Page 113 of Seduced

“The danger is gone,” Alexei told her. “It’s over.”

She coughed wetly and struggled to sit up and look at Alexei. Her eyes found the cat, which Alexei was handing over to Wilder.

“He crept in there with me,” Poppy said around another coughing fit. She wheezed, unable to get enough air in her lungs. “He came while I fought. He was watching over me.”

“He saved your life,” Wilder murmured.

“You saved my life,” Poppy told him and Alexei, and then she doubled in two, gasping for breath. Her hands were shaking.

“Don’t speak now,” Alexei told her, “save your strength.”

“You…You came.”

Of course I did.He couldn’t speak.Am I crying again? Why am I always crying?

“I…”

Poppy took a shuddering breath and was still in his arms. Alexei shook her, but nothing happened.

“Wilder, she’s not waking up,” he said frantically.

He propped her to a seated position, supporting her back with his left knee. Her pale face was utterly still and her delicate, almost transparent eyelids were closed. Alexei passed a hand over her cold cheeks, smoothing the curls away from her white brow. As he touched her like that, tenderly, slowly, out of his own volition, all of the day’s fear and anguish seemed to culminate within him.

He began to shake her until her teeth chattered, but apart from her eyes fluttering, she did not respond.

No. No. This cannot be happening.

Not after everything we went through.

Dear God, please give her back to me. I shall not stop fighting for her; I will never stop.

He pulled her closer to his chest, rubbing warmth into her cold arms and willing her chest to breathe. His muscles were screaming in protest, but he went on until he felt her move against his heart.

“Open your eyes for me, love, come on.” She didn’t move and a desperation seized him. “Don’t you die on me, Poppy,” he murmured. “Don’t you dare die.”

In the end, his despair was quiet rather than screaming. He gathered her in his arms and sobbed, letting his head fall back.

Then Wilder’s hands were there, warm and steady, on his hair, around his shoulders, supporting him, holding him up.

“’S all right,” Wilder murmured, his voice broken. “It’s all right, my lord. Alexei. It’s going to be all right. She is safe and sound.”

She was safe, but definitely not sound.

Alexei took her to the Underworld.

…

The doctor said that she needed sleep and rest and she would be herself soon enough.

“Will she, by God,” Alexei retorted, seething. “She was buried alive.”

“Well,” the doctor floundered, looking for a response, “that…that might take some getting over.”

“You think?”

Alexei packed him off and asked for another physician to be brought to the club, one who was preferably a human being. While they waited for him, he was informed that the vicar was still there, and was asking for an audience with him.

“Good grief, must he?” Alexei grunted. “Show him in.”

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