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The pain had disappeared, or it had overwhelmed her to the point her brain stopped processing it. Nothing but white around her. Blank. Empty.
Was she dead? The mating bond, it was still there.
She sensed another presence.
Felix? No, not Felix. Not warm or loving or tender like her mate.
It was cold. Evil. Filled with malicious hatred. A ball of darkness appeared in the distance, expanding, tendrils grasping toward her.
Gabby flinched at the malevolent essence.
The mating bond shimmered and spasmed. Something else penetrated the blankness.
Drink.
Felix. His voice came from far away, as though she was in a dream. A scent in the nothingness.
Blood. Rich and salty with the promise of home.
Felix’s blood.
Gabby’s fangs lengthened. Hunger twisted her stomach into knots. His blood called to her, smelling like the early summer breeze off the Mediterranean when the olive trees bloomed.
Drink.
His voice closed in on her. If she drank from him, it would restore the mating bond to its full strength. The thought should’ve repulsed her, but she no longer feared the mating bond. No longer feared him.
When she had challenged Felix, she’d chosen her path.
He was hers and she was his.
She loved him. She wanted to spend eternity with him. Even if eternity meant the two of them battling for their beliefs.
She’d been waiting for the right moment to tell him. If she didn’t drink now, she would lose her chance. The darkness was close now. She had nowhere to run.
Gabby bit down, even though there was nothing in front of her.
Heat flooded her mouth. She groaned, pleasure overcoming everything else. Nothing would ever compare to how Felix tasted. Even if she lived for another ten thousand years, she would always crave him.
As she drank, the mating bond grew stronger, its frayed edges twisting back together until it was as strong as a newly forged sword. The blankness receded. The world returned, along with excruciating agony.
Except, this time, she felt her fingers holding the crystal. Felix’s strength swept through her, as devastating as a tornado, as unyielding as an iceberg, but it didn’t seek to override or to take control. Her body assimilated it, transforming it to her own.
His essence, combined with hers, shielded her from the crystal’s onslaught. She pushed back against it until feelings returned to her hand and arm.
With a scream, she threw the ball away with all her strength.
The instant it left her hand, a vacuum expanded inside her and sucked everything out of her. Her knees buckled, her bones turning to liquid. Felix caught her before she hit the ground.
The mating bond, blazing like the sun, basked them in its light.
“I’m alive,” she choked out at the worry on Felix’s face.
He kissed her, a kiss of longing and relief and love. She wanted nothing more than to stay in his arms, but with the crystal gone, everything else returned.
She broke off the kiss. “Jiaren… we can’t let him get it.”
“He won’t.”
