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He stomped in my direction, his boots crunching on glass. “I asked myself the same thing about you.”
My fingers fumbled behind me, curling around a long glass stirring rod. “I will jam this down your throat—”
The room—a lab and not a torture chamber—spun, and I swayed toward the ground. As my legs gave out, arms caught me before I hit the hard floor.
The fight drained out of me as the blood loss and poison from the bite hit me, and Fane dragged me back to the table. What little energy and adrenaline I had a few moments ago burned out, leaving me weak and tired. Everywhere throbbed and ached, and Death skulked closer as Fane picked me up and laid me back on the table. I tried to kick him, but my muscles no longer obeyed my command.
This was not happening. I did not fail my first mission as a raven to end up at the mercy of a demon shifter hellbent on turning me. I’d rather the Infernal Sol die with me. Maybe Coltrane would too. At least my sacrifice meant no one else could ever possess the powerful demon amulet.
Fane leaned over me, his face nothing but harsh lines and fury so palpable it pressed against my skin. A luminescent glow lit his mismatched irises, and his nostrils flared like a wild beast’s.
“I don’t want to be a shifter.” Rage hemorrhaged through my veins, trying to wake my unresponsive muscles. “I’d rather die.”
“The feeling’s mutual, but that’s not an option now.” Fane’s hands slipped under my back, and he lifted me toward him.
A gasp slipped out as tiny bursts of fireworks ricocheted within me. “I fucking hate you.”
This was the end of my life as I knew it. If I survived, I’d be some freaky demon shifter.
“I hate myself more for this,” Fane muttered, one of his hands cradling the back of my head. His pupils elongated into diamonds as his incisors grew to sharp points. He arced forward and sank his teeth into the spot where my neck met my shoulder.
ChapterSeventeen
A cry burstout of my mouth as blinding pain seared every inch of my body from Fane’s bite. My muscles seized, and agony encased me in a prison of torment. The Infernal Sol had been kinder than this.
Throbs pulsated from the tips of my fingers to my toes and to the ends of my hair. Every ounce of Fane’s fury poured into the bite. Did he secretly hope I wouldn’t survive? Maybe he didn’t want the Infernal Sol as bad as he claimed.
My lungs refused to work, and stars popped in front of my eyes as a thunderous beat hammered against my skull. As the lab blurred, invisible knives penetrated my flesh, ripping and tearing out my bones and organs until nothing but an unrecognizable gory mess remained.
Had I shattered into bloody, brittle bits?
And then the anguish faded, and warmth cocooned me like a soft blanket against the frigid cold. My form took shape again, and the stiffness in my muscles evaporated as electric tingles zipped through my veins.
Pleasure and bliss like nothing I’d ever experienced cascaded over me, and I swallowed back a moan. Velvet fingers dragged over my skin, lulling me into a contented puddle. I’d only experimented with weed, but if this was what hard drugs were like, I could see the allure.
Fane’s scent, like cinnamon and warm fire, inundated my senses, and I wanted nothing more than to drink every bit of him in. My hand slid up the demon shifter’s back, and my fingers tangled in his hair, each strand like threads of silk.
He was all around me, a vast presence swallowing up everything. He burned brighter than all the horrible memories in my past, washing them away like floodwaters. A moan finally broke free as I shuddered.
Images suddenly swept through my mind, too fast to comprehend, but the emotions in them were clear. Anger, like sharp daggers, penetrated the bliss that had swaddled me, and then overwhelming sadness tried to sever my air supply. Rejection slammed into my gut, and I flinched against Fane.
So much rejection. And sorrow.
Even with the fog coiling through my mind, I knew that these indistinguishable images and emotions belonged to Fane.
My bottom lip trembled, and a shaky, stilted breath blew out of my lungs. I wanted to take away those terrible things twisting inside of him, so much like my own darkness. The amount of destruction and ruin within him rivaled my own.
And loneliness. Like a hungry parasite, it devoured any little sliver of happiness until misery reigned.
Fane Maverick and I were two wrecked sides of the same coin. He pretended to be a cruel devil when he was really just a broken beast. Savage. But broken.
The demon shifter’s teeth retreated from the left side of my neck, and as he drew back, his face inches from mine, something unreadable shined in his gaze. Lines deepened across his forehead as if he was trying to process an array of emotions.
Weakness bled into my body, and moisture ran down my cheeks as I silently cried. Was it from the loss of my life or the storm of emotions Fane had poured into me?
His jaw ticked as he gently lowered me back to the table, his hand still cradling my head. I was surprised he hadn’t simply dropped me to the cold, hard surface.
Something inexplicable pulsated between us like electricity through wires. If I survived this, I wouldn’t be the only one to come out of it changed. Fane Maverick had just altered his own destiny.
