“Go, before I change my mind,” I encouraged the young wolf.
When she glanced at Connor, her face turned pale. Her eyes roamed over his body, halting on his stomach. I didn't like the way she eyed him.
“You'll want to extract the poison from his body before it latches onto his heart. It's already been longer than ideal.” She pointed to the black char darkening the glow of my imprint. “The toxins are impacting your bond. Remove the poison tonight.” She shifted and ran after her uncle, her silver fur glowing in the night air.
“Poison?” I asked.
Connor's smirk told me he suspected as much.
“Lift up your shirt, Mr. O'Neil,” I commanded.
He hesitated, but when I raised my brow, he said, “Yes, ma'am,” and pulled off his shirt, tossing it to the ground.
Dark welts encircled the incision, moving up his hard chest like veins. The spiderlike web stretched from his lower abdomen to his ribcage. The darkness, inches from his heart.
“Connor! Why didn't you say anything? We need to get this healed and quickly!” I cursed and grabbed his hand, pulling him to the door.
Chapter Six
Connor
I stood before Aylin and shivered. The early morning air did little to cool the venom crawling through my veins. The toxin weakened me and dampened my shape-shifter ability.
When I attacked Mitch, I had wanted to smash his face like he pummeled Aylin's truck. I frowned, remembering how Aylin had brought him to his knees. An action she beat me to.
Damn! A sexy redhead downing a man with the flick of her finger was as sexy as hell. How sexy was that? My smile crumpled as a sharp pain surged outward from my stomach. I sucked in a breath.
“After you.” Hiding my struggles, I held the door open and leaned against the frame to keep me upright. The pain of the poison mingling with my need to claim Aylin muffled my thoughts.
After I followed Aylin into my house, she reached around me to shut the door. She traced the black lines ascending my bare chest. I quivered. My lips still tingled from our embrace earlier — our moment interrupted. I leaned down to give her another kiss.
She placed her finger to my lips. “No.”
“No?” My eyelids drooped from lack of sleep. My mind struggled to comprehend the two-letter word.
She grabbed my hand and pulled me to the couch. When I fell onto the soft cushions, I pulled her onto my lap. I preferred this position anyway. My lips gently touched hers before she moved away.
“Connor, be serious.”
The words waded through the fogginess of my brain. Why she didn't want to progress with our attraction? She felt it. I know she did. She had whimpered when I pulled away from her outside. If it wasn't for Mitch—the asshat—I never would have stopped. And I wouldn't be questioning if she wanted me as much as I wanted her.
Her hands roamed across my chest then descended to the heavy scar tissue from the sword's incision. Her fingers halted over the thick welts protruding around the point of impact. “Goddamnit!”
“Babe, relax.” My words slurred. I grabbed her hands, pulling them around my shoulders. I loved the way she felt in my arms.
Her concerned gaze met mine, and I frowned. She shouldn't be worried. I wanted her lust, not her concern.
“I don't know how to heal this.” She tried to move her hands back to my wound, but I clasped both against my heart.
“Do you feel that?” I asked, feeling my heart's steady rhythm.
“Yes.” Her husky voice called to me. “But we must fix this.”
I imagined her leaning forward and trailing a line of kisses from my heart to my lower abdomen. When those lips licked the heavy welts and then moved lower, I moaned.
“Connor!”
I snapped back to reality.
“Fuck!” I exhaled. Did she know where my mind had drifted to? Her forest green eyes sparkled with lust. She knew exactly what I was thinking. I couldn't hold back any longer. I captured her mouth with my own.
She opened for me and accepted my kiss. Her fingers combed through my hair. She tugged slightly, and I nibbled on her bottom lip.
“I need—”
My feather light kissed down her neck cut off her plea. My need to claim her was the only thing keeping me from falling into a haze. I licked the sensitive skin before sinking my teeth into her flesh.
She muffled a scream and pulled my head closer as my incisors cut her flesh. My mark would keep her safe from other men. I needed her to be protected until we figured out what was happening with her. With me.
My head spun. Dizzy from the poison that swam through me, I fought the darkness and licked the wound.
“Mine,” I mumbled before the darkness overtook me.
***
Aylin
“What the flying fuck?” I jumped from Connor's lap, pissed at his macho show of marking me without my permission. The idiot had no clue what he had just done. I examined his supine state. If he wasn't already unconscious, I would smack his sorry ass.
I touched the two tiny bumps on my neck. Truth be told, that was one hell of a kiss. So, why had he passed out on me?
Beads of sweat dampened his hair. Concerned, I ran my hand over his forehead. Feverish.
I went into a hallway closet and pulled out a blanket to cover him. I couldn't ignore the real threat that menaced him.
His pulse was strong, but the black webbing advanced closer to his heart. The flesh along its path was turning grey.
I paced the living room. Only one person had experience dealing with Gabriel's evil antics. And she just happened to be the only healer I knew besides Bryn.
I couldn't call Bryn. If she absorbed any of the poison, she could put her unborn child at risk.
I wouldn't risk a child. Not even for Connor.
He moaned, and I rushed to kneel beside him. I ran a hand through his hair. He turned into my touch, accepting what little comfort I could provide him.
I grabbed my purse and pulled out three white candles and chalk. After pushing the coffee table to a corner, I drew a triangle with an eye in the middle of the sparsely furnished room. At each of the triangle’s points, I placed a white candle and lit it. The scent of rosemary filling the room soothed my soul.
I sat on the inside edge of my diagram. With feet crossed and arms held forward, I summoned the newest member of the Table of Seven.
“Ante veni, malum latet error hic.” Come forward, evil lurks here.
Three times I repeated the phrase, imagining each triangle point merging with the flame, creating a barrier, and I called upon the healer. Only the ultimate white witch could save Connor.
“A gratiamnatus.” A favor is born, I vowed. “Cassiel, come forward and help me. So mote it be. A gratiamnatus.”
The candles' flames danced higher and higher until the room was illuminated in light and void of shadows. With a whoosh of air, they blew out, leaving me in darkness.
“Oh, for heaven's sake. Let there be light.” Clap. Clap. The candles sparked back to life. In the center of the room stood a short woman in a flowing, white gown. A golden hue encompassed her as she sauntered forward.
“Cassiel. You look great.” I eyed her slight frame.
Months ago, she had been debilitated, bleeding, and on the verge of death. Now, she moved with grace, arms outstretched in a welcoming gesture. Her porcelain skin was a beautiful contrast to her dark flowing hair.
“Child, you've called me forward. A favor is born. Suscipiam.” I accept.
“Thank you.” I shook her hand, sealing my promise.
“Now, why did you summon me here?” She looked around the candle-lit room, but her gaze stopped when she spotted Connor's still frame. “Oh, it's true.”
“Connor had an altercation with Gabriel a few hours ago. He pierced Connor with a tainted sword.” I removed the blanket, revealing the welts across his abdomen and chest. “I don't know how to heal him.”
“Oh, my.”
I bit my lip. Her response didn't sound promis
ing. “Can you help?”
“Honey, I can heal anything, but it's not me who can save him.”
“I don't understand.”
Connor's body shivered from the loss of heat. I replaced the blanket and knelt beside him, praying that Cassiel and I could figure out a way to extract the poison from his body.
“Gabriel's a tricky bastard.”
The curt use of bastard sounded wrong coming from Cassiel with her heavenly aura.
“The black tendrils moving throughout your man's body are a form of Sanguinem Magicae, better known as 'blood magic.’ It has been banned for centuries. Gone wrong, it can cause an epidemic of sorts. But Gabriel never does anything halfway.”
“So how do we fix it?”
“Blood magic can only be healed by blood magic.”
“Okay, so let's do blood magic and heal him!” My voice rose. I didn't like the finality of Cassiel's statement.
“I'm a white witch bound by the rules of the Table. Committing such a dark act would ban me from my position.”
“You're going to let Connor die? I can't believe—”
“You, however, are not bound by the same rules as I am. With the right guidance, you can probably complete a simple blood bond.”
“Just tell me what to do.”
Cassiel pulled a small vial from the inside of her robe. “Add three drops of yours and Connor's blood in this and shake. Once the contents inside the glass turns a deep purple, you each must take a sip. Once you share a blood bond, you can heal him like you did before.”
“That's it?” I grabbed the vial, anxious to get this over with. “Okay, I can do that.”
“I must warn you. The poison from Connor will travel the bond that binds. You will extract his toxins and absorb them into your body. It will be as painful as hell.”
“But it'll work?” I asked.
“If you survive, yes.”
I swallowed the gasp that wanted to escape. I could die? But what was the point of living like I had been for months. Connor gave me a tiny spark of what our life could be like and I wanted to explore it. I needed to.
“Then it must be done.” I grabbed a small, ceremonial knife from my purse and pierced my index finger, letting three small drops of blood drip into the tiny container.
I paused before I started the same process with Connor. “What's the favor you want in return?”
Cassiel's form began to fade. “That's easy, my dear. Keep Bryn and my grandchild safe. Protect them, always.”
“With my life.”
After Cassiel disappeared, I slit the tip of Connor's finger. Three drops of blood fell into the vial.
Smoke rose from the container, and I quickly capped it. I shook the vial until the contents turned a beet red. Within seconds the dark red dissolved into a purple resembling the color of an eggplant.
“Here goes nothing.” I took a sip from the vial, trying not to gag as I swallowed quickly. Then I held Connor's mouth open and poured the rest into his mouth.
His body jerked and he woke. “Shit! Aylin?” He leaned forward, trying to spit out the contents.
“No! Swallow it.”
His face turned red, but he looked into my eyes and swallowed.
My imprint sizzled. I held back a scream. The orange glow illuminated, the black char turning a crimson red. My blood boiled and spread from my wrist until it captured my heart. I convulsed, my body rejecting the flood of dark magic.
Cassiel warned it would be painful, but never said I would be burned alive. Slowly, painfully—like a witch burning at the stake.
“Aylin,” Connor gasped. He held his wrist as if he experienced the same gut-wrenching agony that I was.
But I couldn't respond. I panted and tried to calm my body. I imagined lying in an ice bath, the frigid water cooling my burning skin.
Connor placed his hand over mine. “Aylin, look at me.”
I forced open my eyes, trying to ignore the inferno burning within me. “What?”
He grabbed my wrist and turned it until my imprint faced upward. The half-moon shone bright, the black char gone. But the twining light running from my imprint to Connor's stopped my heart.
Connor's imprint?
I seized his wrist; it was imprinted with a bright half-moon. Strands of light ran from his to mine and intertwined into one. Our souls melding together. Vena Amoris. Strands of love ran from the soulbond through the vein until it pierced the heart.
We were bonded.
“No.” I couldn't believe that he really was my mate. We never even completed the bond. But here he was, with an imprint that matched my own.
“Yes.” He smiled, watching the strands that connected us.
“No, we've not completed the bond. It can't be.”
“Yet, here we are.”
I wanted to smack the smile from his face. “I'm still pissed at you for marking me.” I felt the two bumps on my neck and frowned. “The guys are going to have a fucking heyday with this.” I smacked his hand away from mine.
“Sorry.” His smile widened. “But how exactly did this happen?”
What had Cassiel called it? “Sanguinem Magicae, blood magic. It must've ignited our magic and made your soul recognize me as your mate.”
I eyed the welts still encompassing his body. With a push against his chest, I shoved him backward on the couch.
“I like where this is going.” Connor pulled me on top of him.
“Not what you're thinking. Now, that the easy part is over, we need to extract the poison from your body. I may be pissed, but I don't want you to die.” I straddled him and placed my hands against the largest welts on his stomach.
“Honey, I'm very much alive.”
“Oh, I can tell.” I winked at him, trying to hide my fear of absorbing the poison. I wasn't about to disclose to him what Cassiel had warned me about.
Instead, I called forward my magic and aligned my healing energy. The bond amplified my connection to Connor, and I sensed my power enter his body. I wrapped it around the darkness and pulled it from his body into my own.
Adrenaline spiked through me. The more dark matter I absorbed, the further away I slipped. My body fought the onslaught. Sweat dripped from my forehead. The salty mixture burned my eyes, but I continued.
“Aylin, stop!” Connor shouted.
I couldn't. He was almost scrubbed clean from Gabriel's poison.
Just a little bit more.
I pulled the last strands from Connor. When my magical power stopped, I fell into darkness like a rubber band snapping.
But I'd done it.
Chapter Seven
Aylin
I fight my way through murky fog as the weight barrels down on me like a train. It is difficult to trudge forward, but a light guides me. I don’t believe in anything after death, but staring into the heavenly glow, I reconsider.
Then that light waves a pink drink in my face. Hysterical laughter follows.
“Aylin, what on earth brings you to the Table?” Nadia bounds forward. The fog vanished and Nadia’s light illuminated the chair. My chair. The one with a reddish wolf among the seven at the Table. I want to feel a connection, but numbness consumes me.
Despite her cheerfulness, I find it difficult to express any form of emotion. A shield dampens every feeling—my happiness, anger, joy, pain. They are all gone. My body is present, but my soul, my psyche aren’t. Like a blank slate, the only thing present is my knowledge.
“Nadia, help!” I beg with a raspy voice.
“Drink, drink, drink.” Nadia pushes the pink liquid toward me.
I gag from the acrid smell. My nostrils burn and my eyes water.
I can’t drink it.
“I said, drink!” Her voice is darker and deeper.
Nadia?
I step back, eyeing the creature in front of me. Nadia's sunken corpse glares. Her evil smirk says, I will kill you.
Nadia wouldn't capture me. I have to be dreaming. She can’t hurt me in my imagination. Can she?
I move back into the darkness. Away from the corpse. I focus on pulling myself back to reality. Back to Connor. Away from this pseudo Nadia.
I imagine sitting on Connor's couch, inching close to him, his eyes locked on mine.
Connor, Nadia, the fog, even the drink are trapped behind a glass shield in my mind, trying to break free. But evil lurks in the background. Bogging them down, trapping them. Just like me.
Magic! I can combat that evil. I call forth my inner spirits. They crash through the barriers that hold me captive.
I fall downward. The ground vanishes. My emotions flood through my brain like the air whooshing around me.
“You bastard!” a man shouted.
I tossed aside the blankets like I tried to cast away the remnants of my dream.
Voices, raised in anger, awaken me. Thumps and a crash of furniture draw me from the bedroom.
I stumbled into Connor's living room, my brain still foggy, my body weak. “Drew?”
***
Connor
The hot stream of water soothed my aching muscles from the physical abuse of last night's events. I braced my arm against the shower wall and let the cascade wash away my doubts from last night and my recent soulbond. I smiled. Aylin and I were imprinted. I couldn't wait to explore what that would entail.
I shut off the water and stepped from the shower, towel drying quickly. I needed to check on Aylin. She had passed out after healing me from the poison, and I carried her to my bed. Still, worry gripped me.
I had flipped out over that, but one frantic call to Bryn, and I learned that it was normal to rest after depleting one’s power in order to heal. I worried about the poison. Aylin's essence had wrapped around the filthy strands and tugged them away. But she seemed like she was in so much agony because the tendrils loosened their grip on me and latched onto her. Did the poison work its way through her body like it did mine? Was it trying to kill her?
I looked at my imprint, saw no signs of darkness, and hoped Bryn was right. I prayed that Aylin was just resting and not fighting something darker.
Throughout the early morning hours, I checked on Aylin. She rested like a rock. Not moving. Sound asleep. She didn't appear to be in distress, and it was good to know that she didn't snore.
The Half Moon: Soulbond Series Book 2 Page 5
