The scene reset around him - Ronald back at the desk, footsteps in the hall - but Viktor ignored it, pushing his consciousness down, down, following the thread of Ant’s presence through the layers of twisted magic.
The loop grew louder. More insistent. The sound of Ronald’s voice layered on top of itself, echoing.
“Lord Raven, I wasn’t expecting...”
“Lord Raven, I wasn’t expecting...”
“Lord Raven...”
And underneath it all, barely audible, a whisper.
Viktor.
Viktor snarled and shoved through another layer of interference. The magic was fighting him, trying to shred his consciousness, as if he were a foreign presence that the magic was trying to eject. But Viktor had been a predator for a long time, and he knew how to be relentless. He was the poster boy of someonewho would refuse to let go, even when everything screamed at him to give up.
Not a fucking chance.Viktor pushed deeper as the scene fragmented around him. Multiple versions of Ronald’s death played simultaneously, overlapping and bleeding into each other. Claudius’s laughter echoed from a dozen different moments. Edmund’s voice distorted into static.
And finally, Viktor found him. Ant’s consciousness was a small, bright point of light drowning in a sea of chaos. The loop had fractured him, splintering his awareness into pieces that couldn’t quite reassemble themselves. Fear was wrapped like an aura around him, and Viktor could feel the real genuine panic that belonged to Ant himself.
Viktor’s protective instincts roared to life. Fear had no place in Ant’s life. He wrapped his consciousness around Ant’s fractured presence and pulled him close, forming a barrier between his mate and the maelstrom of memories trying to consume him.
I’ve got you.
Ant’s presence flickered, weak and disoriented. The loop continued to scream around them, demanding attention, demanding to be witnessed. But Viktor stood firm, holding Ant against his metaphorical chest and refusing to let the magic tear them apart.
You’re safe. I’m here. You’re not alone.
He could feel Ant trying to respond, trying to orient himself, but the loop kept dragging at him, kept trying to pull him back under. The wards had created a perfect trap - a scene so traumatic and so endlessly repeating that it would eventually erode any observer’s sense of self.
But the wards hadn’t accounted for a fated mate bond. Viktor tightened his grip. His consciousness blazed bright with hisprotective fury. Nothing, not magic, wards, or senseless deaths on autorepeat, was going to take his mate from him.
The loop screamed as Ronald died again, and again, and again. But Viktor didn’t care. And that became his strength. Viktor remembered telling Bridget back when he and Ant first met about how he genuinely didn’t care about anyone else, and Bridget had worried about that.
But from the first time he’d seen him in that courtroom, Viktor had felt protective of Ant, and over time that had bloomed into a love so many vampires feared. It was all-consuming, and there was nothing on Earth, hell, or in-between that could come between Viktor and his mate. He locked his metaphorical arms around Ant’s fractured awareness and became an anchor - a solid and immovable force in a space designed to trap and disorient.
Feel me,he pushed through their bond.I’m here. I’m solid. Focus on me, not the loop. Come back to me, precious.
Ant’s presence wavered, then steadied ever so slightly. It was still fragmented, and Ant was still weak, but Viktor got the sense Ant was no longer drowning quite so completely. Tightening his arms, Viktor prepared himself to stay exactly where he was for as long as it took.
Chapter Thirteen
The screaming stopped as fast as it started. Ant’s consciousness reminded him of a shattered mirror - hundreds of pieces scattered in a storm - and yet, as the sound stopped, something else shifted. The sensory noise suddenly dampened, as if someone had thrown a heavy blanket over a shrieking fire alarm. The temperature of the vision changed. What had seemed cold and dark and endless now had warmth - solid warmth.
Viktor.His brain sighed. Ant felt his mate’s presence wrap around him like an invisible shield. Even the loop stopped, cutting off Ronald’s voice mid-word.
I’ve got you.Viktor’s mental voice was steady, unshakable.You’re safe. I’m here.
The relief was so intense that Ant’s awareness nearly splintered again, but Viktor’s presence tightened, holding him together. The loop tried to restart - Claudius’s footsteps in the hallway, the door opening - but it was moving slowly now, almost sluggish, as if it was the magic that was trying to push through mud.
Feel me. I’m solid. Focus on me, not the loop.
Ant latched onto Viktor’s consciousness like a drowning man grabbing a rope. His mate’s presence was fierce and utterly focused, radiating protective fury and a solid determination that nothing - not wards, not ancient magic, not Claudius himself - would take Ant away from him.
The fragments of Ant’s awareness began to slowly piece back together. He remembered who he was - Doctor Anthony Channon, who had a sister, Bridget, and a wonderful dog, Able. He was a high-level mage, and an investigator for the Justiciary. More importantly, he was the vampire known as Viktor’s fated mate.I’m fated, claimed, and loved.
Current status? He was conducting a scene reading at the Raven Estate, and had gotten stuck in a magical loop designed to erode his sense of self… But he wasn’t alone anymore.
Anchored by Viktor’s steady mental support, Ant stopped trying to escape the vicious loop and examined it instead. The loop had been created by Claudius’s wards interacting with the scene of a traumatic death, amplifying and distorting the scene’s natural energies until it became a trap. But now that Viktor had interrupted its momentum, Ant could see the structure underneath.
