Chapter 59
Volik
Cherry juice fills the room, and my subconscious rips me out of sleep.
My mate is bleeding.
My mate. Is. Bleeding.
Power explodes out of me.
The room shakes.
The hillside shakes.
Our hearts still beat.
She is alive.
But she is hurt.
Nix is hurt.
The earth groans around us.
I am standing between the foot of the bed and the door. My gravito instinctually pulled me to this spot upon waking. Putting me between Nix and the only entrance into the room.
“Volik.”
“Stay behind me.” My voice is animalistic. Hardly recognizable. The fear of failing My Only clawing at my throat.
I can protect us.
I can rip apart anyone who dares to enter our home.
I can collapse the hallways and keep us whole.
I can ruin anything.
Another pulse of magic rolls out of me as my gravito moves under my skin.
I am ready.
“Volik.”
I can hear Nix crawling across the bed behind me, but I stare ahead at the dark doorway. Arms wide. Palms out.
“Mate.” Her voice is calm. Close.
Hands settle on my shoulders.
Warm hands.
Nix is standing on the mattress behind me, and she slides her hands over and down until they are against my chest. A palm over my heart.
“Volik.” Her exhale is hot against my neck. “I’m okay.”
She’s talking. But her voice sounds… different. Just a little off.
She says she’s okay, but I cannot take my eyes off the hallway. My protectiveness will not let me.
“Volik—” Her hands start to pull back up over my shoulders as she moves, like she’s going to get off the bed. Like she might try to get in front of me.
I reach one hand back, gripping her naked hip, keeping her behind me.
She sighs. “If you won’t listen, I’ll bite you.”
Lips brush against my neck.
“Nix—”
Fangs sink into my skin.
Fangs.
Bliss surges through my veins, and my head drops back.
My heart is still pounding, but the rhythm changes.
It is no longer anger that I feel.
“Nix,” I gasp through the pleasure. “How?”
Her arms circle around my neck as she moans against my skin, swallowing.
My gravito pulses again. But the rumble is low. Vibrating. Pulling her naked body tight against my back.
Her tongue licks across my skin as her fangs stay lodged in my neck.
“Nix,” I groan.
I reach back, finding her hips and gripping their softness in my hands.
Nix moans as she swallows again.
Then she lifts her head.
But… her fangs are new. And she does not pull them straight out. But the tug against my skin is not painful.
My cock throbs.
Nyet. The tug is not painful.
I can feel droplets of my blood falling off her lips onto my shoulder as she pants behind me.
Nix drags her nose up the side of my neck. “It’s like drinking a minty vanilla milkshake.” Her voice sounds like sex.
And I have to see.
Turning, I face my mate.
Nix is standing on the bed, putting us face-to-face.
And, as I look into her black eyes, a feeling I have not felt in centuries surges through me.
I grip her beautiful face in my hands.
And I let myself feel it.
I watch another drop of blood fall from the tip of her fangs. And I let myself feel my love for her.
Love, bigger than I’ve ever known before, fills every inch of my being.
Nix is mine.
She is my mate.
She is my world.
My everything.
My salvation.
And she is so mine that she has turned.
I feel my racing heartbeat pull hers faster. “Nix.”
Her lips lift into a gentle smile, filled with affection and excitement.
The tip of her fang catches on her plush lower lip, the flesh indenting.
And…
My throat tightens as I swallow.
It’s so much more than I had dreamed.
She is so much more.
I blink.
But she’s still there.
Still watching me with her eyes that match my own.
I swallow again.
Love.
My gravito swells.
And our chests are drawn together.
Our skin touching the same time our lips do.
Her smile shifts into a kiss.
And I close my eyes.