Would it still work?

Did it still have the power to take away my discomfort, even if it wasn’t fresh out of his veins?

Do you hear yourself?

My spine snapped straight because...all those moments he’d cured me with his life-force. All those times he’d made me drink straight from him—that should’ve been the first warning sign that he wasn’t...human.

I choked—

Whisper padded toward me, smelling Lucien’s blood.

I tensed as the huge predator towered over me, his nose pressing against the vial before glaring at me with questions.

“H-He gave it to me,” I stuttered. “For emergencies. And I think...” I gulped as I clutched the cold vial with two hands. “This qualifies as an emergency.”

He snorted as I looked toward the bathroom.

The shower continued to fall.

I didn’t give myself time to think.

With a gasp, I jerked the vial to my lips and upended it.

The blood hit my tongue. Thick and cold, slick and syrupy. I gagged as it slid down my throat. It tasted of iron and ash, bitter and strangely alive, leaving a faint burn in its wake.

My system tried to evict it.

My stomach hurt and my temples throbbed and I hugged myself as I tipped over my knees, trying to think about anything else. Flowers and butterflies, summer storms and snow bunnies. Anything apart from oily, icy blood.

Unfolding, I kept my teeth clenched tight against my body’s urge to retch and snatched my phone again. Needing the distraction, I forced my legs to move and headed toward the bed and the socket above the side table. With shaky hands, I plugged it in, attached it to my phone, and turned it on.

It took an age to reboot.

A century to come reluctantly alive.

And every minute that I waited was a minute that Lucien’s blood worked its magic.

It started subtly...a soft soothing behind my eyes, an easing of the pressure in my head.

As my screen flared bright and mobile data connected, my muscles steadied as strength flooded my veins, humming and potent, like I’d been the one plugged in instead.

Messages and notifications came flying in, making my phone jump and jive.

I dismissed them as fast as I could, unable to keep up as the network kept delivering.

Frank: Hey, hey. When are you coming back? We have spas here too, you know.

Frank: Rook, this isn’t funny anymore. Where are you?

Frank: Call me. Urgently.

Frank: ELARA SNOWFLAKE, ANSWER YOUR PHONE RIGHT NOW!

I scowled.

He actually went there.

He used my corporate world pseudonym when he knew how much I hated it.

Dillon’s messages crowded over Frank’s. Messages that were far, far worse.

Dillon: Give me your status or I’ll hack your phone and turn on your location.

Dillon: Frank is freaking the fuck out. Give me your location. Right now.

Dillon: Give me an update, Rook. NOW.

Dillon: I’m in England. Call me.

Dillon: Respond. This is your final warning.

Dillon: You didn’t respond. I’m now fully authorised to use whatever means necessary to find you.

I gulped.

Frank would never call the police on me—even if I went missing for a year—but only because that would shine far too much attention on Snowflake Corp and all the things we definitely shouldn’t be tampering with.

But Dillon...he was just as ruthless as Lucien when he put his mind to something.

I gasped as my phone suddenly gave up delivering messages and flashed with an incoming call instead.

From Dillon.

Chapter Seventeen

IT WASN’T WORKING.

Why isn’t it working?!

I was burning. Burning. Burning.

The cold water did nothing.

It crashed over me in a brutal torrent, soaking my bandages, stinging the stitched wounds beneath.

I’d ripped off my trousers and angled my face into the spray, but even standing naked in the coldest water available, my skin continued to steam.

Heat roared through me, incinerating my insides, making my bones blaze with fire.

I braced both hands against the daisy-tiled wall, bowing my head as the spray hit the back of my neck. Steam curled over my arms and shoulders, refusing to be snuffed out.

The bathroom fogged as if I ran hot water, not cold. The mirror clouded and obscured me as I balled my fists against the tiles and begged for it to stop.

What the hell is happening?

Was it because I’d kissed her?

Because I’d used her to test if the vitalsync core was broken by pushing up my heartrate as much as I could?

I’d kissed her with one goal in mind—to prove I was finally free—but somewhere along the line of my little experiment, I’d lost all reason.

I’d wanted her.

Needed her.

I’d kept my promise never to give in while trapped in Cinderkeep but...we weren’t there anymore. I could fuck her against the wall, and it wouldn’t go against any of my strict rules. I could finally, finally know what it would feel like to sink inside her, even if we still teetered on the edge of disaster.

Which was lunacy.

Stupidity.

We had to run—

“Fuck.”

Flames chewed through my body as if they agreed—burning me alive for my lack of priorities.

Maybe this was repentance for such lust.

Punishment for being such an imbecile.

I groaned as another wave of fire worked through me.

I recognised the flames.

I’d lived with the charring heat all my life.

Yet...it’d never been this potent before. Never been this wild and untamed and violent.

I cranked the tap harder, opening the pipes to full force as wintry water pounded my back with needles that ought to have bordered on agony yet felt utterly useless.

I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my forehead to the tiles.

Stop it.

Stop burning.

Stop—

I groaned as another blast of heat detonated from my heart. Heat that I’d felt so many times—just before the vitalsync core knocked me out.

I waited to pass out like usual.

I actually looked forward to oblivion if it meant all of this would end.

But...no dose arrived. No pain. No suffering. No unconsciousness.

I just kept burning.

Hotter and hotter until the tap started to melt.

Bracing against the wall, my right hand strayed to the metal disc over my heart.

At least this gave me definitive proof.

The vitalsync core was dead.

It would’ve knocked me out by now if it wasn’t.

It no longer had any power over me which filled me with bone-breaking relief but also mind-twisting horror that perhaps...it hadn’t been the vitalsync core hurting me, after all.

Perhaps it had been doing me a favour. Putting me down before I could burn alive.

Had I always been like this?

Had Marcus known and kept the full extent of my madness away from me?

The charred wall filled my head, making my heart trip in fear.

I didn’t want to believe I’d started that fire. Couldn’t believe I’d had the power to do something so inhuman, but...what other answer was there?

Another wave of blistering hotness tore through me.

The tap continued to blister and deform.

I missed the ice pool at Cinderkeep with a vicious, aching intensity.

I would’ve given anything to sink inside it. To drown beneath the surface and brace against the biting cold. To surrender to the frost that always helped.

Frost.

My eyes flew wide as the answer stared me right in the fucking face.

Rook.

Each time I was near her, it was like a hoarfrost worked its way over my smoking soul. She soothed me far better than anything else. And I’d stupidly run away from her.