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The realization blew his mind and hit like a bolt of super-sized electrons.

He jerked and threw himself so hard his body thumped against a solid surface.

A wall with rusty bolts hanging precariously from the way one bit into his back, inflicting a shard of pain.

Nada.

His consciousness repeated the word as it reeled, and reality almost snapped into two.

With all the power he could muster, Riv forced his meta vision to focus. His noids probed until he made out a woman’s silhouette.

She crouched on the ground, glaring at him with singular focus through the transparent energy shield that separated them.

His soul twisted and wrenched, and he clamped hard on his lip to prevent the guttural cry that rose from inside him.

Élisa.

His eyes raked her form with a hunger and need that had never left him.

He stared at the hypnotizing sight of her as he tensed with desire and yearning, ready to take her in that instant.

It was raw, it was excruciating, it was brutal.

The sinuous lines of her body called out to be caressed and held.

Her sensual lips and how they were now curved into a frown only heightened his rapid arousal.

The one eye, the only one he could make out, was lilac, bright, and luminous, and it threatened a storm.

The other lay shadowed under a contoured chrome patch covering her socket and upper cheek in an inverted V.

He started as he noted she’d lost her lodestone. A tiny violet gem surrounded by an intricate silver tattoo sat in its place.

He’d never seen her hair like it was now, pulled back in a severe ponytail that fell to a shimmering metallic river down her back.

His fingers itched to reach out and undo the knots.

To thread his fingers through it just like he’d done for hours, letting its sheen pass through like lustrous silk.

She still sported the pair of distinct chrome feathers she’d always had growing from the nape.

They’d been joined by three more, and they trailed down to mid-chest, even longer and silkier than he remembered.

Her essence flooded him. Taking him back to their early days when he’d made love to her non-stop.

Unbidden, unleashed, unstoppable until they were both undone for weeks on end.

Their pairing had always been so sacred and savage.

Images of kissing her rushed through his mind.

How he’d loved drinking from those ambrosia-laden lips that were sweet, tart, and heady, all at the same time.

How he’d spent hours buried in her silky, scented neck as she writhed underneath him. How her hands clutched his back, her nails raking his skin so hard it drew his silver blood.

Their frantic lovemaking had only heightened their senses and driven them mad with passion.

The thought alone was spiking his need. He caught the pheromones coming off his dermis, the eros of his lust mingling with the tiger-like redolence of his desire.