Whatever it was, Cole came to his knees beside me and I gestured to his body on the ground.
“What?” He was staring at his pretty, pale face with an agonized expression. I was almost certain he was thinking about the way his brother had looked the night he’d found him. I couldn’t take that pain away, but I was pretty sure I could fix this. I could feel it now, the urge surging through me and pressing against the crimson line that trailed between us.
I could feel every forbidden second of it, and I knew we weren’t going to have the same kind of luck this time getting away from the hounds, because there was no Enmity here to blame it on.
It didn’t matter.
Some part of me knew now that as long as I could, I would always save him. I would risk my existence every time to keep him breathing, to keep him alive. I was selfish enough that I would have taken what I needed from the man beside us if I’d had to, but luckily I’d just reaped a soul and I was bursting with Vitality.
“Lie down, Cole. Go back to your body.”
“That isn’t going to work, you can’t just—” He cut off with a low sound as I grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him to the ground. When he tried to rise, I straddled his hips, and for the first time I saw the realization cross his face.
I wasn’t weak.
I wasn’t mortal.
I had the strength to tear a human apart if I so desired, and I certainly had the strength to shove him to the ground so his soul and the pale figure of his human vessel flickered and nearly merged together, hazy lines that almost made up a whole.
“You need to trust me.” It sounded hollow when I had to slide my body forward so my hips pinned him down. I wrapped my fingers around his wrists and forced his arms above his head when he tried to push up to fight me. “I’m not going to hurt you, Cole. I don’t think I could if I tried. I can’t kill you.” I leaned in close to him, watching the red thread fall perfectly back into place between our bodies. “I can’t leave you alone. All I can do is whatever it takes to keep you by my side.”
It felt vulnerable giving that confession, but it finally shocked him into lying still so I could lean down. His tongue darted out, licking his lips nervously as I hovered closer, and for a moment I thought about closing that distance.
I could use what I was about to do as an excuse to steal a kiss, because I was beginning to wonder if he’d ever let me otherwise.
I hovered there, aware that the pantomime of breathing I saw was nothing more than a habit—souls didn’t need to breathe.
Souls shouldn’t have been trembling, but he was shaking beneath me, and his eyes kept darting between mine and my lips. Through the thread between us, I thought for a moment I could feel the way he wanted me to close that distance too.
Instead, I brought my hand up and cupped his face, dropping my forehead to press against his.
It was subtle at first, the sensation of the connection between us drawing the Vitality from my chest. It was a burn that trailed outward and made me groan at the wrongness of it. I wasn’t made to do this—I shouldn’t have been able to.
Apparently, Fate had different ideas. Heat trickled from my chest into Cole. The sound of ribs snapping back into place where they’d been cracked in a botched attempt at CPR flooded my senses. Beneath me, there was a moment where Cole’s eyes glowed a soft golden, as if a part of my immortality was wrapping around him and demanding he stay.
Stay with me.
With another shuddering gasp, the blurred vision of soul and body in front of me merged, and the burst of exhalation that washed over my face was real.
Tangible.
As impossible as it was, it had worked.
Cole’s lids fluttered open and there was a span of time where I was caught in the heat of his gaze—his expression was pure shock. I wasn’t sure if it was from coming back to himself, or from the words I’d spoken.
“Sephtis…” The sound of my name coming from his lips, so soft and without any edge of anger, was nearly enough to undo me. I leaned closer—close enough that my mouth brushed against his in the briefest touch…
And then the man beside us groaned and sat up, and I rolled off Cole as he pushed himself into a sitting position and helped his coworker stand.
“Are you okay, Preston?” His voice was calmer than it should have been for what had just happened, but it was obvious he was putting on a mask for the benefit of the man in front of him.
“Am I… You weren’t breathing.” Preston lifted his hand, settling it over the center of Cole’s chest. The motion made the red thread trail through the stranger’s skin, and an odd sensation twisted in my stomach—something else a Reaper shouldn’t have been able to feel.
Jealousy.
The knowledge that it would be so easy for me to step forward and take the man by that same hand, regain the Vitality I’d had to pour into Cole to bring him back to life.
Someone was going to have to die to replace it… it could be…
