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But more follow, encircling ruthlessly. Rage kindles my blood, granting strength. Eyes blazing, I focus wildly—using raw telekinetic force to wrench another SUV sideways. It hurtles off the cliff edge, occupants shrieking.

"Hell yeah, welcome back, brother!" Lucian whoops. Swerving around scattered debris, we nearly make the old stone bridge to freedom. But the lead vehicle suddenly pulls alongside us again. In its open window, a rifle barrel aims directly at Lucian's manic grin...

"Not today, fuckers!" Eyes aflame, I unleash a massive kinetic blast just as gunshots erupt...The vehicle shreds under the explosive impact, flipping end over end in a screeching avalanche of mangled metal before it topples over the bridge edge.

Lucian whoops loudly, swerving us clear of the plummeting wreckage. His laughter rings with unleashed chaos while I slump back, the brief burst of power fading. Up ahead, the tarmac finally comes into view, my sleek jet awaiting, its lines silvered alluringly by moonlight— a sanctuary worth fighting through hell to reach.

With a ragged shout of relief, Lucian spins us into a smoking drift onto the open runway. We barrel from the bullet-riddled sedan just as the remaining Brotherhood vehicles scream around the final bend. Lucian shouts furious threats while hustling us toward the lowered entry plank, where the pilot gestures wildly.

As the hatch seals close with a bone-deep hiss, euphoric relief crashes over me. Now safely inside, the jet engines ignite in sequence as we stagger on unsteady legs into the plush cabin.

Lucian's eyes are feral and wide as he barks at the nervous pilot, "Get this bird off the ground now, goddamn it! Step on it before those psychos catch up to skin us all alive!"

The jet turbines unleash an ear-splitting scream, gut-wrenching G-forces slamming me brutally back into butter-soft leather as we surge down the runway. The jet hurtles skyward, with desperate velocity designed to outrun our pursuers for good.

As the adrenaline high recedes, it leaves only dull-edged exhaustion flooding my cells. I turn to Lucian and Adrian, my voice choked with ragged gratitude. "Thank you...for coming back for us. You both strode willingly into hell to save us."

Lucian curls his lip sardonically, tossing me a chilled bag of viscous crimson. "Thought you bloodsuckers could use this. Got a whole mini fridge stocked up when you ladies get hungry again!" His flippancy brings an exhausted smile to my ruined face.

I slowly sip the vital fluid, its dark energy seeping into my wasted frame. As strength gradually returns, I urgently question Lucian about Danica.

He confirms she was unharmed, looking for me at the club nearly three weeks before. Slumping back, I exhale ragged relief, my frantic twisting anxiety easing slightly. But we remain sealed thirty thousand feet in the air with ten crawling hours left until we get home—an eternity when danger still shadows my vulnerable mate.

I must get to Danica now—to make sure she is safe and to explain why I vanished without warning and failed to shield her. To reclaim our shattered future before it fractures beyond repair. Most importantly, to mark her irreversibly as mine for all hostile worlds to recognize. She must wear my brand so no one dare threaten what I hold most precious again.

I yearn to wrap her in my arms this instant, to beg her forgiveness and taste her honeyed blood once more. Instead, I stare, willing the jet to go faster through the phantom hands of time separating us.

Soon, baby, I vow vehemently. Wait just a while longer...I'm coming for you!

Danica

43

Three endless fucking weeks without one goddamn word from Rhyland. That spineless bastard cut and ran, leaving me to reassemble the pulverized ruins of my heart alone. I exposed my most intimate self and let him trespass where no other had ventured. Our connection was profound and primal, unlike anything I've ever known.

Now I'm drowning in agony, each shallow breath a crushing effort as bands tighten ruthlessly around my chest. He claimed we were eternal mates and that we'd wither without the other. Is this the hell he foretold—slow suffocation as my missing piece turns phantom? Each ragged inhale grows more shallow, my starving lungs refusing to fill completely.

I'm disgusted at myself for clinging to his intoxicating words, for becoming spellbound by his hypnotic presence. Repulsed that I let his thick shaft bring such delirious pleasure, convulsing wildly beneath him until I forgot everything but our joining. With each breath, I curse myself even more for surrendering my iron will to his poisonous love. And still, only silence answers while scalding tears carve ragged furrows down my face.

Somehow, I force myself off the floor, desperately trying to numb my flayed thoughts. I can't keep drowning endlessly in this pit of agony. In my head, Emily's voice grumbles disapprovingly, appalled at how rapidly I became addicted, reduced to one more quivering addict desperate for her next hit of Rhyland...

My weak, traitorous body still quivers at mere memories of Rhyland—his commanding presence, that wickedly talented tongue sparking forbidden desire until I burned. Even now, his explicit words make heat rise to my face, that twisted blend of shame and excitement only he could elicit.

How did Rhyland gut all my defenses, reducing me to this shadowsick mess? I'm someone entirely new now, realms beyond the steadfast woman I once was—now pathetically craving his proprietary attention, fighting to fill the gaping void at my core.

How can I ever move on when he carved out such an integral shard of my soul?

In my darkest moments, I've contemplated ways to utterly numb this relentless hurricane thrashing inside—pills, blades, whatever dangerous methods necessary to mute such suffocating pain. But I force those sinister urges back down into the shadows...for I know a far greater threat now looms.

As excruciating as this withdrawal is, I must endure the agony. Because without Rhyland here, I stand alone against the crosshairs aimed at my vulnerable back. Whatever unknown forces ignited these preternatural gifts stirring within now also endanger me. And the coming confrontation with that darkness can only be faced by me alone...

Scalding water sluices my skin in the shower, doing nothing to wash away the dread as my thoughts spiral back to the frightening power simmering inside. I hurry to dress and gulp bitter coffee, hoping the ritual might settle my rattled nerves. But the acrid liquid only reminds me of the yawning unknowns surrounding this energy building within.

I've been a virtual prisoner here, trying to hide from Azrael's clutches. Conjuring excuses galore to avoid returning to Playful Pint, where too many supernatural eyes might expose what should remain hidden. At least I’ve been able to attend my day job and work in the lab.

My tireless research has uncovered ancient tongues linked to celestial beings and angelic script bearing similarities to the one on the note. But their meaning continues to elude me. Do such divine creatures really exist out in the cosmos somewhere? Or are they just myths invented to explain the inexplicable? As a scientist, my duty is to unravel such mysteries through logic and evidence. Yet this one threatens my sturdy rationality itself!

My relentless craving for knowledge is never sated as I run ceaselessly in circles, unable to decode this supernatural enigma. What the hell am I becoming? And how can I regain control over forces far exceeding my comprehension? The answers loom eternally out of reach, my scientific mind rebelling against the surreal chaos overtaking everything I once understood about this world and my place within it...