Page 40 of Can't Bite This Feeling
I’m slipping. My body is growing numb.
“I won’t lose you,” she says, shaking. “You hear me, Rapha?” She leans in, her forehead pressing against mine. “Don’t give up, Rapha. Love is more than a moment for us. It’severymoment. It’s centuries of faith and the belief that you and I are meant to be.”
Her words echo through me, but they’re distant like stars.
I want to answer her. Gods, I want to stay. But the pain is fading. And that’s the problem.
The burn in my chest dulls. My limbs feel heavy, untethered. Light dances at the corners of my vision, not golden or holy, but flat and grey, like the last edge of dusk before night devours the sky.
“You hear me, Rapha?” she whispers, voice cracking. “Don’t you leave me. Fight for us, my love.”
I try to smile. Try to speak. My mouth moves, but no sound comes. I want to tell her I choose her. I’ll always choose her. That I’d die for her a thousand times without hesitation.
But all I can do is curl my fingers around the locket I’m still holding and hope she sees everything I can’t say in my eyes.
“Rapha,” she begs, sobbing. “Please.”
The world slips, and our bond unspools into silence.
Chapter 11
Drusilla
Rapha’s body is heavy in my arms. His warmth is fading. His eyes stare at nothing, lips parted as if he had one more thing to say.
“No,” I whisper. “No, no, no...”
Pain rips through me with a cruel, patient precision.
He died in my arms. For me.
I press my lips to his brow, then to his mouth. He doesn’t kiss me back.
“You promised me forever,” I whisper, my voice breaking.
My heart aches so violently I want to tear it from my chest, to stop feeling, stop remembering the way he touched me like I was sacred.
But he’s gone.
I rock forward, cradling him tighter, like I can wrap my body around time andundoit.
But any power I had here has dissipated. I’m a vampire again, but I have no power to bring back the man I love.
Unless…
Rapha said the magic in the manor he built for me would answer me. Can I use it to bring him back?
The idea barely registers when a new presence coils into the space. The shadows stretch and twist as smoke slinks in around the altar.
And from the center of it stepsLucifer, resplendent in the most garish ensemble I’ve ever seen. A ruby-red velvet suit, embroidered with glittering gold serpents that writhe subtly when he moves. His shirt is an explosion of ruffled black silk, open halfway to his navel. His boots—snakeskin, obviously—shine like he has someone on his demonic payroll whose only job is to buff them between dramatic entrances.
And atop his immaculately groomed head? A top hat. Tilted enough to be both rakish and ridiculous.
He smiles as if stepping onto a stage instead of into the ruins of my broken heart. His gaze settles on Rapha’s body. “Well. This is dramatic. I half-expected doves.”
I don’t rise. “Go away.”
Lucifer sighs, tilting his head. “That’s the thanks I get? After coming all this way?”
