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His chest jumps beneath his shirt with every brutal beat.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.

Too fast. Way too fucking fast.

Rhett claws at his throat. His mouth opens, but nothing comes out. He can’t breathe.

“Ezra!”

“I know!”

Ezra drops beside us as Rhett suddenly sucks in a huge, ragged breath.

Then immediately chokes on it.

He coughs violently, doubling over as his lungs seize around air they haven’t needed in two hundred and thirty-five years.

Another breath.

Another choking cough.

Then another.

His whole body is shaking now.

“What’s happening to him?” I scream.

“I don’t know!”

Heat rolls off Rhett beneath my hands.

I jerk back.

His skin was cold minutes ago. Now it’s burning.

Color rushes violently into his face, spreading down his throat as veins rise beneath his skin. Sweat breaks across his forehead. His pupils blow wide, then shrink, then widen again as his body fights to remember how the fuck to be human.

Rhett looks down at his hands.

They’re trembling.

“No,” he whispers.

Then his stomach contracts.

He twists away from me and vomits onto the floor.

“Jesus Christ.”

Malakai drops beside him.

Rhett barely notices. He’s staring at the mess on the floor like it terrifies him more than anything we’ve seen tonight. His breathing turns ragged. “I’m hot.” His voice breaks.

Another violent shiver tears through him. “I’m fucking hot.” His hand presses against his chest.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.

His eyes fill with tears.