Page 123 of Bite The Terror That Feeds

“Dawn.”

She gave a moan and tried to turn away.

I pulled her back to me. “I need you to get up and get ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

What’sss happening?

I told Fang everything.

They’re coming.

Yes.

What will you do with Larisssa?

I want to send her away, but I’m afraid she won’t go.

She won’t—and I won’t either.

That was exactly what I feared. I’d tried to send them away once, but they’d come right back to me.

Larisa finally stopped turning away and sat upright. She hugged the blanket to her chest, not to protect her privacy, but to protect her nipples from the cold. “What’s happened?” Fang slithered onto the bed and curled up beside her, like a dog covered in scales.

I sat on the bed beside her. “The Ethereal march for Grayson as we speak.”

It took her a moment to process that. “How do you know this?”

I told her about Clara’s letter.

“It’s not a trick?”

“Cobra doesn’t think so,” I said. “They’ll be here tomorrow, at first light, probably.”

“We haven’t had time to share the antidote with the humans yet.”

“And we won’t have time.”

“Will our forces be enough?”

I could see the fear in her eyes, hear it in her voice. “Cobra is on his way to retrieve the Originals. We will have enough to survive this war, but our winning hand is Clara’s information. If you have the right strategy, a hundred soldiers can defeat an army of ten thousand.”

She gave a subtle nod. “How can I help prepare?”

The shitty part had arrived. “Larisa, this is no place for you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can’t stay here,” I said. “I can’t lead my people and watch my back if I’m watching you—”

“Last time you did that, you almost died.”

Her anger hit me like a gust of frozen wind. “Larisa—”

“You say you want to marry me, and then you send me away—”

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