Page 65 of Wolf Queen Ruin
Damien produced a small obsidian blade from one of his holsters.The black stone had been worked to a wickedly sharp edge, its surface decorated with unfamiliar symbols that seemed to shift under my gaze.
“Ritual blade,” he explained at my questioning look.“Neutral to both our kinds.”
He held it reverently, like something precious rather than merely useful.
I accepted it, testing its weight in my hand.“Handy thing to be carrying around.”
“I come prepared,” he said with a nod.
“For blood sacrifices at ancient crypts?That’s either impressive foresight or a disturbing hobby.”
His lips curled into a predatory smile that made my heart skip.“I’ve found the line between foresight and disturbing hobbies blurs considerably after your first century.”
“I’m sure.”Taking a steadying breath, I brought the blade closer to my palm but stopped.“Is this going to drive you into a blood frenzy?”
He rolled his eyes.“I have more self-control than that.I promise I won’t stick my straw in you.”
I snorted a laugh and drew the obsidian edge across my palm, just deep enough to draw blood.The cut stung less than I expected, the blade so sharp it seemed to part skin without resistance.I held my bleeding hand over the circular depression, watching as my blood dripped into the ancient stone.
Damien’s nostrils flared, and his eyes tracked the movement of my blood with a focus that was both unsettling and oddly intimate.His pupils dilated, but true to his word, he remained controlled.
“Your turn,” I said, passing him the blade.
He made his cut, his blood darker than human, almost black in the dim light.As he extended his hand next to mine, our blood mingling in the stone depression, a subtle vibration began beneath us.
The stone absorbed our combined blood like a thirsty mouth, the liquid disappearing rather than pooling.The spiral pattern began to glow with a faint blue luminescence that grew brighter as it traced inward toward the center.
Then something unexpected happened.
The moment our blood fully combined, a sudden connection formed between us—not physical, but something deeper, more intimate.For a disorienting instant, I could see through Damien’s eyes, feel the constant burn of hunger he carried, sense the weight of centuries pressing down on his consciousness.
Memories not my own flashed through my mind—glimpses of places long destroyed, faces long dead, moments of both terrible beauty and beautiful terror.A beautiful city burning while people fled screaming.A woman with midnight hair and laughing eyes, her fingers entwined with his.The cold weight of a crown being placed upon his head.Blood running like rivers.The crushing isolation of watching everyone around him age and die, over and over and over again.
From his sharp intake of breath and widened eyes, I knew he was experiencing something similar—seeing my memories, feeling my emotions, perhaps even the phantom sensation of shifting that still haunted my dreams.
Before I could process this unexpected connection, the ground beneath us shuddered.The massive roots we knelt between parted, revealing a dark, narrow passageway leading down into the earth.The blue glow from the spiral pattern intensified, illuminating rough-hewn steps descending into darkness.
The psychic connection between us snapped as suddenly as it had formed, leaving me dizzy and disoriented.I pulled back, instinctively putting distance between us as I tried to sort through the jumbled impressions left in my mind.
“What the hell was that?”I demanded, my voice unsteady.
Damien looked shaken in a way I hadn’t seen before, his usual composure cracked to reveal something vulnerable beneath.His hands trembled as he squeezed them into fists.
“Blood recognition,” he rasped out.
I pressed my uninjured hand to my temple, trying to organize the chaos of foreign memories and sensations.“Did you know that would happen?”
“No.”He shook his head, clearly still rattled.“Blood sharing between vampires can create temporary psychic connections, but nothing in my research suggested this outcome with a shifter.The intensity was…unexpected.”
I wrapped a bandage around my cut palm, using the familiar action to ground myself in the present.“Well, now we know why vampires and shifters don’t typically share blood.That was intense.”
“You saw my memories.”It wasn’t a question.
I nodded, swallowing hard.“Some of them.They were fragmented.I saw you get crowned.”
His jaw tightened as he looked away, and I decided to leave that topic alone for now.
The passageway before us exhaled a current of cool, stale air that carried some scents I knew and others I couldn’t immediately identify—mineral dust, ancient stone, something medicinal, and beneath it all, a musky odor that triggered primal recognition in some deep part of my brain.Wolf, but not wolf.Something older, wilder.
