Page 97 of Tainted Gifts
His eyes roll back in his head as he barrels into me again, this time stilling himself at the deepest point inside me before exhaling a breath full of relief, ecstasy and agony at once.
"Fucking shit. That was incredible," he murmurs while dropping to me, but time has resumed, fantasy has fled, and reality crashes into me, making my tears return with a vengeance.
"I thought-"
"Shh," he coos in interruption, pulling me closer to him as he kisses my forehead.
My whole body shivers as I curl into him, getting as close as physically possible. He holds me, and we just lie there, neither of us speaking as we bask in a comfortable silence for over thirty minutes.
Finally, he breaks the silence, and all it does is make my tears start falling again. "You saved me."
He kisses my forehead as I weep in his arms. His breaths have cooled, but I don't feel so dependent on his chill right now. I'm not sure if it's the adrenaline, the fear that hasn't fully subsided, or the surreal sex we just had, but the pain that has threatened me for weeks is absent from my mind completely.
"I almost forgot about that," he grumbles, sighing out as he drops to his back, bringing me up onto his chest. "I suppose you'll have to wait seven days and then start the detoxification process again, which means you'll be in pain for a week and then you'll have to drink that disgusting thing again while remaining in pain for another two days after that."
I shrug. Watching my hybrid die or drink a gross drink again... worth it. Totally worth it.
A tear slips free from my eye, and he wipes it away while chuckling a little which confuses me greatly.
"I can't believe I'm lying here holding you right now."
I realize then he wasn't laughing because he found something funny, but because he can't believe he's alive. My hold on him tightens, and his hold on me reacts the same.
"You didn't make a sound while they were attacking you. You did that because you didn't want me to lose focus, didn't you?" I ask, my voice trembling.
His breath catches, and then he slowly exhales. "I knew you'd come after me, and in turn, they'd take you down while you were distracted. I thought I could take them, but someone surprised me with a few shots to my side. They took me down long enough for the mutts to sink their teeth in, and from there..."
His voice trails off, leaving the gory details out of the story. I fight off the brigade of tears trying to breach my lids as I sit up. Without warning or forethought, I slap the fuck out of his chest, making him grab it in reflex.
"Don't you ever do that again," I almost whisper, more tears falling, and his eyes soften as he pulls me down to him.
He was ripped apart, and he refused to even cry out in pain for fear of what would happen to me. I would have died regardless if he hadn't survived.
"Don't think shit like that," he scolds, but it's not as if I give a damn about getting his approval.
"I love you, Jase, more than you apparently realize. Dying to spare my life is pointless. You should know that."
He sighs out, and then he glances out the window. We can't see the ground from this angle, and I really don't want to.
"How long did it take to kill the rest of them?"
"After I saw you? Five seconds."
His eyes pop up in surprise, and he turns to force me back to the bed so his eyes can burn into mine. "You killed all of them? By yourself? Aria, did you see what they were? Do you know the power it would have taken to do such a thing?"
Playing twenty questions?
He stares expectantly, ignoring my inner quip. So I pick a question to answer.
"Yes, I saw what they were. They were definitely not infected hounds. Did they really just find a way to create lykens?"
He huffs out a touch of laughter, shaking his head. "Let's not call them that. At least now we know what was gnawing on those bodies we found at that underground facility."
Shit. That explains a lot, and it's a relief that it wasn't something like me... well, at least not in human form.
"Someone's playing Dr. Frankenstein again," I mumble, gripping my head immediately after.
"Apparently," he sighs out.
