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Chapter 15
We had two days to find a cure for the curse.Please, Goddess, let the earlier transformations be a one-off freak event, and help me keep Lilita suppressed.Yeah, easy. That was why the book in my hands shook. I sat cross-legged on the library floor with a stack of texts on either side of me. Ones I’d checked and the rest to review for potential spell-breakingherbs.
Ash climbed the stairs, searching for specific publications he swore he’d seen on the topic ofmagic.
But it was progress. Neither of us had changed yet, and he’d gone out to check on his brothers, who were still functional, normal bear shifters in human form. They’d even fixed the cage upstairs.Hooray!
I grabbed a slice of bread with cheese from the plate Ash had brought back forlunch.
I’d spent years keeping Lilita tucked away, meditating and using protection spells. Layer upon layer, over time those guards kept her shackled in place. And now I did my best to ignore the tension filing my gut. What would trigger Lilita to return? Was my kiss with Ash really the reason for her leaving? But why andhow?
“Bee, I found something,” he yelled from somewhere upstairs, the excitement clear in hisvoice.
Letting out a long breath to ease some of my pent-up tension, I climbed to my feet and brushed the crumbs off myskirt.
A loud thud sounded, and I snapped around to Ash, who’d leaped down and was already rushing toward me carrying an oversized manual under hisarm.
“What is it?” An uneasy prickly uneasiness rolled over me. The eeriness ate at my insides like parasites, and when a menacing chuckle ricocheted in my mind, I felt the cold drain from my face. The change wascoming.
“Lilita!” I scrambled backward until I hit the shelves. Iciness swept through me so fast, my headswam.
Ash dropped the book in his grip to the ground. “Are you allright?”
“Run. Get out of here.” I turned away and already my flesh crawled, and my middle constricted. My vision blurred at theedges.
Ash was there, standing over me in an instant. He wrenched me toward him, his mouth onmine.
A blast of terror rocked as Lilita pushed throughme.
Ash. His mouth. Soft. Warm. Delicious.His fingers dug into my flesh, drawing mecloser.
Focus! I yelled to myself. With every inch of strength, I concentrated on our point of contact. His tongue on mine, his heat leaping over. Melting the earliercoldness.
The air crackled with energy. But nothing mattered except Ash andme.
He growled, his kiss forceful, and lifted me into his arms. When we broke apart, I stared into the eyes of the beast. He shimmied as his body readied for its ownchange.
Torn between my transformation and his, for those few moments, we remained frozen in time. Urgency drummed in my veins, yet I couldn’t budge. Wouldn’t. Not when his touch eased the piercing ache of someone slicing me from the insideout.
The pain grew, and I cried out as if the air strangledme.
Ash kissed me again, fast andstarved.
The agonysoftened.
Lilita’s screams gathered in my head, driving me toward Ash. I fisted his hair, needingmore.
“The book,” he half-growled, and his body shuddered as he pointed behind to where it lay on the floor. “Curse is connecting us.” A roar rolled off his throat, and he lurched backward, releasing me. But I reached out and snatched his wrist. My gaze shifted to the textbook. His words twirled in my brain with our earlier kiss and how I had no longer sensed Lilita. I didn’t understand it, and the growing sludge in my brain slowed mythoughts.
Lilita washere.
I drew on my last inch of strength and dragged Ashcloser.
He staggered, but I pressed my lips to his, powerful and desperate. And at that precise contact, a thread of peacefulness trickled throughme.
Undecipherable words filled me; Lilita’s, no doubt. I ripped open Ash’s shirt, craving his touch on me. He walked us to the table and set me on the edge, his hands already pulling at the cords lacing the front of my dress. Our mouths never unlocked, and I adored how his tongue swept into my mouth, how he chewed on my lower lip, how unrelenting his attentionbecame.
He slid the fabric of my dress off my shoulders, and the cool air raised goosebumps over my skin. We broke away, yet he still held his form as a human. His hands trembled. But within me, Lilita’s rage burstforward.
