11
Sam
“Heya Marv, you’ve got some ’splaining to do.” I entered the barn just in time to find Marv tongue-deep in his own nether regions.
His head shot up to me, then looked to what he was doing, then flicked back to me.
I held up my hands. “Hey, man . . . what you do on your own time is your business.”
His ears flattened to his head as he made an outraged llama sound.
“You and I have much to discuss.” I squatted before him to give his head a friendly pat. He tried to bite me.
I snapped my hand back just in time and laughed at him. “You always were a cranky bastard. Now get up. We don’t have much time.”
Marv sighed and slowly got to his feet, bits of hay sticking to his thick fur.
“First the good news. I have found my partner.”
Marv rolled his llama eyes and snuffed.
“I know, I know. I’m always the last to know things, aren’t I? I had my suspicions when she found me in the woods. But when I kissed her, there was no doubt. It was as though I was transported, galaxies sliding past as I torpedoed through space like a shooting star. She lit me up. The cosmos danced. The stars aligned. Her lips, oh, and that body . . . So warm and soft and—”
I got a llama head directly to the spleen. “Oof.Okay, fine. You don’t need the details.” I rubbed my abdomen. “Got it. But it was more than that. As soon as I kissed her some of my memories returned. I’ve felt like I was running out of time since—Ah!” A sharp pain in my chest caused me to fall forward onto my knees. A vision of Anna, her eyes wide with terror. A hand around her throat. “Anna!” I screamed even as the vision made my head so dizzy I stumbled to the side.
Pure fear shot down my spine.
“Anna’s in trouble!”
At the same time, Marv danced and kicked his back legs. He groaned and shook his head repeatedly like he was trying to shake something loose.
I sprinted back toward the house. The deep snow made my steps less sure. The icy wind blurred my vision. My mate was in trouble.Please don’t let me be too late, please don’t let me be too late. . . I couldn’t spend a millennium looking for her only to lose her now.
Ten yards from the house, Audrey came limping out toward me. She whined, tail tucked.
“I know. I’m going!” I ran past her and up the back steps.
I slammed into the mud room, my wet boots slipped, and I crashed into the washing machine.
I came around the corner. A man was in the room. His hand was around her neck. I smelled his hunger for power. I smelled his desire. Rage coiled through my clenched fists. I would kill him. I leapt toward him as a blinding light exploded through the room.
I was slammed into the back wall, framed pictures crashing to the ground around me. I was weak—too weak. I couldn’t get back up.
I could only watch as the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen unfolded before me. Anna, my beautiful Anna, stood haloed by white glowing power. The air around her hummed with energy. Her eyes were white. Her hair stood on its ends. Her face was serene.
Before my eyes, the man started to convulse. He fell to the floor and shook like he was having a seizure. Blood seeped from his ears and nose. The smell of sulfur and burning stung my nose.
She was beautiful as my power flowed through her.
But she took too much. Pushed too hard. The more power she used, the more it drew from me. I faded too quickly. My core was depleting at an alarming rate.
“Anna,” I called out from my spot against the wall. I couldn’t even lift my head.
My voice was lost in the sound of her static fury.
“Anna,” I tried again.
Slowly, her features changed. Her eyebrows pinched as though she heard me. Her head shifted slightly.
With my last bit of energy, I called out her name and said, “I love you.”
Then the darkness took me.
