“Don’t you fucking dare.” Grabbing her by the jaw, I hinged her mouth open and pressed my lips to hers, exhaling a lungful of oxygen directly into her.
Her lungs didn’t even expand.
Wet bubbles appeared, hinting her lungs held water instead of air.
“Fuck!” Pure terror gave me strength to get to my feet and haul her into my arms. I needed her head below her chest. I needed gravity.
Spinning in place, I spotted a fallen tree in the dark—the trunk horizontal and covered in moss. Carrying her to it, I draped her limp body face-down over the trunk, ensuring her torso hung over the other side, her arms dangling, and hair dripping onto the bushes.
Raising my hand, I hesitated for a heartbeat.
I didn’t want to hurt her but...I couldn’t let her die.
Taking a deep breath, I slammed my palm between her shoulder blades.
She jerked but remained lifeless.
I did it again, shifting her further over the trunk until her forehead almost skimmed the ground.
“Come on,” I growled, hitting her again. Harder this time. With my fist instead of my palm.
She moaned. A thin stream of water dribbled out.
Not enough.
Not nearly enough.
“That’s it. Come on.”
That strange bond in my heart caught fire, filling me with urgency as her soul flickered against mine, wanting to stay but fading,fading—
“You can hate me for this when you wake.” I hit her. Hard.
She jackknifed over the tree. A torrent of bloody water burst free.
I waited to see if she would keep retching.
But she went still instead.
That awful sensation of her leaving me wrapped viciously around my throat.
Still not enough. Not all of it.
“Again.”
I struck her. I whacked her hard enough to break a rib or two, forcing every last dreg to expel in a gush.
“Breathe.Breathe and—”
She gagged as her body jerked in a seizure.
“Shit.” Snatching her off the trunk, I placed her on the ground and tipped her chin up. Sucking in a huge breath, I sealed my mouth over hers and forced as much air as I could into her.
This time, her chest rose before collapsing.
“Wake the fuckup,Rook.” I breathed into her again.
I pinched her nose and kissed her hard, forcing all the oxygen I could deep, deep into her cells.
