still time because she hasn’t taken a ride yet, right?”
He puffed out his cheeks. “Maybe.” He twisted his neck to look at her and arched a brow. “You know what? I’m feeling magnanimous today. Your passion, your connection has touched me. I’m intrigued. You gate-crashed into my domain, after all. That in itself deserves a prize.”
“Oh, goody,” Cora said. “I’m so glad; now give her back to me.”
She kept looking at me, and her expression told me what she was seeing wasn’t encouraging.
My skin was paler now, and my body felt lighter as if it was shedding a weight. Losing a connection. It was over. I was dead. The knowledge was a dark pit in my stomach. All the things left undone…All the people left behind. I looked at my best friend. The woman who’d stood by me time after time. Who’d somehow jumped into this prelude to death to drag me out, and pure love filled my chest. My throat pinched with an excess of emotion.
“It’s okay.” I smiled at her. “You can go now.”
She gave me a shut-the-fuck-up look and focused on the young man. “What do you want in exchange for her?”
I couldn’t have her making deals with this creature parading as a man. “Cora. You need to leave. Now.”
Her head snapped my way. “Like fuck am I leaving you. He can give you back to me.” She strode up to the guy. “What. Do. You. Want?”
He tipped his head back slightly and sucked on his lips, looking her up and down. “One kiss.”
Cora’s head jerked back. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. You have an energy, an aura…I want to taste it.”
My stomach quivered in foreboding. “Cora, don’t.”
The man smirked. “Don’t worry, Seraphina Dawn. I won’t hurt her.”
“Fine,” Cora said. “One kiss, and then you let her leave with me, alive. Deal.”
“Deal.”
She grabbed his lapels and yanked him to her, crushing her mouth to his in a long, tongue-sucking lip lock that, frankly, was kind of unnerving.
It ended just as abruptly when she shoved him away and backed up, her step a little unsteady.
He reached up to touch his mouth, and his eyes, which had been as dark as twilight, lit up like the sunrise.
What had just happened? What had my friend given and what had this creature taken?
“So, we can go now?” Cora asked. Her tone was shaky.
He climbed onto his bike and revved the engine.
“Hey! Are we done?”
His lips curved in a smirk. “For now.”
This time when Cora reached for me, our hands connected. Her fingers wrapped around mine and she tugged me to her, hugging me close.
I shut my eyes and allowed the world to fracture.
I may be going back, but I’d died. I’d fucking died, and that would have consequences.
Chapter Forty
“Fee, fucking hell. Fee.”
I came to slowly, enveloped in heat and bound in an embrace. Not one embrace but three. Grayson’s husky eyes seared my soul, while Azazel’s powerful chest pressed to my back and Mal’s forehead touched my cheek. They cradled me between them, arms locked around me, uncaring that holding me like this meant holding onto each other. It was intimate and safe and warm, and in their arms, I was home. I was with my guys.
A choked sob rose up between us.
Mal.
He rolled his forehead against my cheek, and hot tears splashed my collarbone. “We lost you.” His voice was a ragged sigh. “Fuck. We lost you.”
“I felt it.” Azazel gripped me tighter. “The wrenching in my soul. I felt you die.”
“We all did.” Grayson scanned my face as if he couldn’t believe he was seeing it again.
I’d died?
A memory stirred at the back of my mind. I’d died and…Cora…Cora had held me together and brought me back.
Panic flared in my chest. Something had happened. Something to Cora. “Cora! Where’s Cora?”
“I’m here, babe,” Cora said from beyond the wall of muscle that surrounded me. “Alive and kicking. Just letting the guys do their thing.”
Yeah, the guys weren’t letting me go anytime soon, and I wasn’t complaining. My feet didn’t touch the ground, and my chest was kinda aching a little from Azazel’s epic grip, but I didn’t care. Their scent, their heat was like a balm to a soul that felt frazzled and fractured.
I closed my eyes and reveled in the contact, and slowly, increment by increment, Azazel’s grip eased. Mal kissed my cheek and stepped back, and Grayson did the same. But they didn’t go far.
Uri slipped past Grayson and pulled me into a tight hug. His body trembled against