I hadn’t lost her.
She was still alive, still perfect, stillmine.
My arm locked around her waist as I hardened against her backside, wanting her again, needing a repeat of what we’d shared the moment we—
Thud-thud, thud-thud.
I froze as a different heartbeat filled my ears.
Dozens more pulsed in the distance, far away and obscured, but becoming louder as I focused on them.
Fuck, they’re coming.
“Rook?” Pressing a kiss on her nape, I shook her gently. “Time to wake up. We’re about to have company.”
Her bleary eyes opened, cloudy and confused. Frowning at the cell, she gasped as memories slammed into her. She shot upright, bumping my hardness and making me hiss.
“Oops, sorry.” She blushed as she shoved her nightgown down, no doubt smelling the same musky pleasure I could. “Holy crap, it wasn’t a dream. We...really did have sex instead of trying to escape.” She swatted herself on her forehead. “God, how could we be sostupid?”
Chuckling under my breath, I lay on my back and arched my hips, pulling up my trousers. “Definitely wasn’t a dream and...I don’t think we were stupid at all. In fact, I think we did exactly what we were supposed to.”
Tucking myself away, I zipped up and rebuttoned a few buttons on my shirt. My fingers caught on the vitalsync core, reminding me that just because it kept disappearing in the dreamscape, didn’t mean it’d vanished for good.
Scrambling off the bed, Rook scrubbed her hands over her face as if trying to wipe away the dregs of sleep. She froze as faint voices sounded, coming closer with every footfall. “Oh no.”
“Yeah, they’re coming for us. And I don’t think it’s to bring us breakfast.” I pushed upright and raked back my hair, energy flowing through me with eager anticipation. “Four or five of them if I’m counting the heartbeats right. I’m still learning to focus when I can hear so many.”
“Wait...” Turning to face me, she placed her hands on her hips. The rumpled white nightgown trailed to the floor, hiding everything, even her toes. “Why do you almost sound excited about this?”
The dried black blood staining the fabric made me stiffen as a spike of protective fury shot through me. She’d bled for me. Again. I’d put her life in danger and granted her pain all because of the men hunting me.Again.
Never taking my eyes off the mess on her nightgown, I muttered, “Do me a favour.”
“What favour?”
“Check if your hip is healed.”
Her fingers flew to the slash in the fabric caused by the bullet.Widening the hole, a glimpse of perfect skin peeked back. Her gaze shot back to mine. “No cut. Not even a red line to hint I was ever hurt.”
“Everything else okay? Do you feel better?”
Running her hands over her body, she nodded. “I feel fine. Better than fine actually.” A scattering of frost appeared in her hair, twinkling like tiny stars. “Even the ice is back.”
My shoulders rolled with relief. So the dream/fantasy/mental connectionhadhealed us. Which meant I was free to do what I’d longed to do for twenty infernal years.
The Brimstone board had brought us here. They’d abducted us, hurt those I cared about, and believed we were at their mercy. They probably had plans to harvest us again. Torture us. Breed us. And never let us see the light of day.
Pity for them, they’d just brought the devil into their midst.
“You’re smiling,” Rook whispered, coming to my side. “And it’s kind of freaking me out.”
I chuckled under my breath. “Am I?” I bent to grab the last bottle of water. “Pretty sure I wouldn’t smile when we’re in such a serious situation.”
“Ha!” She whisper-snorted. “I recognise that little smirk. You used to get it when you were about to remove one of the women thrown into Cinderkeep to kill you.”
“Yes, well...what can I say? Those bastards have done us a favour dragging us here. I was planning to pay them a visit once Marcus had been dealt with. Turned out, they were even more impatient than I was to begin.”
“What exactly are you planning on doing?”
