“No, I’m not.”
“Can’t you feel it?”
Feel…
I had sort of blocked everything around me just to be able to shower. Including my senses.
Everything was so intense now that I’d awakened as my Vampir self. Sounds were louder than ever, tormenting me. Like the constant blasts of the waterdrops exploding against the tile, lungs expanding and constricting as people breathed nearby, the marching steps of the guard booming against the wooden floors of the castle.
Then, there was thefeelingof the wind seeming to slice against my skin as it blew through the open balcony doors.
I supposed my senses had to adjust eventually, might as well get it over with now.
Taking a settling breath, I slowly opened myself again and the instant sting of pain spread through my thigh, a piece of wood protruding from my leg. The leg of the coffee table.
“Dante!”
Star called for him almost instinctively, but I just gripped the wood and yanked it out of my leg.
The door burst open to reveal Dante and André rushing back into the room.
“Were they standing right outside?”Star asked, confused.
“That was your annoying breathing and heartbeats beating my ears into submission, wasn’t it?” I growled.
“Why are you hurt?” André asked just as Dante stopped in front of me, hands swirling with healing shadows ready to mend me.
“Let me heal?—"
“It’s nothing,” I protested, my words confirmed when the spark of blue fire ignited inside the gaping wound, flames rushing along the edges and knitting the skin back together before Dante could even touch me.
Muscles tensed along André’s jaw when I glanced up at him, a strange emotion intensifying his gaze for a moment.
What had I done now?
“Maybe he’s taken aback by your unusual healing?”
“The fire is my venom,” I reminded him, throwing the wooden stake on the rug.
Only, as his jaw clenched again and a troubled gleam briefly captured his eyes, I realized it wasn’t my wound that had caused him to react.
Bringing my attention back to the mirror, I caught the eerie red eyes that glanced back at me. Purposedly slow, not to destroy anything else, I walked back to the vanity, realizing the red irises weren’t the only new thing I’d woken up with this morning.
My neck stretched as I turned my head, the white strands slipping off my shoulder and revealing the outline of the brand new Sunburst that surrounded Dante’s Starburst. It was André’s symbol.
“We are bonded to him now… Natasha will be happy to see that.”
“She will be,”I agreed, an uncomfortable feeling coursing through me when I glanced through the mirror at André… Why was there a troubled gleam in his stare?
“It’s the freaky red eyes,”Star offered.“He just has to get used to them.”
Would he?
No…
Straightening, I pushed the stupid feeling aside because it wasn’t mine and turned around to face him. His attention flickered to my neck and then back to my eyes, assessing me, deciding how to proceed with this twist of fate.
It suddenly dawned on me what this was. I was his mate, and yet, I wasn’t her. I wasn’thisNatasha.
