Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 48827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 163(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 163(@300wpm)
Gabriel leans down, sniffing the wound, and if I wasn't so panicked about losing my mate, my instincts would have had me snapping at him for getting so close to her bare skin.
“Night Thistle,” he says, his nose curling up at the scent. He hurries into some gloves, and digs into her wound. “Shit, it looks like the tip of the blade broke off, hitting some of her bone. It's distributing the poison into her bloodstream at a rapid rate.” He glances to his left, chest heaving. Aurora is standing there, eyes wide as she looks from Talia to Gabriel. “Do you think you can heal her?” he asks with an urgency that I feel in my bones.
“I...I... I can't. I'm so sorry. Everything I touch dies.”
“That's all right, Aurora,” he says as calmly as he can. “Can you fetch the queen for us? Please?”
Aurora nods, racing out of the room.
“Gabriel,” I beg. “Save her.”
“I'm working on it,” he says, grabbing a scalpel and a pair of surgical tweezers, hesitating just above her wound. He looks at me. “You should probably step out. This is going to hurt, and I don't have time to administer a local anesthetic.”
I grip her hand. “I'm not going anywhere.”
“Can you control yourself?” he asks seriously. “If she starts screaming in pain, the last thing we need is for you to kill me because I'm harming your mate.”
“I'm in control,” I say, smoothing my hand over the fresh mating mark on her wrist. “Do what you need to, just save her.”
Gabriel blows out a breath, parting open her wound with his fingers, going in with the surgical tweezers and slicing away other pieces of her muscle deep in the wound to get to the fragment that is killing her.
Her body starts convulsing, and I immediately help hold her down, my heart in my throat and my soul fracturing at the broken, wounded sounds escaping her lips.
“I'm here,” Lyric says, hurrying into the room, heading straight past the table and grabbing a syringe, instantly filling it with her blood.
“I have to get the fragment out first,” Gabriel says, still digging into the wound as my mate starts to scream, her eyes snapping open in shock.
“I'm here,” I say, pressing my forehead against hers as I hold her down. Her strength is wildly intense for someone who’s lost so much blood, not to mention one that is poisoned and half dying. “I'm here. I'm with you. I love you. I love you.”
Tears escape Talia’s eyes, rolling down her cheeks as she grits her teeth. She clenches her eyes shut as she tries to cut off her screams but can't.
“Faster,” I demand to Gabriel, even though I know I have no ground to stand on. “Please.”
“Almost,” he says. “Got it.” He pulls out the small fragment of blade, her blood spilling onto the table before he works to seal the wound.
Talia goes limp on the table as she loses consciousness.
I cling to her, whispering I love you over and over again, praying to any god that will listen to not take my mate away from me a second time.
CHAPTER 20
Talia
My lids are heavy as I pry them open, clarity snapping back to me harshly as I orient myself with my surroundings.
I'm in Zachariah’s bed, and for a split second, I wonder if everything had been just a bad dream.
The way Zachariah rushes to my side, relief pooling in his eyes, tells me it wasn't.
“You're awake,” he says, hands cupping my cheeks as I slowly sit up, gauging my body for any permanent damage. Beyond feeling extremely thirsty, I’m completely healed.
“What happened? Did you get Samuel?”
“No,” Zachariah says. He shifts to sit next to me on the bed. “Saint almost had him. Talon briefed me on what happened. They managed to track the bloodmad vampires back to a stronghold, and found Kyle Moorehouse, Valor’s brother, in the middle of it. He and Samuel both got away, but Talon said that he and Dagon and Saint were able to destroy the bloodmads and a huge chunk of their arsenal. It'll set them back for sure.”
“Wait, why don't you know? Why was Talon briefing you? Weren't you there? Didn’t you go after him?”
“No,” he says, drawing me closer, kissing me softly. “I lost you once for the sake of duty and I will never make that decision again. I promise you, I will never make the mistake of choosing a mission over you. From here on out, we discuss everything and make moves together.”
“I would’ve told you to go,” I say, my heart expanding in my chest, the mating bond flaring between us, demanding attention.
“And I would’ve explained to you that I couldn’t. You were dying, Talia. Would you leave me?”
I shake my head.
“Then you understand,” he continues. “There is no more separation between us. You hunt, I hunt, and vice versa. And we make no life-changing decisions without speaking with each other.”