Page 37 of Bewitched by the Fruit Bat King (The Bewitching Hour #3)

I abandoned my car at the building's entrance, striding through automatic doors that opened before I reached them—the work of a potted palm that had wrapped its fronds around the sensor panel.

Inside, the lobby erupted into chaos as I passed—decorative plantings breaking free of their containers, flowers releasing sudden clouds of pollen that left security personnel sneezing and disoriented, vines growing at impossible speeds to entangle anyone who moved toward me.

The elevator opened without me pressing a button, responding to the command of another decorative plant.

I stepped inside, my reflection in the mirrored walls showing a woman transformed by fury—eyes blazing green, hair moving as if in an unfelt breeze, tiny flowers blooming and dying and reblooming throughout its length in cycles that matched my heartbeat.

"Penthouse," I said unnecessarily. The elevator was already moving.

As the doors opened on the top floor, I felt Kane's presence like a physical blow. The mate bond flared painfully, responding to our proximity after days of separation. He was close, very close, and from the spike of alarm I felt through the bond, he knew I was here too.

I followed the pull in my chest, moving through luxurious hallways toward a set of glass doors at the end. They led to a set of stairs leading to the roof and an enormous greenhouse that took up nearly half the rooftop.

The doors slid open at my approach, and I stepped into Kane's sanctuary. The plants inside immediately responded to my presence, reaching toward me with leaves and vines, communicating their joy at encountering a Florence witch after so long under vampire care.

But their enthusiasm quickly turned to distress as I registered the state of the greenhouse. Many of the plants had been damaged—leaves torn, stems broken, entire specimens uprooted. It looked like a battlefield, with Kane standing in the center of the destruction.

The sight of him stopped me cold. This wasn't the polished, controlled CEO I'd come to know. This wasn't even the passionate man who'd shared my bed days ago. This was something else entirely.

Kane's skin had taken on a grayish cast, the veins beneath it darkened and prominent.

His eyes, usually a warm amber, now glowed with an unnatural reddish light.

His posture was wrong—slightly hunched, predatory.

And when he saw me, his lips pulled back in a grimace that revealed extended fangs, longer and sharper than I'd ever seen them.

"You shouldn't be here," he said, his voice rough, almost guttural. "How did you find me?"

Our mate bond throbbed painfully, visibly affecting him. He flinched, one hand going to his chest as if trying to physically block the connection.

"You think I wouldn't find out?" I demanded, fury overpowering my shock at his appearance. "You think I wouldn't know you were trying to break our bond?"

Understanding flashed across his transformed features. "The plants. You're connecting through the plants now." It wasn't a question but a realization, tinged with something that might have been admiration if it wasn't overshadowed by obvious distress.

"I heard everything," I continued, taking a step toward him. The plants around us responded to my anger, growing thorns and protective spines. "I heard you discussing how to sever our bond with those researchers. How to end our connection permanently. Without even talking to me about it."

"You don't understand what's happening," Kane said, backing away from my advance. "The curse—it's worse than we thought. It's spreading faster than predicted. I'm trying to protect you. I have a way."

"By making decisions about our bond without my input? By going behind my back to find ways to cut me out of your life?" Each question was punctuated by a surge of growth from the plants around us—vines thickening, leaves expanding, roots breaking through planter boxes.

"By saving your life!" he roared, the sound inhuman enough to momentarily freeze me in place. His control slipped further, fangs fully extended now, eyes burning bright crimson. "Look at me, Willow! Look what's happening to me!"

For the first time since entering the greenhouse, I really saw him—not just his physical transformation, but the fear and pain beneath it.

The mate bond flared again, momentarily breaking through his barriers, and I was flooded with his emotions—terror, not for himself but for me; guilt so profound it was practically suffocating; and beneath it all, a hunger that had nothing to do with food and everything to do with blood.

"The curse," I whispered, my anger momentarily displaced by understanding. "It's affecting you directly."

Kane nodded, visibly struggling to regain control. "Not just me. All of us. Because I completed the mate bond with you." He gestured to a tablet on a nearby bench. "See for yourself."

I picked up the device, my hands trembling slightly.

The screen showed security feeds from various locations—facilities I didn't recognize, filled with containment cells.

Each cell held a vampire in various stages of transformation similar to Kane's, many much further along—completely gray-skinned, eyes entirely red, movements more animal than human as they hurled themselves against reinforced walls.

"How many?" I asked, unable to look away from the horrifying images.

"Thirty-seven confirmed new cases just this morning.

It was twelve yesterday." Kane's voice was flat, clinical, as if he were delivering a routine business report rather than a catastrophic update on his people.

"At this rate, within a week, we'll have hundreds. Within a month, potentially all of us."

I set down the tablet, my mind racing to process what I was seeing. "And you think breaking our bond will stop it?"

"I don't know," he admitted, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "But it started with us—with the completion of the bond. It's the most logical place to begin."

"So your solution is to sever our connection without even discussing it with me first?" The anger returned, hot and sharp. "To risk both our lives with some experimental ritual those researchers clearly think is dangerous?"

"Better that than watching you die when I lose control entirely!

" Kane snapped, taking a step toward me before visibly forcing himself to stop, to retreat.

"You have no idea what this hunger feels like, Willow.

It's consuming me from the inside out. Every heartbeat, every breath you take—I can hear it, smell it, practically taste it. "

The plants around us reacted to his aggression, defensive barbs emerging, vines shifting to position themselves between us. Kane noticed, his eyes narrowing as he observed their protective stance.

"Your powers have grown," he said, momentarily distracted.

"That's what happens when you complete a mate bond with a Florence witch," I replied acidly. "Not that you bothered to stick around and find out. You just left—no goodbye, no explanation. Just silence for days while I tried to understand what was happening to me, to us."

My voice broke on the final word, betraying the hurt beneath my anger. The plants responded, several flowering specimens suddenly blooming in sympathy, releasing sweet scents intended to comfort.

Kane's expression twisted with guilt. "I was trying to protect you from this." He gestured to himself, to his transformed state. "From what I'm becoming."

"By keeping me in the dark? By shutting me out completely?

" I took another step toward him, ignoring the warning hiss he couldn't quite suppress.

"I've been researching the curse too, Kane.

I've been uncovering Hazel's hidden writing in the grimoire, learning about what really happened between her and Viktor. "

That caught his attention. "What did you find?"

"That the curse has a fatal flaw." I watched his reaction carefully. "It can only be broken by willing sacrifice. But Hazel never specified exactly what kind of sacrifice."

"Sacrifice," Kane repeated, something dark crossing his features. "I've been discussing that very concept with Elspeth."

"Elspeth?"

"An ancient witch who was alive during the original transformation.

She remembers Viktor, remembers what happened after Hazel cursed our bloodline.

" He moved toward one of the damaged plants, gently touching a broken stem.

"She believes Viktor had discovered a way to break the curse, but wasn't willing to pay the price. "

"Which was?"

Kane hesitated, then answered reluctantly. "His life. The sacrifice Hazel encoded was the willing death of a Drake king."

The greenhouse went utterly still around us, the plants freezing in place as they absorbed this information. My heart stuttered in my chest, understanding dawning with horrifying clarity.

"That's why you're researching how to break our mate bond," I said softly. "You're planning to sacrifice yourself."

He didn't deny it. "If breaking the bond doesn't stop the transformations, then that's the next logical step."

"Logical?" I repeated incredulously. "There's nothing logical about sacrificing yourself without exploring every other possibility first! Without even involving me in the decision! What if you are wrong?!"

"There isn't time for exploration," Kane countered, gesturing again to the tablet with its feeds of transformed vampires. "My people are suffering now. They're losing themselves to this hunger. Some have already had to be put down because they couldn't be contained."

The clinical way he delivered this news sent a chill through me. "Put down? They're your people, not rabid animals!"