Page 42 of Shadow's Heart

When he held his wrist to her again, bloodlust welled like a leviathan inside her. “No!” She was a heartbeat away from biting him. The memory harvest from a male like this would be her doom. “No more.”

“Why not?” He frowned from her to his wrist and back. “Did you not like my taste?”

“You can’t be serious. You’re concerned about that now?” She made it to her feet.

He did as well, staring down at her. “Then why don’t you want more?”

“You give your blood away readily for one spending so much of it.” Crimson seeped from his side as well.

He flicked a glance at that injury. Shrugged. “I’m already regenerating.” Yet his magic-filled blood seemed to be everywhere. All over him. Their clothes. The ground.

To remove herself from temptation, she crossed to a puddle of still water. Kneeling beside it, she regarded her reflection in the smooth surface. Her irises were dark purple, the color of a bruise. Blue mixed with red. Soon they would match Lothaire’s eyes.I almost bit the sorcerer.

So?

No!

From behind her, Silt said, “Was that a resuscitation or a resurrection? Are you even fully immortal?”

She patted her face, disbelieving her appearance. “I am immortal.”

“You’re not healing from those claw marks on your arm.” Her sleeve had ripped, revealing her injury. “How do you know you’ve passed the threshold?”

When Loreans froze into their immortality, their senses grew even more amplified, intensifying their desires to a boiling point. “Because crossing that threshold is a very . . . distinct time.” Understatement.

“Even after all these years, I recall that torment,” he said in a husky tone. “Flesh aflame. Always aching, never satisfied.”

As his deep voice washed over her, she recalled her fraught time of change—night after night of suffering in her bed, feeling alone and empty.

Having recently died, it seemed her body had bounced back and wantedto live—in all ways. And his luscious blood inside her was an accelerant fueling a wildfire.

“Did you not have a lover to see you through it?” he asked.

No, though I’d yearned for one!“That’s none of your business.” She rose to face him.

Appearing pleased, he said, “So you didn’t. No lover, no mate.” He struck her as keyed up over her revival, almost jubilant.

Ignoring him, she took in her surroundings, as harsh as everywhere else in this place. Not a single plant grew, and she spied zero signs of civilization. They had no food or weapons and no real reason to hope.

He’d asked her if she ever got daunted. She hadn’t before, butdyinghad daunted her. She now knew what her future held oncethe plague forced her to greet dawn. And that was if Nightside’s creatures didn’t get her first.

She frowned up at the sky.Great plan to greet dawn, Mina, in a dimension with no sun.

“How would a female vampire find her mate anyway?” he asked. “When a male vampire becomes immortal, his heart goes dormant, beating again when he finds his fated one. Your heart isn’t dormant. Well, mostly not. Except for when you drown.”

She almost flinched at the reminder. “A female vampire doesn’t have those physiological changes.”

“But you still mate for eternity. So how do you know who’s yours?”

“We just do. Instinctively.” Mina didn’t have time for this distraction—her life remained on the line. “Why are you asking about this?”

“BecauseIjust made your heart beat, princess.” With a smirk, he added, “Seems you’ll be followingmeall around Nightside now.”

She cast him a cutting look.

“I’d say ‘You’re welcome’ for saving you yet again, but you haven’t thanked me.”

What—if anything—did she owe this male? A few hours ago, he’d proudly told her,Yes,of course I will murder Mirceo. Silt’s saving her life wouldn’t make her spare his own, but she would no longer relish killing him. “Why save a dying vampire?”

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