Page 91 of The Salvation

“I am strong enough. Because I am everything.” I smile at him as he leans in and coils his hand around my throat, possessive. The touch gives me hope. But I need more. “But I’m not going to, Merikh.Youare going to follow me.”

The shadows grow around the melted moonlight of his eyes, sharpening the lines of his face, but I don’t relent. I put a gap of distance between us, pulling away.

“You’re going to follow me, Merikh. Because I never needed to save you, you sucker.” I smirk, bordering on a giggle from the first time I called him that so long ago. “We’re two broken souls and shattered hearts saving one another. You want mine, Merikh? You’ll have to find yours first. Come and catch me!”

I fly.

I flyuntil I feel his heart beating in my hands with those cold currents of watery soul swirling all around me. Like the ebb and flow of life,hislife.

“Beat,” I command, throwing my head down and pumping that vital organ.

I’ve dared him to find his heart. Hope makes you do reckless things. Well, now, I’m straddling the vampire I love with his chest gored out from my hand, his blood soaking my skin, and I’m pumping his very heart while daring him to live again.

“Beat, Merikh!”

I pump again, firmer, quicker, the heart almost slipping from my palms slick with his blood. Those soul currents ripple all around my hand, growing brighter. Even the crypt itself seems to shudder in time to my pumping hands.

“Merikh, if you don’t wake up, I’ll rip out that silver cross and turn it into a pair of earrings! Merikh fucking Howle,” I raise my voice to a near scream and pump again. “So help me God of Blood, beat—your—damn—heart—out!”

Careless of the partially wrecked rib cage and fleshy strips, I bring my other fist down on the right side of his chest with a ferocious hammering pound.

Thump—the subtle pulse freezes the blood in my system.

My breath pushes through my withered throat in waves.

Then...thumpthump.

My pulse careens in my veins.

Thumpthump.

It skyrockets. I didn’t just imagine it. I felt it! Hope sends a tidal wave of bubbles through me as I hang onto that irregular heart rhythm.

Thumpthump...thumpthump. I gasp from the heart my hands still clutch as the pulsing picks up. The soul currents intensify, swirling and spinning all around my hands.

“Merikh?” I whisper, leaning in, hearing and feeling the heavy breaths of my other monsters in the stale air of the crypt.

I move again, the strength of my purpose coaxing through every line in my palm from every blood cell in my body. Just as the heart gains momentum, the soul currents dive into the core, merging with the heart until it explodes into a staccato rhythm of hammering beats. A crescendo like the mighty surge of crashing waves in a tempest.

A warm burst of energy, like lightning, ripples into my hands. I yank them out of the way just in time for the new blood to swell, for the muscles and bones to repair themselves, fusing back together. I don’t move a muscle as I stare in a mesmerized silence as the skin, the skin I carved and hacked through, stitches and seals itself until it’s his chest—the violence and beauty of his tapestry of flesh.

His eyes open. Mine widen.

Rocking upward, Merikh forces me into a straddle and kisses me so mad and reckless and fiercely, it rips my soul from my body and yanks it into his. He attacks my mouth, teeth biting and tongue stabbing in ungodly pleasure, sinful delirium.

A velvety growl erupts from his throat. One that resonates into my chest before he pauses from my lips. As my breath heaves and cleaves from my swollen mouth, Merikh jerks his head around to the others.

“Mayce,” he commands, jutting his chin to the floor. “Beneath her now.”

Emotion clots my throat. Raw. Beautiful. Overwhelmed. Relieved. Ignited.

Not just ignited. Flames kindle my skin. A storm sweeps into my lungs. Something like vines tickles all my nerve endings. And blood, my blood thrashes in my veins and surges straight for my core.

Desire tightens my womb at the sight of my beautiful and hypnotic fae shifting into his monstrous form, pushing his stag horns from his head and growing his membranous earthy wings. I bite my lip with a shy smile as he removes his robe.

“Drago.” Merikh nods to the alpha, his voice a deep command that the dragon will obey. “Your cocks. Her cunt.”

Drago grins down at me, flexing all his muscles, his scales rupturing through his skin. “Gladly,” he says with his emerald eyes gleaming with a radiance that sets me on fire.

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