She was stunningly gorgeous. And she looked like hell.
Pale skin stretched too tight over her sharp cheekbones. Dark circles shadowed those striking green eyes, making them seem too large for her face. Her black hair hung in lank strands around her shoulders, and her hands trembled as she pushed the door closed behind her.
But it was the way her magic felt that sent ice through my veins.
Messy. Fractured. It crawled over my skin like a thousand threads trying to pull in different directions at once, tearing her apart from the inside out.
"Talin." Her name came out rougher than I'd intended as I moved around the bar with vampire speed. "What the hell happened to you?"
She flinched at my approach but didn't back away. "I need..." Her voice cracked, and she swallowed hard. "I tried to work alone. Tried to follow the threads without..." Her gaze found mine, and the raw vulnerability in those green depths nearly brought me to my knees. "Without you. I didn't want to use you, Elias. But it's not working."
Something primal and possessive surged through my chest. Of course she can't. Because we're?—
No. I was NOT fucking going there.
"You look like you're about to collapse." I reached for her arm, and the moment my fingers made contact with her skin, everything changed.
Her magic settled.
Not completely. Not perfectly. But the wild, tearing sensation smoothed into something more controlled. More focused. Like a radio signal that had been nothing but static suddenly finding its frequency.
A grateful sob burst from her as her eyes widened on mine, and I knew she felt it too. "Elias..."
"Don't." I pulled my hand back like she'd burned me, even though my palm still tingled from the contact. Even though every cell in my body screamed at me to touch her again. "Don't say it."
"Why not?" Her exhaustion was giving way to something sharper. Anger, maybe. Or perhaps frustration. Whatever it was, it pretty much matched the way I was feeling at that moment. "We both know what this is."
"We don't know anything." I turned away from her, putting the bar between us like the polished wood could somehow protect me from the truth. "You're tired. Your power's unstable. That doesn't mean?—"
"Fate. The mate bond." She spit the words at me like a curse. Like an accusation. "That's what you won't say, isn't it?"
Every muscle in my body went rigid. "Careful," I growled.
"Why?" She stepped closer. Reckless. Fearless. "What are you afraid I'll say? That every time I try to use my power without you, it tears me apart? That I can feel you even when you're not near?"
My fangs punched down. I couldn't help it. "Stop."
"Or what?" Another step. Her heartbeat thundered in my ears. "You'll finally admit what this is between us? That we're connected whether we want to be or not?"
I spun to face her, fangs flashing as my control slipped. "It can't mean anything."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't do this!" The words exploded out of me with a force that surprised us both. "I don't do unpredictability and feelings that make me want to tear my own skin off. I don't do losing control."
"And I don't do needing people!" She slammed her hands on the bar. "I don't do being dependent or weak or—" Her voice broke. "Or being someone's burden."
The pain in those last words cut through my anger like a blade, and my emotions switched on a dime with the usual vampire speed. "You think that's what you are? A burden?"
"What else would I be?" The pain in her eyes nearly brought me to my knees. "The witch whose power only works when there's a vampire nearby to stabilize her? The one who needs you to function? The mate you don't want…" She stopped. Took a step back. Lowered her voice. "That sure as hell sounds like a burden to me."
"That's not—" I searched for words that wouldn't reveal too much. Wouldn't make me any more vulnerable than I already felt. "That's not how I see you."
"Then how do you see me, Elias?" She leaned across the bar, close enough that I could see the gold flecks in her green eyes. Close enough to count the freckles scattered across her nose. Demanding the truth from me. "Because from where I'm standing, this feels like one more way I'm broken. One more thing that's wrong with me."
"Nothing is wrong with you." I insisted, my anger returning.
"Really?" Her fingers moved to the buttons of her vest, and my entire body went rigid. "Because I think we both know what happens when the fantasy wears off. When you actually see?—"
