by P. Jameson
Love.
“Trust me,” she murmured, leaning forward to press a tender kiss to his lips.
But it wasn’t enough.
Thames gripped the sides of her face holding her there so he could kiss his turmoil away. He kissed her hard and vicious, not caring about the wetness he felt on his cheeks. He needed her to feel it, breathe it, live it.
He needed her to live, damn it. And he knew he was grasping at straws now, but he’d do anything to convince her to stay, to find another way.
Doc’s soft voice broke the kiss. “I’m ready.”
Nastia pulled away and Thames could see Doc had prepped a syringe.
“Trust me,” she whispered once more. “Like you did before. Remember what you said? We go through it together. It’s our way.”
He tried to answer but his bear wouldn’t let him. He was choking him out with rage and fear.
A solid hand landed on his back, and he knew it was Theo. “Together, brother,” he murmured.
Mason cleared his throat, settling one hand on Adira’s back and the other on Theron’s. “Together. It’s how we’ve always gotten through shit.”
“Yeah,” Gash nodded. “Together.”
One by one, the clan touched, pledging their support no matter the outcome.
Nastia nodded at Thames, the determination in her gaze so sure, he wanted to believe her. Needed to if he was going to get through this without his bear ripping him apart from the inside.
She turned to Adira. “Bring me back. I know you can.”
Then she placed her hands on the dark stone and began chanting. Soft at first, and growing in strength. Words he didn’t understand and didn’t want to.
Her countenance changed as quickly as a shifter taking animal form. A pop of air, or maybe not even that, but suddenly she wasn’t his Nastia. She was a sinister being attempting to do something noble, and it showed.
She shook and jerked, her words venomously punching past her lips. Her head tipped back to the sky and the shadowy figure swirled above her once more, creating a whirlwind of power. The stone where it lay on Mirena’s stomach glowed brighter, lighting the area with a sick purple hue and casting more shadows over Nastia and the clan.
Theron’s hand tightened on Thames’s shoulder. The entire group was on alert, watching for Nastia to reach the point of no return.
But… it was working. She was doing it, drawing the poison out of Mirena and back into the stone. Reversing the harm she’d done. And he could feel her struggle through their bond, but he could also feel her hidden joy at making things right. The tiny part of her she kept from the darkness. The part that would be lost soon.
Thames stared, wanting to remember every last second with her in case it was their last.
His female was spectacular, warring with the dark and beating it, even if only for a moment. Whatever happened, she’d be at peace now, knowing her family was safe. In some way, that settled his bear.
Mirena’s strength was returning, her face no longer contorted in pain. The black streaks from her burn were being sucked into the stone as Nastia continued channeling the darkness. She blinked and her eyes went black, the whites and color disappearing as they reflected the shadow hovering over her.
Mirena struggled to sit. “We’re losing her.”
“Stay down,” Adira barked. “If she doesn’t get you back to one hundred percent, we’ll never be able to pull off the spell.”
Nastia’s chanting continued and her power grew more tumultuous until they were all hair-trigger ready to move.
“Steady,” Doc murmured. “Steady.”
When the black streaks from Mirena’s burn were gone and only a scar remained, Nastia snatched the rock away, holding it tight to her chest.
Mirena jumped up, preparing to connect with Adira for the undead spell. But as soon as she did, Nastia began seizing, her black eyes rolling back into her head
“The rock,” Adira cried.
“But it doesn’t control her anymore.” Thames barely recognized his own voice.
Adira’s eyes went wide. “She’s gone. The darkness is trying to root out the only thing left.”
“Her heart,” Mirena gasped. “She was trying to tell us. One thing would remain through any transfer of magic. Her light is gone, Nastia as we knew her, her will to do right, is gone. But her love… the magic she shares with Thames, remains.”
And now the dark parts of her were trying to ruin that too.
Thames reached to steal the stone away but he couldn’t tear it from her grip. He clawed at her fingers but it was held there by magic, unmovable as long as she was still channeling the power.
“Mate,” he growled, his bear so near his words were barely decipherable. “Nastia, stop.”
Still, she twitched and jerked, her eyes steely and colorless. Like her body was just a vessel. A virus, systematically shutting down a computer, and this was the last file.
But he wouldn’t let it take this. Not this. Not her feelings for him, and their bond. If he was going to lose her, it would be with all those things still intact. He wouldn’t let the Mother Bear’s reading become a reality.
“Doc,” he thundered. “The syringe.”
Doc held her arm for the sedative, but suddenly Nastia’s arm flew up, knocking the syringe away.
“Hold her down,” Doc shouted, scrambling for the needle.
As soon as Gash and Theron touched her, she began thrashing. Mason pinned her shoulders and Thames… Thames did the only thing he could.
Holding her face, he kissed her, knowing she couldn’t kiss him back, not knowing if she could even feel him, but hoping like hell she did. Hoping it would somehow, someway anchor her until the drugs kicked in.
If love was a magic, then maybe she was right. Maybe he could fight the darkness of the stone, the darkness inside her until she was done.
Seconds ticked by and the seizing subsided. The twitching and jerking subsided. Her grip on the stone loosened and Thames tossed it away, never breaking his kiss.
Seconds more, and she was limp. He knew what was happening. His panicked bear could feel it, but there was nothing to be done. She was leaving him, and there wasn’t a spell on earth that could make it okay.
He couldn’t pull away, couldn’t disconnect their bodies when her fading pulse was severing them in a more permanent way. He needed to stay right here, his lips pressed to hers, his tears falling into her eyes.
“She’s ready,” Doc said. “Heart is slowing.”
“Like we rehearsed, Doc,” Adira said.
“Got it.”
Thames pulled Nastia into his arms as the chanting began.
“Mortui resurgunt. Mortui resurgunt.”
He listened for her pulse. One…. two… nothing, nothing, nothing.
“Thames, put her down,” Doc said carefully. “I need to work on her heart.”
Never. He’d never let her go.
He snarled a warning at Doc.
“I have to keep her heart going. One beat every thirty seconds, or the spell could hurt her.”
But she was already hurt. His bear howled inside, feeling the loss of his mate so final there was no convincing him she could live.
“Vivere. Solus vivunt, et sanguine. Live by blood and sun.”
“No.” His gravel voice barely made it past his throat.
“Brother, Christ, let Doc help.” Theron’s voice was stern, but it still couldn’t unlock Thames’s grasp.
He was half out of his mind with grief and needing to shift so bad he could feel his claws protruding, but he was unwilling to leave his mate.
“Can’t. Bear won’t. Mine.” He still felt their bond, a tiny thread remaining. If he let go, it would be over.
“Damn it, Thames, let her go or I’ll knock you out myself,” Theron boomed. “She needs Doc’s help.”
God help him, that’s what it was going to take if they wanted him to release her.
“Do. It,” he ground out.
�
�Yeah? Okay, brother. Okay. I got you, Thames.”
I got you. What they used to tell each other on the worst of nights, when they were huddled under the branches of a tree and had nothing but each other to keep warm.
“I got you.”
The last thing Thames remembered was an exploding pain to his temple. Once, twice…
And then black.
Chapter Fourteen
Thames awoke long before he was able to open his eyes, allowing the memories of everything that happened to filter back into his consciousness. Nastia being controlled by dark magic, Mirena hurt, Newt finding a way to heal her…
Nastia taking on darkness to right her wrong.
Nastia fading away.
She’s gone, his bear whimpered. Mate is lost.
A sob wracked Thames’s throat but he still couldn’t open his eyes.
She was gone but her scent remained. Cherry trees and his animal’s mark and a tinge of something else. Something warm like memories. The way the sun smelled on wet wood.
Thames groaned, letting the pain wash over him as he rolled to his side. If his eyes wouldn’t work, at least his body did. And he planned on getting to his mate and holding her until his arms went numb. He wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet.
He’d never be ready.
“He’s coming to.” Theron’s voice sounded far away. Like he was at the end of a mile-long tunnel.
He’d better be far away. Because he was getting an ass whoopin’ for clocking Thames so hard.
Struggling again to open his eyes, he realized Theron was right by his side.
“There you are, brother,” Theo murmured, crossing his arms over his chest. “Time to rise and shine.”
But Thames’s lids slipped closed again. They were so heavy. They shouldn’t be this heavy. He was knocked out, but he should’ve recovered in fifteen minutes, tops.
Come to think of it, what he was lying on was too soft to be the dirt packed parking lot. And the air was too warm to be the night outdoors.
What was happening?
“Why… can’t I…?” he slurred, hoping Theo caught his drift from those three words.
“Doc gave you a tranquilizer.”
The hell? They tranqed him. No wonder he was wading through a fog. But the longer he tried to stay coherent, the more the fog lifted.
“What’d she… do that for?”
Theron was oddly silent. Thames blinked his eyes open but his brother wasn’t looking at him anymore.
“It was my idea.” The voice was soft and careful and came from his other side. And it clenched his heart in a fist.
Thames tried to sit and ended up turning awkwardly in the bed. But he didn’t care because…
“Nastia,” he rasped, his weary eyes taking in every feature of her face.
“You… you came awake shifting and your bear was angry,” she explained.
Theron snorted. “Pretty damn sure you wanted to bleed me dry.”
“So I asked Doc to sedate you until you calmed down. I…” She looked like a dream. Was he hallucinating? “I figured if she didn’t, you’d regret killing your brother.”
“Nastia,” he tried again, and she seemed to be holding her breath, waiting for something.
“Yes?”
“You… you’re alive.”
She chewed her lower lip nervously and he noticed something new. The tip of a long white fang stuck out from her mouth.
“Well, yes and no,” she said.
“You’re really okay? You’re...” He reached for her but she stiffened.
“I’m okay,” she whispered.
His bear regarded her curiously. Mate?
Suddenly the reason for his bear shredding him made more sense. To the animal, Nastia was gone. The female he’d scented and mated with wasn’t identical to the one beside them now. She was better, because this female was safe from the pull of dark magic.
“You’re safe.” He couldn’t believe it. She was here and whole and damn it, he really wanted to touch her.
She nodded. “The spell was successful. It wiped my sisters out. They’ll need to avoid using magic for a few days to restore their strength, but… the darkness is gone. So is the light. I have no magic except for…” She trailed off.
“Except for what?”
Thames blinked, more of the fog disappearing. He realized Nastia’s head rested on a pillow. And she lay under the same blankets that covered his legs. Yet there was enough room to fit a third body between them.
“Love,” she barely mouthed.
He remembered the way she’d used the stone on herself to try to destroy her feelings for him. The darkness had honed in on that part of her because it was the strongest. Because love was the one thing that would last even through a transfer of power, Mirena had said.
It would last even when her magic was gone.
“Love. That’s powerful magic. You said so yourself.” He ached to touch her. Needed it to settle his bear, to remind his animal that even though Nastia was different, she wasn’t gone. She was here, and she was still his.
“Yeth,” she agreed, her lip getting caught on a fang. Her cheeks went beet red. “I’m still getting used to them.”
“Let me see.” He reached forward, thumbing the corner of her mouth.
Tentatively, she bared two sharp extensions of her canine teeth. And if they weren’t the hottest thing he’d seen since getting her naked for the first time, then he wasn’t a dominant hot-blooded bear shifter.
Mine, his bear declared firmly. My female.
“They retract,” she said, uncertainly. “But right now they aren’t cooperating.”
Same logical twist to her voice. Same peachy complexion dotted with freckles. Same ruby colored hair that was soft as silk. Same wheels turning in her mind.
“Your heart still beats,” he said. “I can hear it.”
“Yes. I believe it will as long as I feed. It’s necessary to distribute the blood I consume throughout my body.”
Her gaze dropped to his neck and then quickly away.
“And you still breathe.”
“I don’t need to,” she explained. “I would survive without it. Doc and I tested it. But I find I do it out of habit, and I like the way the oxygen feels in my blood. It’s added energy. And… it cools me.”
Thames frowned. “Cools you?”
“I seem to run hot now. But the cave will be much cooler than this room, so I don’t foresee it being a problem.”
For the first time, Thames looked at his surroundings.
“I wanted to take you home, but Theron said he wasn’t carrying you all that way.”
“True that,” his brother answered.
“So Layna found a room for us temporarily.”
Thames turned to her. “Can you be in the sun?”
A smile curved her lips, the tips of her fangs peeking out again. Oh, they were sexy.
“That’s the very best part. Not only can I be in the sun, I need to be. Adira says it’s like one of those solar powered lights. If I don’t get enough of it stored up, I’ll sicken.”
“That’s the best part?” The idea of anything making her sick so easily curled his stomach.
“Well, yeah. It’s better than being stooped in darkness, never to see daylight again. But there’s a lot that will be different than Hollywood’s idea of the undead. We just don’t know what yet. It’s my first day with this gig. It will take time for us to work out all the details.”
“Transformed,” he said. “Not undead. I like the word transformed better.”
She tilted her head, thinking. “I suppose you’re right. I didn’t die exactly. Though my body would have after that dose Doc gave me. But I was… yes, I was transformed. Similar to what we did to the Alley Cats. My body has changed, but still functions. My senses are heightened, but my mind is the same. My heart still loves. And best of all, my motives aren’t hindered by magic.”
“You’re still a nerd,” Theo added.
“Agreed.” Mirena’s voice came from the doorway, followed by a knock on the jamb. She strolled in, dress flowing behind her, and came to stand by the bed.
Adira followed her in. “You’re supposed to knock before you enter,” she muttered.
Mirena waved her hand dismissively. “Whatever. Theron was in here so I knew they weren’t undressed yet.”
Nastia shot her sister a wide-eyed look.
“What?” She lifted both hands in a shrug. “We all know what needs to be done. And that you’re probably going to wish you were in the seclusion of your cave instead of right here in the lodge where all these shifters with super hearing can catch every sound coming from this room.”
Theron whistled low, a smirk twisting his lips.
Adira rolled her eyes to the ceiling.
And Nastia shifted nervously in the bed.
“What’s she talking about?” Thames asked. “What needs to be done?”
Nastia glanced at him and then away. At his neck, specifically.
“I need to feed,” she mumbled. But she wouldn’t look at him. Almost like she was ashamed. Or worse, scared of his reaction.
Mate is hungry.
“I’ll call the kitchen—” But as soon as the words left his mouth, he realized what she meant.
“Tried that,” Theron said.
“The food was good,” Nastia rushed out, “but it wasn’t enough.”
“The instinct to feed will be strong while her body adjusts to its new demands,” Adira added. “I would suspect it’s similar in feel to a shifter’s instinct to mate.”
Thames knew that gnawing need well.
“And extremely pleasurable, if the fang sensitivity is anything to go by,” she continued.
Fang sensitivity?
Nastia’s cheeks turned a deep shade of pink.
“Blood. You want blood?” he asked.
Again, she wouldn’t meet his eyes. “It’s more a matter of need. Doc gave me some of Theron’s to get me through the beginning, but it’s not enough. I’m…” Her voice shook as she slowly lifted her gaze back to his neck. “... struggling a touch.”
