“Hurry!” Adrien hissed.
Marc looked down at me and pursed his lips before he pulled me toward the coffin. My heart pounded in my chest as he lifted me into his arms and lay me on the bed of cold dirt. I stared wide-eyed at him as my hands grabbed the earth.
He cupped half my face in his hand and managed a faint smile. “You’ll be well in a moment.”
Adrien stepped up to the coffin, and his long fangs glistened in the torchlight. “I must bite you, Miss Larkin.”
My mouth dropped open, and I shot up. “You have to what?”
“This is the only way to stop the process.”
“How will getting bitten help the process? And what process is happening to me?”
Adrien captured my gaze. There was something steady and calming about his eyes, and some of the panic within me subsided. He drew closer to me. “Please. I must have your permission.”
I swallowed hard, but turned my face away so my neck was revealed to him. He leaned down, and I flinched when I felt his fangs penetrate my flesh. A sensation of euphoria washed over me. A soft gasp escaped me. I gripped the dirt tighter as my body hummed with pleasure.
Every fiber of my being told me to fight, that this was madness, but every fiber of my being was also being controlled by those bright red eyes. The world seemed to fade around us. All I saw were his burning orbs.
My heart pounded harder and harder in my chest. I had trouble breathing. My mind swirled with dizziness.
Adrien drew away, and even in my delirium, a whimper escaped me. That was soon replaced by a terrible pain in my heart as it beat faster and faster. The rest of my body convulsed with sharp, twitching spasms. Drool dribbled down the corners of my mouth. The light in the room dimmed until I couldn’t see anything.
“Rose! Fight it, Rose!”
Marc. I needed to fight this for him. To do something.
And then everything stopped. Time itself ceased to be. I lay there staring up at the ceiling, disconnected from life.
And then life ended. My hands lost their strength and uncurled. My heart ceased, and the world went black.
Chapter 20
Dreams. Dreams of shadows and red eyes. And cold. I was so cold.
Then a light emerged from the darkness, and with it a warmth. A voice accompanied them. A low, familiar voice.
“Rose. Rose. Did you forget already? You’re supposed to go on more adventures than this. Your eyes told me that much, so wake up.”
I stirred, and the cold mantle that seemed to pin me down was thrown off. My heart beat again. Blood was pumped through my body. I forced my eyes open. They felt as heavy as lead. I finally managed and found myself staring at darkness.
My renewed heart skipped a beat. I shot up, and my head hit something hard not far above me. A yelp escaped me, and I dropped back down to the covers. Only there weren’t any covers. Just dirt. Grimy, dry dirt.
A crunch of stone on stone from above me made me freeze, and I watched the darkness above my head be pushed aside. Light poured in, and I blinked against the harsh light. A face hovered in the brilliance, and a familiar voice spoke up.
“I leave you alone for ten minutes and this happens!”
I tried to make a vague exclamation, but only a few feeble wheezes of air escaped me. The vague shadow above me stiffened, and a long tongue flicked out. “She’s waking up!”
The shadow was joined by someone else, and another voice floated to me. “Rose? Can you hear me?”
I squinted. “Marc? Ramaro? Is that you guys?”
My vision slowly improved, and the faces of my friends appeared. Ramaro paced the top of the wall of my ‘bed,’ his tongue constantly flicking out. “What in all the seas happened here? Shouldn’t that wretched dravenkin be here to explain himself?”
Marc looked over my face. “How are you feeling?”
I shifted, and a sharp pain struck my head. I winced and clutched my head in my hand. “Like something really hard and cold hit me.”
