Page 99 of Vengeance of the Gods

She smiled at it, happy to see the simplest of things sometimes. Being stripped of all the menial things she’d once done without thinking stacked up.

“Remember the time we knocked over a lamp in a bathroom?” Bridger asked, sliding inside Vega’s mind. “It really ruined the moment.”

Vega looked up from the dancing lightning, and Bridger was leaning against the doorframe, watching her.

Ugh, if he doesn’t stop with the leaning…

“You mean, when you got electrocuted for the first time and acted like a total baby about it?” Vega asked, batting her eyelashes a few extra times while feigning innocence. The whole time her mind wandered to what they’d been doing in that bathroom.

Or trying to do…

Bridger placed a hand over his heart. “Not all of us are a live wire with our own personal electric grid.”

Vega’s lips quirked to the side. “Wimp.”

She felt boxed in the skinny bathroom with Bridger blocking the door. Something inside her flared with excitement while nerves fluttered her stomach.

Death’s shadow chuffed happily from the pit like Vega had heard Khort do a million times.

Death. Us.

If Vega had paid closer attention…

Death suits you.

She would have understood sooner…

I think I’ll let you have her.

He wasn’t talking to Vega when he’d said that last part. He was talking to Death because it was already inside her.

It finally clicked.

I became my destiny. I became Death.

And Death belonged to him—he’d told Vega so.

Death’s growl shook Vega’s chest like it was her own. She heard her voice in her own head like she’d thought the words again.

We belong to no one.

Vega saw her face pale in the mirror’s reflection. I’m never going to be alone inside my head again.

Bridger read her like a book, pushing himself off the frame. “What’s going on with you?” Vega felt the heat from his body as he slowly crossed the room to her.

Vega slid past, turning to face him on the other side of the open door. She ignored his question. “I’ll be on the other end of the house. Take your time.” Her boots squeaked against the damp linoleum as she fled Bridger’s hungry stare.

She felt it too. The need. The want. The ache.

It felt as if she couldn’t control it. Like if she didn’t act on it while in the same room, she might combust.

Not being alone inside her mind started to wear on Vega. She couldn’t escape Death’s presence… It lived inside her now. There was no Vega without Death.

She closed the bathroom door—a little too hard—locked it, and fled to grip the sides of the pedestal sink. She stared at herself in the mirror, gulping down a few deep breaths while focusing on the other abilities inside her.

Her electric pulse sizzled against her skin, and the wind outside the broken window acted as her own personal breeze.

Vega allowed her original powers the opportunity to ground her, lowering her pulse. “How do I block them out?” she asked Bridger.