Page 94 of Soul Forge

“Then you don’t know how it feels.”

Shadows swallowed him, depositing him silently behind her. He grabbed her wrist before she could defend herself, twisting it so the dagger landed in the dirt. His other hand gripped her braid hard enough to sting.

“Let go of me!”

“It only hurts for a second, and then I’m told it’seuphoric.” His nose skimmed her throat. “You smell divine. I promise I’ll only take a little.”

There was no time to scream. His grip on her wrist was too firm to swing at him, and his teeth pierced her throat in a burst of white-hot pain before she could raise her leg to stomp his foot.

Right behind the pain came an intense tingling, the kind that made her breath quicken and her pulse race. Her knees weakened, heat blossoming in her chest. Her whole body fell back into his arms like a rag doll. He could drain her completely,and she’d happily let him. An involuntary moan escaped her lips when he took another long pull, drawing her blood at his leisure. Dizziness started to make her vision swim, warmth spreading through her and turning her muscles to jelly.

A deep, bone-shuddering growl echoed through the night, and Elda saw the blurred outline of dark wings descending towards them. Malphas was ripped from her, his teeth replaced by a warm hand when a third person moved into her blurred field of vision, keeping her life inside where it belonged while the Soul Forge dealt with her attacker. Through the haze, she recognised Gira’s dark beard and reflective eyes.

A sharp snap punctured the air, and Elda blinked hard, forcing her eyes to focus. Sypher tossed the body aside like it was weightless, his eyes blacker than the sky above him when he rounded on the shifter.

“Vel, calm down,” Gira pleaded warily, keeping his palm pressed to her wound despite the murderous glare he received. “She’s safe.”

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll let go of her.” That voice, filled with murderous intent, still sent a thrill down her spine.

The demon soul. He was out.

Elda knew she should be alarmed, but she wasn’t lucid enough to be frightened. The heat still burned in her chest, her skin tingling. The sensation of being passed from one person to another was odd. Her surroundings continued to shift, nausea beginning to take over when the person holding her settled her in their lap on the ground. The smell of vetiver and leather tickled her senses.

“Just keep your hand on the wound,” Reiner growled, her footsteps drawing closer.

“Varro, look at me.” That voice, half-hiss, half-silk, sent a shiver through her. She struggled to focus, finding thebottomless eyes it belonged to. Dark veins spidered across pale white skin. “Stay awake.” His teeth were sharpened, but she wasn’t sober enough to be afraid of him. She reached up and touched his cheek.

“Your name is Vel?” she whispered, fascinated. “I didn’t know you had another name.”

“And I didn’t know you couldn’t be left without me forfive minutes.”

Talking to the demon soul was surreal. He took one of his black gloves off with his teeth and laid his bare hand over her bleeding neck, his magic sweeping through her in a cool wave.

She frowned. “Don’t fix me.”

“There’s a hole in your neck, vildeh.”

“What does that word mean?”

He arched an eyebrow, looking down at her where she lay across his lap. “Moron.”

“I prefer varro.”

“Maybe I’ll call you that again when you’re not dying.” His magic was still swirling through her, working hard to replace her lost blood and knit the wound closed. A similar tear appeared at his throat, though his didn’t pump red in a steady stream.

“I still feel fuzzy,” she mumbled when he finished fixing her. “My chest feels all warm.”

“That’s the thrall,” Gira supplied. Vel narrowed his eyes, daring the shifter to get closer. “You’ll feel fuzzy for a while.”

“Put her down,” Reiner demanded, levelling her mace at Vel’s head. The demon bared his teeth. “Put. Her.Down.” Elda knew she should be alarmed, but her worry was muted, held far out of her reach by the thrall.

“And give her to you?” the demon scoffed. “You had one job.”

“Give her to me!” Reiner snarled, and Gira leapt forwards to restrain her, grabbing her wrists and moving her out of Vel’s reach.

“Calm yourself, Rukya,” he warned. “He’ll kill you to keep her.”

“Not if I kill him first.”

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