She's alive. She's mine. And whatever comes next, we'll face it together. Konstantin, the war, the trigger we need to find and destroy. All of it.
Our hearts beat in unison as I walk into the darkness.
The compound isin controlled chaos when I arrive.
Marcellus meets me at the gate, his expression shifting from relief to alarm when he sees Celeste in my arms. Then he goes very still.
"Sir." His voice is strange. "I can hear..."
"I know."
"That's not possible."
"I know."
He stares at me, at Celeste, at the space between us where two heartbeats pulse in perfect unison. For a moment, the unflappable Marcellus looks genuinely shaken.
"She's alive," I say before he can ask more questions I can't answer. "Injured, but alive."
"And Konstantin?"
"Escaped." The word tastes bitter. "But Valentina is dead. Celeste killed her."
Something flickers in Marcellus's expression. Surprise, respect, and concern are all tangled together. But his gaze keeps drifting to my chest, to the sound that shouldn't exist. "Elena is standing by in the medical wing."
"Good."
I carry Celeste through the compound, aware of the eyes on us. My people, watching their lord carry a bloody, unconscious woman through the halls. Some of them stop mid-step. Tilt their heads. Listen.
They can all hear it. Every vampire in this building can hear the rhythm coming from both of us.
Let them wonder. I don't have answers for them yet.
Elena is waiting when I reach the medical wing. She takes one look at Celeste and goes pale.
"Silver wound," I say. "Left side, between the ribs. It hit something Konstantin modified. She started destabilizing. I had to do something I've never done before."
Elena looks up from examining Celeste's wounds. "What do you mean?"
"A blood bond. We fed from each other simultaneously. It's rare." I watch her process this. "It anchored her to me. Stabilized whatever the silver was destroying."
"And that saved her?"
"It's the only reason she's still alive."
Elena nods slowly, filing the information away the way she does with all the vampire knowledge she's accumulated over eight years. "What does it mean? Long term?"
"It means we're connected. Permanently. What she feels, I feel. What I feel, she feels." I pause, considering how much to share. "And it means we have some protection against what Konstantin built into her."
Elena's hands still on Celeste's wound. "What he built into her?"
"A trigger. A kill switch. Something that would let him take control of her, turn her into a weapon." I watch Elena's face go pale. "The bond didn't remove it, but it created a barrier. Anchoredher to me in a way that should make it harder for him to reach her."
"Should?"
"We don't know for certain. We need to find a way to remove it entirely. But for now, she's stable. She's herself."
Elena nods briskly, though I can see the fear she's trying to hide. "Put her on the table. Let me see what we're dealing with."
