“He’d kill us if we left you alone,” Diego answers.
That makes me laugh and cry at the same time. “He’s not here to kill you.”
“No, but you are,” Vaughn says.
Another wave hits, and I slam my head back against the cabinet, my teeth clenched so hard that my jaw aches.
“Talia,” Caine says softly.
“Don’t come in,” I gasp. “Please…”
“We won’t…” Laurent promises.
I curl onto my side on the cool tile, Soren’s shirt twisted in my fists. The cold floor presses against my cheek while my body burns from the inside out. I try to breathe through it. I try to be quiet. I try to send whatever I can through the bond. Comfort. Rage. Love. Anything to make him feel even slightly better. I don’t know if he can feel any of it, but I try.
“I love you,” I whisper. “I love you, you stupid, stubborn, impossible asshole. So you better hold on. You hear me? You don’t get to leave me after making me love you. That’s not how forever works.”
The bond gives another weak pulse. Or maybe I imagine it. Either way, I cling to it.
Time stops meaning anything. Pain comes in waves until I can’t tell where one ends and another begins. Forced pleasure. Burning agony. Nausea. Distant terror. His body betraying him. All while my body echoes it.
Underneath all of it, there is a thin thread of him hanging on.
Still there.
Still mine.
Still alive.
Eventually, the shakes slow, but they don’t stop. They never stop. They’re dull enough that I can breathe without shaking apart. I hear the others outside the door.
“Talia?” Vaughn calls.
“I’m here,” I say, my voice broken and raw from screaming.
“You scared the shit out of us,” Laurent says, and his tone tells me he’s not lying.
“Good. Keeps you young,” I mumble.
“Asshole,” Caine says, making a sound that is almost like a strangled laugh.
“I learned from the best,” I say, my eyes growing heavier. This tile is uncomfortable, my body aches, and my throat feels torn from the pain ripping through me in waves of screams.
I’m too tired to move, but too scared to sleep. I press my palm against my chest where the bond lives, and close my eyes. “I’m coming, Soren,” I whisper, one last time. The pain hums beneath my skin like a warning of what is to come before the exhaustion drags me under.
Chapter Twenty Two
Talia
Pain ripples through myabdomen for what feels like the millionth time. I shut the shower off and wrap myself in a towel before it becomes debilitating again.
I slept terribly for hours here on the bathroom floor, but they moved me to the bed at some point. I woke up to find Vaughn, Diego, Laurent, and Caine lying on the floor around the room, like they were guard dogs taking a little nap. I sat up, and all of their eyes snapped open like they were ready to fight someone to the death.
For the last hour, I’ve been trying to draw out the forced pleasure with boiling hot water. I figure if he can feel me, too, maybe that will help ground him if he knows it’s coming from me. But nowthe pain is back, so I need to be somewhere I can’t collapse and hurt myself.
Once I am dressed, the pain is still dull, so I walk out and find Diego waiting for me. “Feel any better?” he asks, motioning for me to turn. I do, and he grabs my brush off the dresser to start brushing through the knots in my hair. I feel slightly more human having a shower and pulling on clean clothes.
“Yeah,” I admit. “It’s just a dull pain now.”
