He held my gaze for another long beat, then finally drew me close once more, pressing a lingering kiss to my forehead.
“Okay, angel,” he whispered. “Do what you need to do. I’ve got your back.”
With Jax’s blessing, I finally turned my attention back to Elian.
A quick slice of my dagger across my fingertip, a few drops of blood squeezed into his mouth, and I held my breath, pulse quickening as I waited for a response.
Anyresponse.
After what felt like an eternity, those silver eyes slowly blinked open, and Elian licked his lips, getting his first taste of fresh, untainted blood.
He stiffened in Hudson’s arms as another growl tore through his chest, his fangs descending violently. He thrashed against the hold, but my gargoyle kept him steady, Jax standing close with a hawthorn stake at the ready, just in case.
Lacing my fingers through Elian’s tangled hair, I pressed my other wrist to his mouth.
And then, stroking his hair, I began to sing. Soft, completely off-key, but clear and true. A song to remind him that he wasn’t alone, no matter how deeply he’d fallen into that gaping hole. A song to bring him back to us. A song to let him know I still loved him as my family, even if I couldn’t love him as my mate.
His growl turned into a desperate moan, his eyes filling with anguish as he gave in to the temptation of my blood. Unlike all the other times I’d offered the vein, he didn’t fight me tonight. Those razor-sharp fangs sank deep into my flesh, his mouth latching on and sucking, sucking,suckinguntil the room spun before my eyes and my muscles quaked, until heat spread from the bite throughout my entire body, until my song gave way to gasping breaths. The pain was sharp and acute, chased by waves of pleasure that rolled over me again and again like I’d fallen into the ocean, tossed up on the shore only to be sucked back out to sea, exhilarated and begging for more.
Elian was absolutelystarvedfor it, his gaze locked fiercely onto mine as if I truly was his only lifeline, a tether back to the world of the living.
“Come back to me,” I whispered. “Please come back.”
Another moan and the bite deepened, the pressure of his clamped jaw nearly crushing my wrist.
“Angel,” Jax whispered, raising the stake, but I shook my head.
“Just another minute. A little more. He just needs a little…damn it…” I swayed on my feet, the dizziness finally overtaking me. I tried to pull away from the bite, but Elian only clamped down harder, sucking deeper, relentless in his need to feed.
“That’s enough, Elian,” I said. “Please stop. Stop!”
I begged him to release me, but he was beyond hearing. Beyond caring.
“Fuck this,” Jax said. He gripped his stake and stabbed Elian in the thigh.
The unexpected jab of the hawthorn made Elian gasp, and I yanked my arm back and dropped to my knees, fighting to catch my breath. Blood gushed from my wound; Elian had been too far out of his mind to do things the neat and tidy way tonight, which meant I’d be healing this mess on my own.
With a little assist from my bloodstone ring, I whispered a quick spell, just like I’d done for Jax in the bathtub. The magick was weak, but it answered my call immediately, tingling down my arm and warming the skin around the puncture wounds. Slowly, the blood began to congeal, the skin knitting itself back together until all that remained were two angry pink welts.
When it was clear Elian was back to himself again—as back as he could be anyway, given his physical state—Hudson yanked the stake out of his thigh and knelt down beside me, keeping one arm around Elian’s midsection, holding him upright against his chest.
Elian was still as pale as a ghost, but his eyes had finally cleared. Blood stained his mouth and shirt—mine, the victims’, his own—and when he looked at me, the depth of his misery nearly swallowed me whole.
“Sparrow.” He didn’t even say the word—not really—just moved his lips, the faintest breath passing through them. But even in the stone-cold silence, I knew the shape of my name in his mouth, knew the look in his eyes he’d always reserved just for me. The one he couldn’t hide, no matter how desperately he’d been trying to keep me locked out.
My entire arm still throbbed with white-hot pain, my head swimming from the loss of blood and pleasure both, but I refused to let an ounce of discomfort show on my face.
“It’s me, Elian.” I smiled and cupped his face. “I’m here. Jax and Hudson too. All of us are right here with you.”
“What… what have I…” His voice finally broke through, but the words evaporated as he took in the full sight of the carnage that surrounded him, the stink of the dead, the black glaze of rot and ruin that was already beginning to set in. Tears slipped down his cheeks, his face reddening with shame. “I killed them. All of them. I fuckingkilledthem.”
Locked in Hudson’s embrace, he trembled and heaved as if he might puke.
“Breathe, Elian,” I said. “You need to breathe. Let my blood work its way through your system.” I gestured for Hudson to release him, then I took my gargoyle’s place, kneeling behind Elian and rubbing his back as I whispered the words over and over like a mantra.
Breathe, Elian. Just breathe.
He grabbed my arm and wrapped it around his chest, clinging to it as if he’d slip away again without it, and I let him. I let him hold me close, let him tremble and sob in my embrace, let him take and take and take.
