too much.All of it is too much.
I sit up, and the world tilts.My stomach lurches, and I have to close my eyes against the onslaught of sensory input.But closing my eyes doesn’t help because now I can smelleverything.
Leather and motor oil from the clubhouse.Bacon frying somewhere downstairs.The faint scent of Prophet’s incense from his room.And underneath it all, Vex’s scent, cold nights and something darker, something that makes my mouth water and my pulse quicken.
“Breathe.”His voice cuts through the chaos, and I open my eyes to find him standing in the doorway.He’s changed clothes, black jeans and a dark grey henley that hugs his frame, and his eyes are fixed on me with an intensity that makes my skin prickle.“Slow breaths.In through your nose, out through your mouth.”
I try.I really do.But the air tastes different now.Richer.Like I can taste individual molecules, and it’s overwhelming and terrifying and—
“Tessa.”He’s across the room in a heartbeat, moving faster than my new senses can track, and suddenly his hands are on my face, cool fingers grounding me.“Look at me.Only me.Block everything else out and focus on me.”
His eyes are dark, not white.Human.Safe.I lock onto them like a lifeline and force myself to breathe the way he’s telling me to.Slow.Measured.In and out.
Gradually, the world stops spinning.
“What’s happening to me?”My voice comes out shaky, small.“Why can I—everything’s so loud and bright and I can smell things I shouldn’t be able to smell and—”
“The bond.”He pulls back slightly but keeps his hands on my shoulders.“When you offered me your blood, when I drank from you willingly given...we created a connection.A blood bond.It’s changing you.”
“Changing me how?”Panic spikes through me.“Am I turning into a vampire?Is that why—”
“No.”His grip tightens, reassuring.“You’re not turning.That’s not how it works.But the bond...it’s tethering you to me in ways that matter.Some of my senses are bleeding into yours.You’re experiencing a fraction of what I experience every day.”
I stare at him, trying to process.“Afraction?”
“You’ll learn to control it.To filter out what you don’t need.It just takes time.”His thumb strokes my cheekbone, and the gentleness of the gesture is at odds with the concern in his eyes.“How do you feel?Besides the sensory overload?”
How do I feel?
Exhausted.Overwhelmed.Terrified.
And underneath all of that—connected.Like there’s a thread tied around my heart that extends across the room to where Vex is crouched in front of me, and I can feel him at the other end of it.His worry.His guilt.His fierce, possessive need to protect me.
“I can feel you,” I whisper.“Your emotions.They’re...they’re in my head.”
His jaw tightens.“I know.I can feel you too.”
The admission hangs between us, heavy with implication.Because if he can feel my emotions, then he knows exactly how I feel about him.The attraction.The fear.The growing, terrifying certainty that I’m falling for a monster who could kill me without meaning to.
“Tessa—”
