How much of the mate bond Elena still felt was anyone’s guess, but she often watched Logan. For all he knew, she was plotting how to kill his friend, but Asher hoped some of her love for Logan remained.
When they started down the hall, the soft fall of their sneakers on the floor caused Logan’s head to turn toward them. It drooped forward as it turned, and his chin touched his chest before it lifted and bobbed again.
Logan acted as if his head weighed too much for him and he was having trouble holding it up. Then, it finally rose again, and his eyes landed on them. When they did, Logan blinked for a couple of seconds before resting his hands on the ground and pushing himself up.
“Shit,” Asher murmured.
“Yeah,” Nathan said.
Logan looked like garbage the last time Asher saw him, but that was a good twenty-five pounds ago and a lot more blood. His cheekbones stood starkly out against skin so pale it was nearly translucent. The small, blue veins running through his papery skin were clearly visible.
Logan’s green eyes had sunk into his head, making it appear more like a skull. Black shadows encircled those eyes. His clothes hung loosely from his frame as he leaned against the wall and smiled.
Asher almost wished he’d stop smiling. Logan’s smile used to be so easy and charming; now, it looked more like a grimace baring most of his teeth.
“Don’t be so worried; I look worse than I feel,” Logan said. “I gave a lot of blood again today, but I fed recently, so I’ll be back to almost normal again by tonight.”
Asher believed him, only because he was sure Logan had pushed himself to the brink like this many times already. Still, he hated seeing him like this, especially when it might be for nothing.
“It’s good to see you,” Logan continued. “I feared we’d lost you.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Asher assured him.
He didn’t let Brie’s premonition of his death creep into his mind. No matter what, he would make sure it didn’t happen. Besides, Logan didn’t need that information dumped on him. He had more than enough to deal with right now.
Asher’s gaze shifted to Elena. She stood at the far back of the cell, leaning against the glass and watching them with a calculated gleam of malice and curiosity. Her eyes were entirely black, and her body’s unnaturally black veins were starkly visible against her pale complexion.
When he first met Elena, her skin was a beautiful, healthy golden color, but now she was nearly as pale as Logan. His friend wasn’t the only one being destroyed by what was happening, as Elena had lost a good ten pounds.
Asher didn’t know if those changes were from the ravaging effects of the demon’s blood or what she’d endured while trying to remove that blood from her.
CHAPTERFIFTY-NINE
“When areyou going to try giving her your blood?” Asher asked.
“We should have enough to do it now,” Nathan said.
“We’ll collect and store more first,” Logan said. “I want at least a couple more days’ worth. There has to be enough for her.”
Brie saw the disapproval on both Nathan and Asher’s faces as Logan stated this, but neither of them protested his intentions. Unable to stop herself, she glanced again at the woman behind the glass. She couldn’t look too long; it was a terrifying sight.
From what Asher had told her, the woman was once vibrant and beautiful, but now she was more frightening than the demons Brie saw in her visions. Not because Elena was as hideous or powerful, but because she’d gone from someone who loved and was loved and someone healthy to this disturbing figure glowering at them.
And it could happen to any of them. They could fight against turning into a Savage; there was no fighting against something forced on you by a needle and blood.
Brie resisted rubbing her arms as goose bumps broke out on them. When Brie glanced at Elena again, her black eyes shifted to her. Those pitiless black eyes seemed to possess no soul.
But that was impossible. Everyone had a soul. Demon blood couldn’t take away a soul, or could it?
Brie gulped at the disconcerting possibility.
Then those eyes shifted to Logan, and for atinyfraction of a second, Brie saw a spark of something in them. It was so fast she couldn’t tell what it was—love, hope, need, sadness, or something else entirely, but whatever it was, ithadbeen there.
Brie had started to think there was no hope for this woman, which unfortunately meant there was no hope for Logan too, but she’d been wrong. That small spark proved they couldnevergive up on Elena.
Somewhere, in this battered, nearly broken woman, a piece of her soul remained, and it responded to her mate. While that piece remained, Brie would fight to save her.
She hoped Logan and Elena didn’t get destroyed in the process.
