Searing orange-red flames brightened everything. She squinted, barely able to see in the immense heat.Nate!
Her heartbeats uncountable with terror, her breath trapped in her dry throat, Ely shuffled along the narrow ridge, the lava river moving sluggishly far below, praying she’d find him in time. She had a bad, bad feeling about this.
* * *
Nate lurched toward the flickering light, his mind, his body, a mass of seething agony, his sire’s words ringing in his head.A wraconis.
One of the deadliest demonic beasts that roamed the fiery depths of Hell. And he was morphing into one.
“Yesss,”the sibilant voice screeched inside his head, sending more shards of pain tearing through his skull.“Now we’sss be one.”
Nate didn’t respond, just wanted the unending anguish to end. He pressed a hand against the rugged, searing rockface, then blinked at his black, scaly limb and long talons.
He exhaled. He was losing this battle.No, he refused to let this monster that had tormented him his entire life win. He stopped at the ledge, his single wing weighing him down. Far below, the slow-moving lava churned and spat its fiery bits of magma, beckoning him with promises of peace—
“Nate—no!” An anguished cry erupted. Arms came around him, pulling him back. Warm and heavenly, holding him so tight, causing more pain to explode from his many wounds. “Don’t. I’ll find a way to end this and help you.”
He knew that voice, one that brought him a brief moment of happiness in his endless darkness. His beautiful moonlight.
By the dark gods, despite his never-ending agony, he wanted to bury his face in her neck, breathe her in, seek comfort in her.
He didn’t. Couldn’t.
“It’s too late for me,laika. This is where it ends. I won’t let it win.” He slowly turned and grasped her face in his bloodied, taloned hands. Hell, he shouldn’t touch something so pure.
But for one last time...
He pressed his mouth to hers, except his fangs got in the way. And her sob gutted him. “Don’t cry,laika. I’m sorry I failed you. We were doomed right from the start, weren’t we?”
“No, dammit! It’s not the end for us!” She grabbed his thick, scaly wrists. “I won’t let it be—”
He gently wiped her cheek with his clawed thumb. “From the moment I saw you in the alley, flaying me with your death glare, I knew I wanted you—”
No!The screech in his head amplified in rage.Kiiill her. We don’t needsss her!
“But I fell in love with you when you came back with your salves and potion to heal me.” At the anguish in her eyes, the pain in his chest imploded, crushing his heart into billions of fragments. It hurt so fucking much, knowing he would never be with her again.
“My only sorrow is I will never grow old with you, never have the chance to wake up in your arms again. But death is just another journey, I hear. And one of peace, I hope. Spare a little thought now and again for the demon who loved you, my beautiful angel—”
“No, damn you!” She smacked his chest, but he barely felt the hit, agony twisting his inside as if his bones were stretched to their limits.
Her tears fell like rain, leaving wet tracks on her grimy face. “I love your stubborn ass, too, and I’m not letting you die out here! We’ll find a way out of this. The Guardians will aid us. They were gods in a previous life. Please, please come back with me.”
He shook his head. “I cannot cross into the mortal world in this form. I am…evolving. There’s no going back for me, my…Ely. I cannot become this monster, trapped forever in this…form. I won’t.”
The beast within chuckled, the sound like shattering glass.Kiiill her!
A groan of pure anguish escaped him. His bones cracked, reforming, spasms of blinding pain splintering through him. He grabbed his head, his wrists scraping the spikes shooting out of his brow.
Kiiiill!the beast shrieked.Needsss blood.
His morphed hand lashed out as if of its own accord, missing her neck by millimeters, hitting flesh lower on her body. Ely stumbled a step, gasping in pain.
“No…no!” Nate reared back in horror at the blood seeping from the gouges along her clavicle and chest. Then there was no more ground.
And he was falling…
Falling through the thick, oppressive sulfuric air, down the ravine, toward the bubbling, torpid magma far below, Ely’s anguished cry echoing in his ears.“Nate, noooo!”
