“That’s twice you’ve called me a fool.”
My gaze dropped to his stab wound and all the questions I’d been choking on spilled out. “Why didn’t you tell me what you planned? Why did you harvest two bags of blood when youknewyou would need your strength? Why are you soannoying?”
His lips twitched into a morbid half smile. “So youareworried about me.”
“I’m fucking furious at you. There’s a difference.” Marching to the bike, I bent over and grabbed the handlebars again. “Stop trying to do everything on your own!”
“Iamon my own.” He winced as I tried to lift the bike off his leg again. “I’ve been on my own since I was nine.”
“And now, you’re not!” I spat back. “You have me. So shut up. Stay alive. And get out from under that motorbike before I choke you with it.”
The thunderstorm of our argument reached breaking point. Forked lightning shredded both our souls as the air sizzled.
His dark eyes blazed.
He coughed again, a bloom of red appearing at the corner of his mouth.
I hauled on the heavy bike with all my might.
The metal groaned—
His hand shot out, snagged my wrist, and yanked.
My palms smacked against his bloody, fiery chest as I fell on top of him.
I went to push away, but he was too fast.
Wrapping an arm around my waist, he captured me just as his lips slammed over mine.
The savage kiss hit like a lightning bolt.
I combusted as if he’d struck a match and sent us both up in flames.
Brutal and unrestrained, he cut off all my protests, kissing me, bruising me, hurting me. Starving. Suffering. Yearning.
Kissing me as if he was dying.
Kissing me as if it was the last thing he’d ever do in this world.
Our tongues tangled as desire turned us into two broken sacrifices, bleeding out on the threshold of hell.
The strange ashy flavour of his blood filled my mouth as he coughed into the kiss, making me drink what he couldn’t afford to lose.
His life-force made my mind swim, flooding my synapses with fire-hot iron.
The world tilted as a rush of healing tore through me, fierce and violent, racing from his lips down my spine and exploding into every stress and bruise.
And...something ignited deep inside me.
A bone-deep cold.
A sharp, glacial force that blasted from my heart, snapping toward the unexplainable fire of Lucien’s blood.
The two elements touched.
And for a split second, I feltpowerful.
Balanced and whole and teetering on the edge of something mind-shattering—
