“I am on my own.” He winced as I tried to lift the bike off his leg again. “I’ve been on my own since I was nine.”

“And now, you’re not!” I spat back. “You have me. So shut up. Stay alive. And get out from under that motorbike before I choke you with it.”

The thunderstorm of our argument reached breaking point. Forked lightning shredded both our souls as the air sizzled.

His dark eyes blazed.

He coughed again, a bloom of red appearing at the corner of his mouth.

I hauled on the heavy bike with all my might.

The metal groaned—

His hand shot out, snagged my wrist, and yanked.

My palms smacked against his bloody, fiery chest as I fell on top of him.

I went to push away, but he was too fast.

Wrapping an arm around my waist, he captured me just as his lips slammed over mine.

The savage kiss hit like a lightning bolt.

I combusted as if he’d struck a match and sent us both up in flames.

Brutal and unrestrained, he cut off all my protests, kissing me, bruising me, hurting me. Starving. Suffering. Yearning.

Kissing me as if he was dying.

Kissing me as if it was the last thing he’d ever do in this world.

Our tongues tangled as desire turned us into two broken sacrifices, bleeding out on the threshold of hell.

The strange ashy flavour of his blood filled my mouth as he coughed into the kiss, making me drink what he couldn’t afford to lose.

His life-force made my mind swim, flooding my synapses with fire-hot iron.

The world tilted as a rush of healing tore through me, fierce and violent, racing from his lips down my spine and exploding into every stress and bruise.

And...something ignited deep inside me.

A bone-deep cold.

A sharp, glacial force that blasted from my heart, snapping toward the unexplainable fire of Lucien’s blood.

The two elements touched.

And for a split second, I felt powerful.

Balanced and whole and teetering on the edge of something mind-shattering—

My hands fisted in his blood-soaked shirt.

He deepened the kiss until we were fused together, heads twisting, teeth clacking, common sense completely gone.

I opened for him.

His tongue speared deeper and—

He coughed again.

He tried to pull away but...he’d turned me into a monster.

With a moan, I bit his bottom lip, trapping him.

His eyes flared wide as we glowered at each other, panting and crazed.

For a second, an entire battle played out between us as yet more of his blood trickled down my throat and my teeth sank deeper into his lip.

With a hoarse groan, he twisted his fingers in my hair and kissed me.

Wild and desperate—a final confession before we died.

Whisper prowled around us, headbutting us, trying to get us to unlock but it only made us cling tighter.

Lucien growled low in his throat—animalistic and unhinged as his head tilted and our tongues knotted and his hands skated down my back as if he was trying to imprint me into his bones—memorising the shape of me in case this was all he got.

As if this was goodbye.

The sudden snarl of engines erupted the soggy afternoon.

Whisper roared and Lucien threw me off him just as two matte-black G-wagons careened from the main road, blocking the archway and exit. A silver luxury sedan pulled up between them, calm and sleek, glittering like a jewel.

One by one, the engines cut off, leaving us in rain-crushed silence.

“Well fuck,” Lucien groaned.

Whisper lost it.

Spitting and hissing, the panther glowered at us as if we were utter morons and deserved everything that happened next.

God, what had we been thinking?!

We were so close.

So near!

“This is your fault,” I snapped, scrambling to my feet and snatching at the handlebars. “If you hadn’t grabbed me, we’d be gone by now.”

Wiping the blood and remnants of our kiss from his mouth with the back of his hand, he muttered, “You think I had a choice?” His feverish eyes narrowed on mine. “My restraint snapped the moment you said you had feelings for me. Count yourself lucky that I didn’t do more.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” I planted my feet in my stupid flip-flops and went to pull. “At this point, I think I’m better off hating you.”

“That would be a wise choice. You would’ve survived longer.”

“My head hurts when you talk.”

“Just get the bike off me. I want to be standing when I die instead of trapped like an animal.” Digging his hands into the wet pebbles behind him, he strained backward, his teeth clenched against pain.

Whisper roared—

“Shut up, you stupid beast,” Lucien commanded. “I can see them. I know we’ve run out of time. I know it’s all my fucking fault.”

As the doors opened and black-suited guards climbed out, spots dotted over my vision.

But then, Marcus appeared.

And it got a whole lot worse.

Opening a huge grey umbrella, he looked like a judge and executioner holding his favourite murder weapon.

God, it’s no use.

We’re going to die here.

He’s going to take us back and—

“Hey.” Lucien’s hand landed on my wrist, snapping me out of my freefall. “You’re okay.”

Tearing my gaze from Marcus, I locked stares with the very man he’d come for. The man who was worth so much more to them alive.

I swallowed hard, fighting tears.

The thought of him spending the rest of his life being drained and tortured. Of enduring the agony from that awful metal disc and the loneliness of being imprisoned...

“This ends today.” His eyes tore like daggers into my soul. “I’m never going back in there and I won’t let them take you either, alright?”

“But—”

“I’m not done with you yet,” he whispered coldly. “And because I’m not done with you, nothing will happen to you. As long as I want you to stay alive...you’ll stay alive.”

His promise echoed again and again as my fingers gripped the wet machine.

“As long as I want you to stay alive...you’ll stay alive.”

My heart latched onto it.

I pulled with everything I had, lifting the bike just a little. Just enough.

Lucien launched backward, dragging his crushed leg before collapsing to his elbows.

The bike crunched back down like a guillotine.

I didn’t know if his leg was broken but nothing else mattered as Marcus hooked the umbrella over his shoulder and clapped. “Congratulations, you got him free.” His lips twisted into a smarmy, sinister smile. “Just in time to go home.”

Chapter Nine

I TRIED TO FOCUS ON A million things at once.

Whisper was losing his goddamn mind, Rook was borderline catatonic, and Marcus? He was unbearably smug.

But the only thing my heart focused on was agony.

The Cryolyt pill hadn’t worked nearly as well as I’d hoped. I could still feel pain, even if it wasn’t all-consuming. Could still tell my body was dying, even as it clung to life. Every injury and agony screamed behind a numbing wall of ice, buying me time but not enough.

I was losing control, mentally, physically, emotionally.

Why else had I kissed her?

Why else had I used such valuable time by doing something so stupid?

“Lucien, Lucien, Lucien.” Marcus smiled thinly as if this was some sick reunion. “You really have made a mess.”

Death came closer, ticking down the minutes I’d borrowed from the Grim Reaper. I had no idea how long I had left, but it wasn’t nearly long enough.

The temptation to throw back every pill had me reaching for the silk bag in my pocket and pulling out another two.

“You made it farther than I expected,” Marcus said pleasantly, never taking his eyes off me as I placed both pills on my tongue and swallowed them. “Been saving those for a rainy day, I see.” He chuckled and stuck his hand out from under his umbrella, letting droplets splatter against his fingers. “In more ways than one.”