Page 63 of Sacrifice of the Vampir
I felt what he felt when I showed him my scar. Not pity. Not disgust. Pride. He saw a warrior who'd survived a battle most people never had to fight. Saw strength etched into my skin, proof that I refused to surrender even when my own body turned against me.
So fucking beautiful.
The memories kept coming, relentless and honest and utterly unguarded. Every moment he watched me when he thought I wasn't looking. Every time he'd caught my scent over the years and had to fight the urge to follow. Every conversation where he memorized the way I tilted my head or tucked my hair behind my ear. Even the way the light glinted off my eyebrow ring.
He'd wanted me before the bond.
Chose me before fate made the choice for him.
Would have found his way to me eventually, mate thread or not, because something in my broken pieces fit something in his. Like two jagged edges designed to interlock, our craziness complementing rather than competing with each other. His need for control finding perfect harmony with my chaotic resistance. His meticulous precision balancing my impulsive nature.
Tears filled my eyes as the memories kept coming. The realization yanked me back from the thread realm like a fishhook caught in my soul, dragging me toward the surface of reality. I physically felt it—this truth about us—a painful hollowness expanding beneath my ribs, making it hard to breathe as the tears spilled over and tracked hot paths down my cheeks.
I gasped, my consciousness slamming back into my body. My lungs burned. My head pounded. Every nerve ending screamed in protest.
Strong arms locked around me, pulling me against a solid chest.
"Don't you dare leave me," Elias whispered against my hair. His deep voice cracked on the words. "Don't you fucking dare."
I tried to respond but couldn't form the words. My throat was raw, like I'd been screaming over and over. And maybe I had. The threads still pulled at me, trying to drag me back, and a part of me wanted to go.
I could find Alex. I knew I could.
Elias's hand cupped the back of my head, holding me to him. "Stay with me, Talin. Do you fucking hear me? Don't you go back there without me." His heartbeat thundered against my ear.
Beating for me.
Voices erupted all around me. But I recognized them this time. It was my family. Elias's family. I had the sudden urge to try to explain, and I started to pull away. "I'm sorry," I told him. "I thought I could?—"
"Don't." He pulled me against his chest, wrapping both arms around me. "You don't have to apologize."
I shuddered against him. "I saw so many versions of how this ends. Most of them..." I trailed off. Most of them ended badly.
"I know," he murmured. "I saw. We'll find another way."
"Alex—"
"Is not worth your life."
The words cracked like a whip. I jerked back, or tried to. But Elias didn't let me go far, just enough that I could see his face. His dark eyes blazed with cold intensity that stole what little breath I'd recovered.
"He's my cousin," I managed to say. “My family. I can't just abandon him."
"You also can't save him if you're dead." Elias's hand slid to my jaw, thumb stroking my cheek. "Or worse. Scattered across a thousand different realities, alive but unreachable. Do you have any idea what you looked like in there? You were split up into so many fucking pieces I thought you'd never be whole again."
I remembered. Sort of. It was hard to hold on to the memory now that I was back in my body, but I recalled the sensation of being pulled in a dozen directions at once. Experiencing multiple timelines simultaneously. Feeling myself spread thinner and thinner until?—
"You brought me back."
Something flickered in his expression. Vulnerability. The same look he had last night when he knelt before me, kissing my scar.
"I only showed you the truth," he said quietly.
The thread between us pulsed, still glowing white-hot in my peripheral awareness. It was stronger than before. Reinforced by whatever he'd poured through it to anchor me.
"Alex is still fighting," I told him.
He stared at me for a long moment, then his wide chest rose and fell on a resigned sigh. "How long do we have?"
