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“You can’t kill me yet,” I remind him, standing perfectly still. “It’s not the ReBirth Ceremony. And that’s what you want, isn’t it? To give me to Him. To be Him…”

A deep rumble escapes his chest—a noise I’ve not heard from him before, even as he spent two days fucking me in his basement.

That rumble makes my thighs clench. So I taunt him to draw out more of him.

“Will that somehow make you stronger, you sick fuck? You’re so weak, Mikael. Killing me makes you a murderer, a cast off to society, not a deity.” I move my lips so they are flush with his cheek. “You’re not a fucking god,” I whisper.

Mikael twists his jaw and runs his hand through his hair, not even trying to hide his level of insanity. “You know what my favorite part of becoming Lincoln is?”

I stiffen at the sound of Lincoln’s name as his hand grasps my waist.

“What’s that?” I respond and my voice is a million miles away.

I close my eyes, and his heat envelopes me as I press my head against the oak door. The smell is so familiar in the dark, and I can’t tell the difference. It could be Lincoln.

“Everything about this brain is intoxicating. The way he thinks things through, his memories, his logic…all the things he did to protect you. I learned, just today from one of his memories, that it’s possible to die from intense emotions.” His knuckles find my cheek. “Emotions, pretty girl, and here I thought all I needed was blood.”

My chest rises and falls beneath him. I’m so exposed and vulnerable, and he’s so mad. “What are you talking about, Mikael? Get to your point.”

“That’s how he killed your father; he used emotions.”

I tense and whip my eyes open. “My father died of a heart attack,” I remind him. “I was there the night it happened. There was no way Lincoln could have caused it.”

Was I there, though? I was there when he was rushed in, not when it happened. In fact, he was supposed to be out of town that night. I was with Dani when I got the call.

He lets out a tiny chuckle. “You forget what I am, Summer. I’m a scientist, baby. It took a couple of days, but finally, he got so scared shitless that his heart gave out on him. It’s rare, but apparently possible.” He arches his soft brows and chuckles. “Who knew?”

He centers his knee between my legs and nudges them open. My body complies and his hands move to the line of my pants and slips them down.

“You’re mine, Summer,” he whispers. “You’ve been mine since I saw you. Lincoln made sure of that when he killed your father. There’s no one to protect you now, pretty girl. There is no one else who can. It’s my destiny to become him. It’s what my mother unwillingly handed over to me.”

I let out a moan as his fingers slide into my pussy. This man just admitted to killing my father, threatened my life because I’m the key to his transcendence, and here I am with my knees open for him, desire radiating out of me like a pheromone.

His eyes soften, his soft eyebrows arch, and I swoon a little inside with how fucking hot he is. The look he’s giving me makes my blood sizzle.

He slips his tongue inside my mouth before moving his lips to my neck. He kisses on me, running his hands along my pebbled breasts like he used to do while I was sleeping.

“You’re missing one very important thing,” I tell him as he slides my pants down. They fall off me easily enough, his hand now finding the wet spot on my underwear. He undoes his own button and pulls out his erection, steeling it against me.

“What’s that?” he murmurs as my legs open.

“I don’t love you. I love him,” I lie to him. “And it seems to me that these sacrifices were all willing.”

He pulls off me, his eyes shimmering against his pale skin as he takes in those words. An opponent…he’s looking at me like an equal for once as my lips quirk up.

He grabs my chin and softly runs his thumb over my lips. His other hand still bearing the blade tears my panties off. He’s inside me before I can choke out a breath and the blade clinks to the ground.

His hand finds my throat. “You are such a fucking liar. I embody every aspect of the person you fell in love with.”

I don’t stop him as he twists me around and pushes me to his desk. I don’t squirm as he spreads my legs and shoves himself inside me from behind. I don’t scream as he moves his hand and hooks his fingers inside my mouth and starts to fuck me savagely.

He fucks me so hard my head bangs into his oak desk, causing me to clamp down on his hand. I bite as hard as I can before he moves his hand, giving me a gentle caress in my hair. I don’t stop biting as my orgasm builds and my body might combust.

I don’t make a sound.

“I love you, pretty girl,” he says as he finishes, and thrusts so hard in me cum drips down my thigh and he falls over me. “Don’t pretend you don’t love me, too.”

I don’t scream…because I never did.