“Shut up!”My voice rumbled around us. While the voice was definitely mine, it sounded off…dark.
“We don't have to have a bond in place for us to mate, now do we?”
Another snarl tore from my lips as my ears and tail sprouted.
“Fuck.I can’t wait until I finally have you. Don’t fight the dark magic, Wren. It’ll only hurt you more.” His lips curved into a sinister smile before his body dissolved into black goo that did nothing but disappear like usual.
“Your magic didn’t work on her because you can’t use regular magic to combat dark magic.” Damien growled at Alister before his hand gripped me painfully, turning it to show my blackened veins on the inside of my arm. “My telekinesis won’t work, but maybe my shadows will if we physically remove it.”
The darkness sizzled in my blood, burning my arm as one of Damien’s shadow tendrils split into smaller forms and delved into my flesh and into my veins, snaking through it and attempting to pull the dark magic out
Scalding heat spread through my veins, spreading up my arm and into the vein on my neck, and I slammed my eyes shut as pain imploded in my body.
“You're hurting her,” Rowan yelled, grabbing Damien and pulling him away with fire-blazing hands that burned Damien’s skin.
Damien’s eyes shone silver, but his tendrils didn’t stop scouring my veins and attacking the dark magic within them. “No, we can't let it meld with her. We can't let it consume her!”
He thrashed against Rowan’s burning hold, and Rowan gripped the shadows with a flaming hand and yanked them from me.
My knees crashed against the hard floor with a crunch as dizziness set in. The wounds in my arm had closed, and there was a black smudge over my skin where the goo had spread, covering up the majority of my forearm. My veins were still black.
Thorn and Lachlan gripped me up by each side, both saying something reassuring to me.
“This was one of the visions I hoped wouldn't happen.” Kian’s voice cracked, and tears slipped down his cheek. Shade wiped them away with his paw as a tear trickled down his own furry cheek.
“I didn't mean to hurt you, little bird.” Damien's sharp breath made me look over at him as he plunged a thick tendril into his own chest.
My scream was the last I heard before I surrendered to the dark magic, or maybe it was darkness itself.
NINE
Damien
“Stop,”Rowansnarledatme, and I growled back.
“We know you didn't mean to hurt her,” Kian murmured.
“But I still did.” I forced my hands through my hair as I paced back and forth.
All of her other mates sat beside her as she lay prone in the bed sleeping.
The darkness of her veins in that arm was terrifying, and I wanted nothing more than to rip it all out.
But the only color that seeped out of her when I cut into her arm was red. The dark magic had fused with her, and we had no idea the effect it would have when she woke up.
Kian had to be wrong. There had to be another way to kill that son of a bitch. I would try everything possible. Maybe we had to do something dramatic to the goo. We could set it alight with drake fire. Wait, no Rowan tried that, and it didn't work. There had to be something, though.
“If there is, we’ll find it,” Thorn told me, and I gave a sharp nod. I didn’t even mind the fae in my thoughts anymore.
The door opened, and Trixie, Blair, and Jan rushed inside the bedroom.
“What happened?” Trixie’s voice was hysterical.
Rhett filled them in on what happened.
“Cutting it out of her didn't work?” Jan raised an eyebrow.
“No, it didn't work,” Alister answered. “It actually made it worse.”
