Page 44 of Kidnapping Their Third

Cora tried to find the clasp to take the necklace off. “Here, you can have it.”

Tobias shook his head. “Giving it to me won’t do Maksim any good.”

“But that happened over a day ago, why is he hurting now?” Pike asked. When Cora looked at him, she noticed his face was fully human again.

“He’s weak now but was powerful once. He had enough of his former self leftover that he was able to last for some time before succumbing to the loss,” Tobias explained, then raised an eyebrow at Cora. “If he had both his flock bound to him, he would’ve probably not been affected at all.”

It was as if those words were a slap in the face, making Cora rear back and gasp. She opened her mouth, not sure what she was going to say, when Pike spoke.

“It has to be her choice,” Pike bit out. “An unwilling soul poisons the flock.”

Tobias’s eyes started glowing with power. “Are you unwilling, human? Or is it something else?”

Cora fell into Tobias’s gaze. All her worry vanished and the room around her disappeared.

“Tell me why,” Tobias said, his voice wasn’t harsh anymore. He sounded kind and understanding. Trust blossomed inside her and the words poured out of her mouth.

“I’m scared,” she heard herself say. Why was she admitting this? Even more strange, why wasn’t she upset? She should be furious at voicing any kind of weakness, but instead, she found herself wanting to tell him everything.

“What are you scared of?” Tobias asked.

She heard a faint choking noise but it barely registered as she explained.

“What if I can’t leave? Binding souls is forever. I need to be able to leave. What about my family? I can’t be vulnerable like that.”

Tobias made a questioning sound. “Do you think your vampire wouldn’t help your friends and family?”

Complicated scenarios filtered through her head, making it hard for her to speak even though she wanted to. Thankfully Tobias continued to speak.

“Your vampire will care deeply about everything and anything you care about,” Tobias told her. There was another choking sound, then a gasp and a sharp intake of breath. Tobias looked away, and she followed his gaze to see Pike red faced, hunched over, and gasping. “Calm down, bear. She’s perfectly fine. Don’t make me hold you still again.”

“Kimble’s dying, and you decide to put Cora under thrall for questioning instead of fixing him?” Pike croaked out.

“I’m trying to gauge if I can bind her soul,” Tobias said with a disdainful sniff. “It would be the best way to help him. Unfortunately that’s not a viable option. She has too much doubt. It’s something the three of you will have to address eventually.”

“What can you do instead of binding Cora’s soul?” Pike asked.

Cora felt herself coming out of whatever Tobias did to her. It was almost like waking from a dream. Shaking her head, she tried to understand what Tobias was saying.

“I can take from each of your auras and use them to repair his,” Tobias explained.

“Did you hypnotize me?” Cora asked. She tried to feel outraged at the loss of control, but there was still a strange leftover calm from what Tobias had done.

“It’s called thrall, human,” Tobias answered. “Now catch up with the adults. I need to take some of your aura. It’ll be painful and debilitating for a short time. Do you understand?”

Her calm didn’t extend to Tobias’s outright disdain. She smiled, showing all her teeth. “I might need to stab you later.”

A smile flittered across the vampire's mouth, then he spoke in a dry tone. “Charming.”

“Ditto,” Cora answered then held out her hand, offering up her wrist. “Take whatever you need to fix Kimble.”

Pike pulled in a sharp breath. “It’s not going to feel good, Cora. I’ll recover within a few hours, but you’ll feel like you got hit by a truck.”

“I’m tough,” she assured Pike without looking away from Tobias. Her rapidly beating heart and sweat breaking out over her body belied her confident words.

Tobias pushed her hand away and tapped the floor. “Both of you need to lay on either side of him.”

Pike flopped down and rolled on his side so his front was pressed against Kimble. Cora was slower to lay down. She didn’t like Tobias looming over her.

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