“No!” I scream, but the material rips and I am free, even if only for a moment.
With a huge hole gaping open in the back of my thin gown, exposing my bare back and skin, I lunge forward and stumble but manage to find my footing, making my way to the kitchen. With my heart in my throat, I start yanking open drawers, looking for a knife, but finding nothing. Where are the knives? How can he not have knives? He eats real food. I’ve seen him eat.
That is when I open another drawer and hit the motherload. In the velvet-lined drawer, I discover a collection of shiny curved blades and silver stars. I reach for one long silver blade, and several stars, that are small enough to fit in my hand, ignoring the way the sharp edges cut at my skin. I’m on the move, headed back to the living room.
Intent on causing the biggest, wildest creature I’ve ever seen, pain.
Prepared to confront the werewolf, in nothing but a thin, ripped gown, with no shoes on my feet, but none of this stops me. Nothing will stop me from helping Eli stay alive.
I didn’t find him again just to watch him die instead of me in this lifetime.
Chapter Five
I arrive in the living room, panting, as I take in the scene before me.
At this point Eli and the wolf are on their feet again, and the wolf’s back is to me. I’m aware that the silver must go into the wolf’s heart to kill him, at least in my books, but it also creates pain. With this in mind, I don’t give myself time to talk myself out of what I do next. I charge toward the wolf, halting close enough to throw a silver star at his back. The wolf has thick skin, again going back to my own mythology—and that’s one of the reasons it takes another powerful creature to kill it, which I am not. Nevertheless, I reel back and thrust it in the air, doing so with all my strength. In the process one of the blades in my hand digs deep, and rips my flesh, but I don’t care.
The blade digs into the wolf’s back.
I did it.
I got that stupid, silver star to dig into his skin and he reacts.
The wolf howls, and turns his head upward, toward the sky, before dropping to his knees.
I drop the extra blades I hold, blood pouring from my palm to the ground, but somehow, I hold onto the knife with my other hand.
I stare down at the blood gushing from my body, not sure why I feel no pain, and then Eli is there, placing himself between me and the wolf, retrieving one of the extra blades. He whirls around, throws it into the wolf’s back, the silver lodging deep into muscle and flesh. The wolf howls again, and Eli’s already focused on me, facing me. He grabs my hand, the blood still gushing from it, so much blood, and when he meets my stare, his eyes are different, almost glowing.
“I have to do this,” he says, his voice low, rough, almost unrecognizable in the near growl in his words. “It will make me—”
“Stronger,” I supply. “I know. Do it. Just do it.” Because I already know what it and this is, even before he lowers his head and suckles my hand, drinking my blood.
It’s the most insane experience, being wide awake as he drinks from my body, it’s unreal, really, and yet, it’s not unreal at all. I stand there watching him, but he doesn’t watch me at all. Time stretches eternally, when it’s no more than a minute—but in that minute, images of me, the old me, with him—laughing, living life, loving life—flash through my mind. I cling to them, to the love I’ve shared with Eli, that I have known with no one else, in this lifetime or another. I feel that truth, straight to my bones, and deep in my soul.
When he lifts his mouth, his tongue licks the line of my wound, and seals it. Just like in my books, I think, and I wonder, once again, how I know any of these things. I died before Eli became a vampire. Unless, there is more to this story.
“Go to your room,” he orders, lifting the knife I still hold from my hands, “And stay there until I come for you. Go now.”
I blink at him, and he catches me to him. “Ivy, move. Now.” He rotates me and turns me to the door. It’s then that reality begins to return, and it’s not a pleasant one. The wolf is recovering, pushing to his feet. My heart starts to race and I charge for the door, but even as I reach for the knob, I am desperate to confirm Eli’s safety, to know he doesn’t need me. I rotate to find him on top of the wolf, and a moment later, he’s holding the blade in his hand toward the wolf’s chest.
As if he senses me there, he seems to hesitate, his gaze rocketing to mine, his vampire teeth extended, his eyes primal, no man left for me to see. “Go!” he roars, and in that moment the wolf captures the blade. Eli is forced to turn his attention to his enemy and I realize then, that as much as I don’t want to leave, staying might just get him killed.
I have to leave.
I fling the door open and force myself out into the hallway, shutting the door behind me, without looking back. I rush toward my room, but I’ve only made it a few steps when a man appears in front of me—literally just appears. His hair is long and blond, his eyes a striking blue.
Marcus.
The Maker.
I know him when I shouldn’t know him.
“He needs help.”
“No, he doesn’t,” he replies. “But you do.” He captures my arm. “Which is why you’re coming with me.”
“No. No, I—”
It’s too late. He grabs my arm and the world around me goes black.
THE END…FOR NOW