Page 116 of Primal Bonds

Jace’s heart lurched. He lifted her onto his lap. “I love you,” he said. “So fucking much.” Her mouth curved but she didn’t speak. He rubbed her back, terrified that between him and Tyrus, they’d drained her too deeply.

But Tyrus didn’t care.

Dark energy slipped over the two of them. Soft at first, like the damp brush of fog, then they were enveloped in chilly tendrils. Jace burned with guilt and shame.

He’d failed his sister.

He’d failed Merry.

And now he was going to fail Evie.

The tendrils multiplied like a ball of squirming maggots, enveloping Jace in a slimy darkness. He had the urge to flail at them wildly, but that would only play into Tyrus’s hands. The more negative energy Jace put out, the more Tyrus had to feed on.

Evie wrapped her arms around his waist. “We can beat him,” she whispered fiercely against his neck. “Happy thoughts, right?”

He buried his face in her hair. He didn’t know about happy thoughts, but he knew one thing—this woman was his heart. Warmth flared in his chest. He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed the palm.

A trembling smile bloomed on her lips. She curled her fingers as if capturing his kiss for safe-keeping. “Love you.”

Their eyes met. The blackness receded, but hovered nearby. Testing for weaknesses.

Jace gathered himself for a fight.

The tendrils returned, insidious, relentless. This time they burrowed deeper, sucking at their energy. Evie shuddered and Jace snapped.

Enough.

“Run if you can,” he told her and set her on the floor behind him.

“No,” she said, but he was focused on Tyrus now.

He crouched on all fours, man and jaguar united. “You fucking SOB. Can’t you see it’s too much for her? Feed on me, damn you.”

Tyrus’s eyes bored into him. Icy claws of dread clamped on his nape, but he ignored it to prowl closer.

Something black and sharp bored into his heart. Tyrus was feeding in earnest now, but a feeding night fae did nothing to relieve the pain. Instead, he somehow made it double and then redouble, so that Jace was lashed with regret: so many people dead…so many ways he’d fucked up, let down those he loved.

“No.” He hunched his shoulders as if the lash were a physical whip, and grimly bore it.

Beside him, Evie swallowed audibly. “Jace…”

She was curled up on the floor, gasping for breath. Tyrus hadn’t let up on her. She was being sucked into the darkness with him.

Fuck that.

His growl was low and primal. He had enough energy now to shift. One chance to save Evie. He’d have to make it count.

The cat was a hundred percent with him. Kill. Save the female.

Jace dropped the quartz pendant over his neck and set his mouth. The shift was agony. His skin burned, and his bones popped and cracked, twisted beyond their capacity. An involuntary groan tore from his lips.

“Jace.” Behind him, Evie gasped and pushed herself up on her hands and knees. “What are you doing?”

He ignored her to focus on drawing enough energy to fuel the shift. Lights exploded behind his eyes. A fireball of pain scorched through him until it was all he could do not to scream.

He folded his fingers around his quartz and squeezed, sucking every bit of energy he could. Now. He wrenched his form from man to cat—and then collapsed on the ground, weak as a kitten.

Evie sobbed out his name. “Jace.”

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