“I’m going to break the rules,” I announced, then shot off another whistle.
Assirak leapt.
His bite landed squarely on Seth’s balls.
Seth’s scream echoed across the Strip. The serpents faltered. The red magic sputtered.
And the reaper dogs pressed forward, their momentum slamming into Seth’s power with a force that finally knocked him off-balance.
Snapping out a tendril of hieroglyphs, I used the distraction to send it past Set to wrap around Aaron before yanking him to me. I caught him with one arm.
“I’ve got you,” I said even as I held my power with the other hand against Seth’s onslaught.
Seth’s cry of fury ricocheted off the buildings even as he threw off Assirak with his power. His normally orange face was red, his eyes bulging as he panted with rage because I took his toy.
That or because Assirak nearly castrated him.
“Bite me,” I told Aaron.
Aaron tensed in my hold. Any moment, Seth would compel him with his will. The window was closing fast.
“Now, Aaron,” I said, pitching my voice low and steady despite the strain building behind my sternum.
“It didn’t work before,” he said.
Despite the sweat dripping down my temples, my muscles seizing with the energy it took to control such power, I couldn’t help but smile a little. “Seth was more powerful than me before, but not anymore. Because now I’ve accepted I’d do anything to take you from him. I’d do anything to make you mine. I’d create and destroy stars for you. Which means nothing will keep us from bonding.”
Seth bellowed my name, his snakes whipping upward in a frenzy. The air warped around him with heat as he dragged more power from every soul he’d stolen. The pressure hit me like a furnace blast, scorching my blue sigils and sending cracks through the light beneath my feet.
Aaron’s mouth tilted up before his fangs sank into my neck.
19
AARON
Timothy's blood hit my tongue, and it was nothing like before.
No poison burn. No rejection. No violent churn in my gut threatening to hurl itself back out. This was heat and lightning and home, flooding straight into me in a rush that nearly buckled my knees.
Timothy held me with one arm. With the other, he was holding off a god.
I clutched his shoulders, dragging him closer because I couldn’t not. Every instinct I had screamedyes.Mine.Finally.
The radiance streaming through him sharpened under my mouth, magic flooding my senses. Bitter-sweet, old as the underworld, threaded with something warm that felt like him. Like Timothy. Like the man who straightened his pens and cataloged centuries of history just to feel grounded.
This was nothing like drinking from Seth. Despite needing his blood, there was always an undercurrent of something sour, something wrong. A bond that had been forced.
Seth let out a cry of outrage, hurling another wave of heat that buckled the street. Red serpents lunged, tongues flickering with stolen life.
Timothy didn’t flinch.
He angled his body so the blast hit his shoulder instead of me, then snapped his wrist. Reaper dogs answered him instantly, their shadows fusing with his sigils and slamming into Seth’s magic with coordinated precision.
And still, he kept his throat tilted toward me.
I growled into him, fingers digging into his shoulders hard enough to bruise. His heartbeat thundered against my lips, each pulse synchronizing with mine until I couldn't tell where he ended and I began.Mine, the vampire in me snarled. Mine forever.
Golden threads of light spiraled around us, visible manifestations of our essence intertwining. Each swallow forged our connection stronger, burning Seth's influence away until only Timothy's claim remained.
