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I clenched my eyes closed hard, resigning myself to the process. He wasn’t giving me any other choice, or I’d have chosen death. Letting out a long breath, I focused on the sensual parts of the physical experience. Tried to push all the thoughts and pain out of my head and let the pressure build in my core, but it was damn near impossible. I should have known how to do it, but I’d never been in this much agony before.
I’d been hit and kicked and burned, but never anything like this. When the pressure started to crest, I was shocked it was even possible. I let the moment carry me further.
“I’ve never felt as exquisite as when I’m wrapped up in your body. I’m going to fill you up any second now. Come when you’re ready, Tess.”
Pain and pleasure to the highest degree I’d ever experienced, I let the wave crash over me, and we screamed together. The walls of my pussy squeezed his throbbing cock, pushing us both even further. Wave after wave pulsed through us both, and I got lost in this haze, forgetting the torment of my reality.
His weight pressed down on my body.
And that was it. Darkness.
Chapter Fifty-Three: Echoes of Betrayal
Maverick
I was rapidly losingconsciousness, like the pins and needles feeling of a limb falling asleep, but spreading through my brain instead. I used every ounce of willpower I had within me to push myself up and off of Tess as soon as she fell into stasis. Slowly but deliberately, I half-crawled, half-fell off the bed, and fumbled through my jeans for my phone out of its pocket. It took a few tries to get hold of it. Muscles jerky and uncoordinated, I struggled to direct my finger to the sensor correctly. With my blurred, doubled vision, I worried with chilling dread that I might drop off before finishing this one last, crucial task.
We wouldn’t be safe in this room.
If we both fell into stasis, we’d be impossible to wake. If anyone found us before Lux came looking, they might panic and call an ambulance. Or even worse, an untrustworthy mage.
If not that, a hunter could find us, and if they did, they’d easily cart us away to Hell without a fight. All the while, Stone and Lux would be blissfully unaware of the nightmare we’d been running from all these years unfolding.
Finally, with Zara’s name on the screen, I jabbed at the letters, attempting to send a text as best I could. All I could manage was:
Tes n I n stasis Need 911 transfr
The moment I hit send, my fingers lost all feeling, and the phone dropped out of my clutches. It took a few attempts to pluck Tess’s T-shirt off the floor like a rigged amusement park claw machine. But once I had it, I crushed it to my chest and crawled with three limbs back into the bed.
It was a fucking miracle I managed to pull it over her head and down her body, but I knew if she ever found out my friends had phased her to the house while she was naked after our ordeal, it would only make things worse. I reached an arm around her waist, dropping my head to the pillow next to hers.
She breathed steadily without any indication of the chaos that had ripped through the room only moments earlier. A mirage of peace, a tempting fairytale my mind attempted to spin in empty, beautiful whispers. Wishing I could watch her sleep for hours more, but knowing it was impossible, I kissed her shoulder.
“We’ll be okay now, Tess. Just give me a chance to explain when you rise again.”
I knew she’d wake before me. She’d be stronger than ever, too. Her body had absorbed all my power and only needed to be in stasis to reset.
I, on the other hand, needed to build more reserves. As a Hellborne creature, in a safe and peaceful bedroom with nothing to feed on, that would require much more time.
Chapter Fifty-Four: The Witch’s Legacy
Tess
When I opened myeyes, I didn’t recognize the ceiling or the shape of the shadows in the ceiling over my head. I didn’t recognize the color of the walls. I glanced around and didn’t recognize the furniture or the way the sounds outside bounced around the room. All at once, the memory of what happened returned:
He bit me.
He claimed me.
He changed me.
I sat up with a gasp, my heart a hysterical bird flailing against my ribcage. A hand slapped against my chest, the shock underlining the depths of my panic when I realized it was myown. Heat rushed through my body, not the heat of passion and desire like before, but of rage and fury at the injustice of what Maverick had done to me. I didn’t know exactly what it meant, and as the thoughts tumbled over each other, I started to tremble.
The horror of what had transpired was like a tangible thing growing inside me, a demonic fetus my body could never withstand. My breaths grew shallow and wheezy with every passing second, the images from my memory of what he’d done to me playing over and over again.
I’d trusted him.
I yelped when the door swung open part-way, and a figure appeared, keeping their head down, long, straight, dark hair, framed light skin and elfin features. The face was friendly but inscrutable as the door shut. “There’s water on the nightstand beside you.”
