Page 73 of Monsters of Desire and Nightmares of Passion

“We need to keep her warm. That’s the only way to slow down the poison. There’s nothing else we can do.” My own voice sounds foreign to me.

The guys and I sit around Ivy, wrap our arms around her, kiss her hair and hands, but she’s slipping away from us. It it’s our fault.

No, it’s my fault. I should have done something, found a way to change all of this.

Draw embraces Ivy in his arms and plunges his huge stinger into her chest, injecting her with his essence.

“Will it help?” I ask.

“For a little while. It’ll slow down the spread of the poison.”

I watch Ivy, the way her face changes under the power of the pain wrecking her body. Velvet clings to her, humming and purring, as desperate as we are to save her. Ivy’s breathing grows labored. Small drops of sweat build on her forehead and chest.

My hearts hurt. All of them.

“What will get us out of here?” I ask Draw.

“A decoy,” Draw whispers, his arms still holding Ivy, cradling her with the endless love we all feel for our Ivy, our anchor.

I no longer care about me. My claws elongate and my fangs burn in my mouth, hungry to shred and kill. Rage fills my chest. It’s my turn to do something, anything to help the ones I love.

I look at Mrez, who is still licking the wound on Ivy’s arm that refuses to close. The poison is already messing with her body, making it hard for her system to recover. We keep forgetting she’s human and her body is so much weaker than ours. It’s not her time yet. It can’t be. She’s too young and sweet to die here in this cave. She should die of old age in bed with all of us around her.

The black veins continue to spread. I have no reason to wait or hesitate. My decision is made. I once promised I would never hesitate to kill to save her. My life is worth nothing without Ivy. I kiss her lips softly. Does she whisper my name? No, it’s probably my mind playing tricks on me. I would have killed to see her open her big, blue eyes and gaze upon me, or roll her eyes in anger at something I said, the way she used to do when we were kids.

I lean closer and whisper. “I don’t know if I have a soul but, if I do, I bind it to yours.”

I roar from the depths of my chest and run toward the entrance of the cave. I’ll provide the cloud of lost Shadows the distraction my mates need to get Ivy to safety. I’m a hard, old bone to chew on, and I won’t die before taking many of them with me. If my final destination is Nothingness, then so be it. I’m ready to plunge into that abyss.

I fly out of the cave and into the cloud of lost Shadows. They swarm over me, engulfing me in their numbers. My claws and teeth find purchase, tearing into the things around me. The ravaged Shadows fall away, their lifeless bodies forming a pile at the base of the cliff, only to be replaced by more. As hard as I fight, they out number me. My world turns black. Still, I continue to fight, holding on to the reason that made me jump into the middle of these mad spirits.

Ivy’s face is the last image I see before the darkness engulfs me and the spirits pull me away into a foamy sea of madness.

11

Draw

I watch Khal run toward the cave entrance. I freeze, my mind locked in place, my eyes following his every move, the way Khal advances towards certain death. And not only death, but the Nothingness. Each footstep he takes shakes me deeply. I should run toward the exit to stop him but I’m a damned coward. No, it has nothing to do with fear. I can’t leave Ivy. I’m selfish. I could have ordered Khal to stop. As his alpha, my command would have stopped my brother in his tracks and prevented him from sacrificing himself.

The connection between us suddenly breaks. It hurt son a deep, primary level like a burn inside my core. It’s as if my two hearts bleed at the same time. My brother Khal is gone. I feel worthless and powerless. There is no way I knew of to bring him back from the darkness that engulfed him and was probably even now chewing on his bones.

The cloud of lost Shadows roars horribly as they receive new blood to satiate their hunger. They will rip him apart and feed on his essence.

My eyes trail after him, losing all sense of time and space.

What’s wrong with me?

Mrez shakes me. I finally peel my eyes off the spot Khal had jumped from. I still have two living, breathing mates who need me. Velvet flies close to the entrance of the cave keeping watch over Ivy.

“Khal sacrificed himself for Ivy. Don’t let his sacrifice be in vain.”

It’s Mrez, the one who we always considered soft, who pulls me back to reality.

“You’re right.” I nodded, holding Ivy even closer to me. Her shallow breath is barely audible anymore.

Mrez takes Ivy from me and holds her. His legs shake under her slight weight. Only he’s not shaking because of the effort. He’s shaking with a mute cry. He feels the loss of Khal as ardent and painfully as I do.

“Give her to me,” I command. I allow myself to change back into my physical form. The cloud of Shadows pulls away. They no longer lust. They will be full for a while.

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