Page 81 of Faerie Marked

Instinctively I reached for it, reaching for anything I could potentially use as a weapon. After my fingers closed around the chunk of quartz, I realized might not have been such a good idea at all. Would it break Nurse Julie’s potion spell? On second thought, breaking the spell would release my own inner wolf and put me on a more level field against Roman. Because until I could discover a way to break the glamour enchantment, I was on my own.

A heartbeat, then another, and then…the familiar icy coldness. But it was taking too long. Would I have time for the full effect to take hold before I had to fight off Roman again? And if not…what was I going to do with a piece of rock?

Roman leaped into the air, his eyes glowing and a growl cutting across the night. He landed on me and pinned me to the ground. Leaving me no room for escape. The ax was about to fall.

I clutched the crystal and jammed it as hard as I could into the exposed skin of his neck just as Roman tightened his grip, his hulking shape on top of me and holding me down.

The crystal fragment still had fire inside it. The same fire that had caused it to rupture in the first place. I could feel it pulsing in my hand. My only hope of surviving was that somehow the quartz crystal would have an effect on Roman, at the very least weaken him enough for me to get away.

Then his teeth ripped into my throat and the world exploded.

30

The stars disappeared. Both from the sky and the ones I’d seen like chunks of diamond scattered across the lawn. Everything disappeared under the tearing of those fangs through my skin. Through veins and arteries until the warm rush of blood pooled beneath me and I could no longer feel my arms or legs.

I felt nothing.

Roman and I were falling together. Out of reality, out of existence. He continued to rip at me maliciously until I didn’t know where I left off and he began. Was he drinking my blood? Anger built up inside of me, straining for release, before disappearing under a wave of pure agony.

Every part of me went icy-cold. I tried to focus and couldn’t, tears leaking from the sides of my eyes. Darkness encroached at the edges of my vision until I lost myself on a tide of pain, no longer present. No longer able to fight back.

I was dying.

A pop sounded. Muffled. Far away.

Someone help me…

I didn’t want to die alone. I waited for visions of my life to flash before me and remind me of all the things I’d done wrong, all the things I’d miss when I passed from this life to the next. I’d never dreamed it would end like this.

My pulse beat roughly in my ears. I wasn’t sure what I heard. Until suddenly everything came to a screeching halt and Roman collapsed forward, his jaw releasing from my throat and hot blood, both his and mine, flowed over me.

A commotion broke out around us.

His body fell to the side just as hands reached for me and when I blinked, though he was distorted, Detective Wilson stood over me.

I watched his mouth moving but I didn’t hear the words. I heard nothing beyond my pulse until Nurse Julie gathered me up into her arms.

I was hallucinating. They couldn’t be here. They were glamoured. I felt the force of their words although I wasn’t sure I made them out.

It’s going to be okay.

“It’s going to be okay.”

Julie held me for the longest time as men swarmed the lawn. Wilson’s men, as he’d promised, those on his staff and those from his pack he trusted.

They’d come for me at last. How?

My head was spinning.

“Stay steady, dear. We’ve got to stem the flow before you bleed out. Try not to move. Tavi, do you hear me?” Nurse Julie rasped.

I glanced over toward where Roman lay in the grass near me, saw his unblinking eyes staring straight at me, and I caught a glimpse of the shard of quartz I’d managed to strike him with, still lodged in his neck, dripping with blood mixed with the crimson decorating the lower portion of his face.

Dead.

Somehow, I’d gotten away with my life.

“Come on, let’s get you out of here and get you cleaned up.” Nurse Julie pulled me to my feet with a flutter of her wings. “Stay with me, now. I’ve got you.”

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