Page 22 of Pain

All he did was nod, but he didn’t resist, allowing me to pull him along as wefollowed Maxar, who now had the phone with the coordinates.

We walked all the way through the oasis to the other side, then kept going further into the endless desert. “Are you sure this is the right w—” but my words were cut off by the sudden mind-scratching humming sound that filled the air like a billion bees. Cringing at the way the noise just grated every cell in my body, I glanced up to find two big rocks—both of them twice the size of Zandren and about five feet apart—creating a natural doorway.

“This is it,” Maxar said. “Even without the coordinates, we’d know. You can feel the magic buzzing in the air.”

“It’s like the opposite of ASMR,” I said, shoving my fingers into my ears. The air crackled and sparked around us like there were invisible live wires everywhere. None of this was pleasant. My instinct was to just keep backing up until I couldn’t feel or hear any of it anymore. I resisted, but it wasn’t easy.

“Remember,” Maxar said, stepping in front of the rest of us, “linear thoughts. Just think about keeping it together. About getting to the other side.” He smirked and glanced at Zandren. “And keeping your cock.”

Zandren grunted.

Then we all watched as Maxar took a step forward. I held my breath, but was caught off guard when he paused, spun around, and took my face in both of his hands. Then, he planted a big, sexy, all-consuming kiss on my mouth. It was way more than the peck from earlier. This one had tongue, and it stole every remaining molecule of oxygen from my lungs, leaving me breathless and panting when he finally let go. “Don’t worry, My Queen. I’ll be there to catch you on the other side.” Then he nodded at Drak and Zandren, spun back around, and stepped through the rocks with no more hesitation.

I don’t know why I was expecting him to just emerge on the other side, like this was all some elaborate game. But he didn’t. He legitimately disappeared. Swallowed up into the portal and cannoned into another dimension.

Zandren was next, the worrying noises he made as he padded forward, pulled hard at the strings of my heart. I bent down and pressed a kiss to his nose. “You’ve got this, Pooh Bear.”

He grunted again, then swung his enormous head around and lumberedthrough the rocks, disappearing just like Maxar did.

Drak’s fingers tightened in mine.

“Don’t tell me the big, grumpy vampire is scared,” I teased, turning to face him.

His crystal-blue eyes were hollower and more haunted than I’d ever seen. He didn’t say anything. He simply pressed a kiss to my cheek, released my hand, and with his shoulders back, strode through the rocks, evaporating into nothing, just like the other two.

“And then there was one,” I whispered, my gut a mess and my hands sweaty. I wiped my palms on my pants and pulled in a deep breath. “Suck it up, Playfair. You just killed like twelve vampires. This is nothing. Just keep your thoughts linear. Don’t let them wander. Don’t focus on the pain. Focus on getting through to the other side. You can do this.”

With a nod to nobody but the Fates, who were undoubtably watching from their crystal balls while eating popcorn and red vines, I gripped the straps of my backpack and walked through the rocks.

CHAPTER SIX

To say the experience was painful was the understatement of the millennium. It wasn’t just painful, it was agonizing. It was paralyzing. It was as if being drawn and quartered. Only instead of quartered, my body and soul were being pulled apart by a million horses, in a million different directions, not just four.

I did my best to keep my thoughts on just getting through. On ignoring the pain, and not worrying about my mates and what they might be experiencing or whether they were okay, but it was harder than I thought.

Everything was dark, but at the same time, my brain was full of bright, flickering static. Even though, technically, I didn’t have a brain because all my molecules had been torn apart and were torpedoing through time and space to another dimension. So how I was still able to have thoughts was just a bigger mindfuck, on top of the already colossal-sized mindfuck that was alternate dimensions, realms, vampires, shifters, demons, and mages—oh my!

It all probably lasted no more than a few minutes, or it easily could have been months that we were in that dark, excruciating tunnel, I couldn’t tell. Just when I thought I wouldn’t be able to take the pain any longer, it stopped. Then it was like I was being squeezed into a sausage tube too small for my body and all my parts began to glue themselves together again.

I tried, I really freaking tried to think about getting to the other side, but when you don’t know what the other side looks like, that part is near impossible. So of course, my thoughts wandered to worries. What if my arm and leg got disorganized in the reassembly and I came out looking like a disfigured monster? Or what if I lost my memories of Gemma and Aunt Delia?

Get it together, Playfair. Just think about reaching your mates. They’re already through and waiting for you. Picture them. Focus on them.

So, I did.

And like the enormous water slide at Chase City Waterpark, I shot out of the wormhole—or whatever it was—flying through the air and landing on my ass directly at someone’s feet.

Instantly, I checked to see that all my body parts were intact. That I didn’t have a hand for a foot, and that my nose was where it was supposed to be. Then I ran through my memories. I still remembered Gemma. Innocent, sweet, spicy Gemma. And Aunt Delia. A quick flash of anger laced with heartache caught me unaware at the thought of Aunt Delia lying there dead in her bedroom after Lerris tortured her for information about me.

I hadn’t even opened my eyes yet.

Oh god! Did I have eyeballs?

I blinked them open, and the first person I saw was Drak. I was sitting on his feet and the relief mixed with pain that stared back at me in his gaze was gutting. He offered me a hand and helped me to stand up. Zandren shifted and was putting his clothes back on from Maxar’s backpack. From the looks of things, my bear-shifter mate kept his monstrous manhood through the portal.

Thank the gods, Fates, and everything in between for that.

“How’re you doing?” Maxar asked, coming up to me and running his hands down my arms to double-check I made it through in one piece. “I see Moloch’s Sacrifice made it through.”

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