Page 80 of Rose and Shadows
“You think you’ve found a way out? There is no alternative to me! I am it for you! And you’re going to experience that full force right now!”
I blinked, coming out of it, to see wolf hair had sprouted on the backs of both my hands. They were fucking trembling. My pulse was jumping. And I couldn’t… I couldn’t breathe properly. I was gonna lose all control of my own air in a… in just a moment of—
A hand slipped into mine, jarring me.
The touch was so familiar, the jolt of it was for the right reasons.
I sucked in an unsteady and strained breath.
Emotion welled in my eyes.
Then I turned to my right to see Cassius standing with me now.
“Cas,” I choked.
Instead of softening with me, which in my current state would probably have fucking crushed me, his eyes darkened, his hand tightening in mine.
And then he leaned in and whispered in hot words at my ear, “Unleash on me,wild one.”
“How did you… how—”
He eased back—just a little. “Sylas gave Velra his holoscreen. It’s specially crafted to evade even your astute senses and perception. She’s been watching you all day.” He stroked the wolf hair on the back of my hand. “She also knows you won’t admit that you need to unleash, because she’s pregnant.”
“I know she could take it, but it feels… the baby is…”
“I understand.” His lips quirked. “Although, to be clear, she won’t tolerate the walking-on-eggshells approach much longer.”
No, she wouldn’t.
Velra was the farthest thing from fragile.
This was just… new for me… for us.
Cassius leaned in close again, his warmth breath fanning over the side of my neck. “So, then, if you will… make me understand the rest.” He nipped at my ear. “Make me bleed for you.”
His rumbling voice rolled through me.
And that was it.
In the very next second, I clamped my hand down on his shoulder, then vamp-sped us the fuck out of Graverun.
I cameto a jolting stop right at the far end of campus in the forest, just within the confines of the powerful reinforced wards.
A brief spark of white magic filled my vision as I slammed Cassius into a massive age-old oak tree.
“Your spell to protect me from the mind-fuck high of your blood?” I asked as I fisted both my hands in his teal tee, the one that did his mammoth ripped arms a shitload of justice and pulled nice and taut over those carved-from-stone abs.
“Blended with a glamor to conceal us and magic to protect the natural environment.”
The glamor concealment I got, especially with him being my professor. But the other part? Not so much.
“Environment?”
He stroked the hips of my tactical pants. “You’ve barely had time to take an objective step back to analyze it, but since you’ve fully embraced the vampire in equal measure with your wolf, and learned well how to also draw on the Ancient blood that courses through your system, your strength has truly surged. You have great control, but we are out here now for you to unleash. Hence the safeguard I’ve put in place.”
“You’re saying I have the power to decimate this forest?”
“Indeed. My spell took effect a moment before you slammed me into this oak tree. If it had not, the tree would have ripped from its very roots.”
