I have immediate need. Amelia must be transported to the safe room with my body. I will be inside her trying to keep Darkness from killing her.He would have to leave his body behind, unprotected, but she didn’t have the time it would take to get her to the safe room.He heard the soft echo of Elina’s cry. No. No, don’t do this. The wrenching pain in her voice nearly shattered him. He sent as much emotion to her as possible, giving her his heart as he shed his body, leaving it vulnerable to Darkness’s mutations.Amelia’s mind was the real battlefield. Darkness wanted her dead before they contained her. The sliver of evil commanded her lungs to cease breathing.Damonq forced the air to continue in and out of her. He felt the anger as the master monster realized he wasn’t alone in Amelia’s mind. The force of the undead’s rage, coiled and ugly, hit him hard. Waves of turbulent sound bounced through Amelia’s head, high-pitched, painful. Darkness tried to drive Damonq out of the te

“Amelia’s so far away, none of us can reach her,” Damonq told Elina as he gathered her close to feed her. “Tariq is hoping you’ll try. The healer thinks she doesn’t want to come back. She knows Darkness used her to try to kill me, her sister and the other children. She knows he used her to try to reacquire you. Claire and Jane have tried. Gary has tried; so has Tensel. Danny is at her bedside along with Liv, but nothing is working.”They had to have the conversation about Damonq imperiously preventing her from helping during the attack, but right then he sounded so distressed over Amelia that she couldn’t help reaching up to link her fingers behind the nape of his neck as she fed. He tasted delicious. Perfect. Truthfully, she was just thankful he was alive.You throw yourself into battle without thinking of the cost to yourself, she pointed out. It’s terrifying, Damonq. You almost died. That poisonous knife could have killed you. So many things could have killed you last night. You

Elina leaned into Damonq to kiss him. She’d been fixated on his eyes, but his mouth was equally as intriguing to her. He tasted wild. She loved that about him. He tasted dangerous. He was both those things and yet, he was hers. She had to be brave enough to look into his mind and see those terrible memories – the emptiness that drove men of honor to become the worst monsters on earth.He kissed like sin. Like heaven. She indulged because she’d hated that look in his eyes, the one that said he thought she wouldn’t want him as he was. She indulged because he was just sexy and his kisses were hotter than the most out-of-control firestorm imaginable.She laid her head over his heart. “I love you, Damonq.”“I know you think you do, Elina. I know you’re my lifemate and you said I was your choice, but I’m not an easy man. I swear to you, I’ll give you everything I can, everything you want or need, but I cannot give you the right to fight at my side when I battle monsters. I will never be

Elina took another deep breath, set her shoulders and drew on every ounce of courage she had. “Baby,” she greeted softly. “I know you’re locked away from us, somewhere safe. Somewhere monsters can’t get to you. I know, because I’ve gone there a time or two myself. It’s all right to go there; we all need that respite once in a while. It isn’t cowardice, it’s self-preservation. Just know, you can’t stay there.”She stroked caresses down Amelia’s arm. “I know, Amelia. Darkness’s horrible creatures surrounded me and held me down. They ripped my clothes off. Some of them licked me with their tongues. Their tongues were black and bumpy with parasites wiggling on them. When they touched my skin I felt filthy.”She watched Amelia closely. The body never moved. Her skin was cool to the touch. Had those lashes fluttered, or had Elina just wanted them to do so? Could she do this again? Relive it all for Amelia? She had to, because it was what Amelia was escaping – what she couldn’t face – an

“No.” Gary stated the denial firmly.The others shook their heads and shifted uncomfortably, as if they might surround Tensel and force him to stay where he was. Tensel looked shocked. He studied the ancients facing him and then slowly looked around the circle.“What is this?” The question was directed at Gary.“You have to be protected. We will hunt.” Gary answered.“I have always hunted,” Tensel said. “Granted, there are many at this table considered stronger and faster, but I have managed, these centuries, to stay alive. I will do what I have always done for our people.”Damonq cleared his throat to bring Tensel’s attention to him. “We are in a new world. An environment the rest of us are struggling to understand and catch up with. You are familiar with this world. You’ve shared your knowledge with us, but where we are still trying to process and learn to fit in, you do so naturally. You fit and move in this century with humans as if you are one of them. You understand their techn