THE PLANE PLUMMETED.
My stomach lurched into my throat as gravity vanished and my hips jerked downward thanks to my seatbelt. My eyes flew wide as dreams dumped me into yet another nightmare—
We’re going to die.
For all my frequent flying, I’d never lost the fear that one day I’d end up splattered across some mountain range like a bug on a windscreen.
“Relax,” Lucien muttered quietly. “I can feel your fear and it’s making it really hard to concentrate.”
“You canfeelmy fear?” My head whipped to him, finding him awake and fuming. “Eh, I’m going to need more information on that because...how?”
His eyebrows knitted together as if he hadn’t meant to say that.
A chill worked down my spine and I had to know...had to understand what the hell was going on with him but...the cabin bounced, hitting another pocket of turbulence.
I tensed but it stopped as quickly as it started.
Okay, that wasn’t so bad.
I’d been in worse...
Whisper didn’t seem to agree with me. Slinking down the aisle, the giant panther planted two front paws on my knee. I groaned at his weight then flinched as he prepared to leap onto my lap—
“Don’t even think about it.” Lucien turned to look at him, arching an eyebrow as if daring him to try.
The poor beast hung his head and flopped down beside me.
Yawning, I reached to give him a scratch. “It’s okay, scaredy cat.”
“Shouldn’t I be saying that to you?” Lucien quipped under his breath. “You’re both as bad as each other and I’m the one who’s meant to have issues.”
“Youdohave issues.” I rubbed at the crick in my neck. “More and more by the hour, apparently.”
“Careful,” he purred. “Just because I’ve decided to bring you along, doesn’t mean you’re safe.”
“Believe me, I’m highly aware of this fact.” I crossed my arms and sat primly. “I have a lot of questions actually and if you’re finally ready to acknowledge that you did, in fact, bring me along on this little adventure, then I’d like to start by asking where the hell are you—”
“Quiet.” He rubbed his temples. “I’m really not doing well and if you start needling me—”
“Needlingyou?” I undid my seatbelt so I could twist to face him. “How am I needling you? I’m just asking you not to ignore me, that’s all. What’s—”
“I’mignoring you, so I don’t kill us all, alright?” A few misty wisps appeared over his shoulders. “It’s taking everything I have not to burn the hell up and believe me...I would really fucking appreciate it if my body stopped condemning me every time you decided to breathe.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’reloud.” He shot me a glare. “Every breath you take, every move you make, every twitch, every stupid little frown—I’m awareof everything.”
Was this what he’d been silently enduring since we’d taken off?
Glowering at me as if all of this was my fault, he said coldly, “I feel you sitting next to me. I feel the space you occupy. I feel it when you look at me with a thousand questions, wondering if I’m a monster or a mistake.” He shifted closer, his breath coming quick and short. “It’s messing with my mind.”
His eyes shimmered an incandescent red. “Whatever is happening to me is making it really, really hard to sit here, but I can’t leave as I need you.” He chuckled blackly. “I need you to keep me calm because I can’t contain it on my own. Yet the longer I’m free from the vitalsync core and its nasty trick of knocking me out, the more my system intensifies. Ihateit. I’m pissed that I’ve traded one leash for another, and you seem to be worse because each time you move...each time you flinch or feel or think, everything inside me threatens to incinerate if I don’t stay close andlisten.”
I couldn’t breathe as if every word he’d said—the most words he’d ever said to me in one sitting—wrapped around my throat andsqueezed.
What had theydoneto him?
Where would it end?
