Chapter 5 #2
“What’s that?” I ask him.
“Something to help your heat. I will make you some tea,” Cyrus says, hopping up before stopping. “Addie…”
“Not now,” Eli says, cutting him off.
Cyrus goes on to say something else when Eli glares at him.
“I said not now,” Eli says, and I can hear the warning in his tone. Cyrus nods, walking out, and Eli pulls me back down against him.
“You should shower,” Eli says.
“What time is it?”
“A little after nine.”
“Shit, I have to get back home. I have Taylor’s car,” I tell him, sitting up.
“Cyrus already dropped it off for her, and we aren’t going to work today. Neither are you,” Eli says.
I lie back down against him. His fingertips are trailing up my side.
“If you mate me, I won’t die, right?”
“It may not work. You have been in heat too long, and it is already affecting your body,” he answers. “But yes, it could stop it. But there are no records of anyone surviving heat this long.”
“So either way, I might die,” I tell him, making me wonder what will happen to my family. How would my mother deal with that?
“We can change you.”
I shake my head, and he sighs.
“We might not have a choice. But if you aren’t willing, Addie, your body can reject the change, and even if it doesn’t, Cyrus will spend fifty years locked up. It is against our laws to change someone against their will.”
“I’m not becoming a vampire, Eli.”
“And I won’t let you die,” says Cyrus walking into the room.
He hands me a cup of tea, and I sit up, taking it from him.
“I put honey in it. The herbs don’t taste very nice,” Cyrus says.
I take a sip and nearly spit it out. I recognize the taste instantly. It is the same stuff Sam forced me to drink.
“I’m not drinking that,” I tell him, my heart pounding as my mind goes back to the cabin in the woods, Sam forcing pills down my throat and making me eat them in a paste.
“Addie, it mutes the bond. It will help the effects,” Cyrus says, refusing to take the cup.
“It’s also the same shit Sam shoved down my throat, no!” I tell him, and Cyrus looks at Eli.
“What did you say?” he asks.
“Sam. That’s what he used to give me. I know it is. I will never forget the taste of that stuff. He used to crush it when I wouldn’t swallow the pills, make it into a paste and force it down my throat,” I tell them.
“How the hell did he get his hands on monkshood?” Cyrus asks, looking at Eli, who also seems perplexed.
“He is a hunter. He said someone gave it to him from work.”
Cyrus shakes his head. “No, the council had it eradicated, Addie. You can only get this from the supernatural council. Hunters don’t have access to it because it can affect the mate bonds. Mate bonds are scared. That’s why it is a controlled substance.”
“Well, he had no problem getting it. He used to leave me tied to the bed while he went to get more.”
“You need to drink it, Addie,” Cyrus says, but I shake my head.
“Addie, if you don’t, your heat will get worse. This mutes the bond for a bit,” Eli says.
“No, I hate the feeling of it. It makes you feel hollow,” I tell them.
Cyrus sighs but takes the cup, walking out of the room with it.
I hop up, heading for the shower. The moment I hop off Eli, my temperature skyrockets, making me gasp.
Goosebumps rise on my arms, and I feel the room spin. Eli stands, grabbing my arm. The heat dies off almost instantly. I look at his hand on my arm before looking at him.
“That’s why we wanted you to drink it. The moment you’re not touching one of us, your heat will return.
You are past the point of mating. Your life is tied to us being near you unless we mute the bond.
It will slow the effects on you,” Eli says, and I notice Cyrus standing near the door with the cup in his hand.
I hold my hand out for it; flashbacks aren’t worth my life. Cyrus walks over, handing the cup to me. I take it before downing the contents. A shiver runs down my spine before a cold chill settles over me, though it doesn’t feel as bad as it did with Sam.
“It doesn’t feel the same,” I tell them, my brows furrowing, waiting for uncomfortable hollowness to settle in.
“As we said, you have been in heat too long, Addie. Your body is rejecting everything. Those herbs won’t work for long and will wear off quickly,” Cyrus says.
Eli lets my arm go. Goosebumps rise on my arms, and I feel warmer but not like I am about to pass out, warm but not too hot.
Walking into the bathroom, I turn the shower on before catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I turn, looking at my back. Cyrus walks in, staring at me in the mirror.
“Your temperature was that hot, your blood was boiling.”
“Will it go away?” I ask, staring at the red angry blistered lines on my back where my veins are. They aren’t painful but very dark and stand out. My skin looks burned where the thin lines of my veins trail over it.
“No, I don’t think so, or they would have healed when you drank my blood,” Cyrus says.
I turn, unable to stare at the marks any longer, before stripping my pants off and hopping in the shower.
Cyrus walks out, leaving me to shower, and I take my time.
I can hear Cyrus and Eli arguing in the kitchen.
I feel guilty that I am the reason for their arguing, but I don’t want to become a monster.
I don’t want to die either, but there doesn’t seem to be an in-between choice.
After everything with Sam, I didn’t think much more could go wrong in my life, but now I couldn’t see anything going right.
Cyrus and Eli’s yelling gets louder, and I force myself out of the shower after washing the soap off. I wrap the towel around me before walking into the bedroom. The door is cracked open slightly, and I open it, looking down the hall.
Cyrus is agitated, his usually calm demeanor gone. Eli, I has seen his anger before but not like this as they both argue before I hear Eli shift, his clothes shredding, and a terrifying growl rips out of him. I rush out, not wanting them to tear each other to pieces. Cyrus’s face snaps toward me.
“Calm down, Addie. He won’t hurt me. He’s just worked himself up,” he says as my heart pounds in my chest.
Eli’s black wolf paces back and forth, growling. His fur hackles up as he snaps and snarls.
I walk over to Cyrus. Eli stops and stares before he growls, but it is more like a whine.
“Please, don’t fight,” I tell them, looking up at Cyrus.
“It was just a disagreement,” Cyrus says, looking away.
Eli growls, clearly not agreeing, and I step closer to him, wanting to touch his fur.
He drops his head as I reach my hand out, letting me pat him.
His face is reaching up to my chest; he is that big.
Then I hear cracking, and I close my eyes, thinking he is shifting back.
Opening them, he hasn’t shifted back but is standing up; I step back, and his head nearly touches the roof.
On two feet, he is huge, like monstrously huge.
I step back. Somehow, he looks even more menacing upright. I look at Cyrus.
“He is Lycan. He prefers four legs, but this is technically his true form,” Cyrus says, stepping toward me.
I look back at Eli, fur covering his entire body, my eyes trailing down his arms, and I can truly see how hard-packed with muscle he is in this form. Cyrus grabs his arm, holding what I always thought are paws. They suddenly stretch as fingers with long claws protrude from his fingertips.
“Lycans have two forms. Werewolf form, which most prefer—it’s easier for them when hunting. And this form, which is their true Lycan form—just as lethal but requires more shifting. In my opinion, I prefer this form of him because he doesn’t look like a dog,” Cyrus says, and Eli growls at his words.
“I think I prefer the dog form,” I whisper, and Cyrus chuckles.
Eli moves his hand, touching my face, his claws going into my hair, and I can truly understand how sharp and hard like steel they are.
I grab his hand, pulling it away and looking at it; it is twice the size of mine and rough like the pad of a paw.
The skin is thicker, yet the fur covering the back of his hand is soft like in the other form.
“Do you have more than one form? Like can you turn into a bat?” I ask with a laugh.
“No, only my eyes and face change, as you have seen already,” Cyrus says, shaking his head with a laugh. “Bloody humans are such curious creatures.”
“Says the man who once was one,” I tell him.
Eli steps closer, his hand I have a hold of moving up my arm to my shoulder as he pulls me closer. I wrap my arms around him, my fingertips barely touching, before looking up at him. He dips his head, sniffing me. I barely come to his chest. He is that tall in this form.