Page 32 of Bitten by Bloodmoon (Mateless Shifters #2)

Sylara gasps when she sees the black veins that are now inked from his fingertips all the way across his chest and face. Gods, did it hit his heart? How much longer did he have before it did?

“You can help him, right?” Sylara asks, fear in her voice.

“Yes, but it will be painful,” Riven says firmly.

I keep my eyes on Nyx’s, refusing to let myself ogle his naked body in this moment, no matter how badly I want to. My desire still hasn’t faded despite the hours-long journey here. Despite everything, I want him desperately.

He smirks, as if he knows exactly what I’m thinking. Good, that’s good. It means his humor hasn’t left. Maybe he’s not as bad as I thought.

“Can you even walk?” Sylara asks him.

Nyx gives her a look that says he wants to kill her for even asking that. But for once, I’m with Sylara.

“I just ran hundreds of miles in my wolf form. The spell hasn’t traveled below my chest. My legs work fine.”

“All the more reason you should let us help you,” Sylara says, rolling her eyes.

“Where do you want to work on him?” I ask Riven.

“A bed. Somewhere where he doesn’t have to move for a while after I’m done working on him,” Riven answers.

“His bed, then. The one I’ve been sleeping in.”

“I’m right here, I can answer for myself,” Nyx says.

“Brax and Talonis, are you okay carrying him?” I ask.

“On it,” Brax says.

“Again, I don’t need—” Nyx tries to take a step, but luckily, Brax is already there, catching his arm before he goes down. Talonis quickly puts one of Nyx’s arms around his shoulders. Brax does the same with the other. And then the two of them practically drag Nyx, while he carefully limps along.

Riven stares at him, most likely assessing the damage and thinking of what he’s going to have to do to heal him.

“I don’t know how he was able to run as far as he did, even in his wolf form,” Riven says.

“I know,” Sylara says, looking at me.

I frown. “What? I didn’t force him. His stubborn ass wouldn’t let me walk on my own; he had to carry me.”

Riven smiles. “Sylara just meant you served as motivation for him to run back here and push through the pain he was in.”

“Oh.” I want to say more, ask more, but now isn’t the time.

We all rush after them, but they are surprisingly fast, carrying him up the stairs to his bedroom.

By the time we make it upstairs, Nyx is already lying in the middle of the bed.

And in the few minutes since he’s shifted and revealed the black veins of the spell, it looks like the spell has grown, now covering his entire abdomen.

“Fucking, gods,” Riven says.

“Can you stop it?” I ask.

“I’m going to do everything I can to try. Thank gods he’s part vampire or he’d already be dead.”

“All of those witches deserved to die for this,” I mutter under my breath.

All eyes shift to me for a second, but when I don’t say anything else, they return to Nyx.

His eyes are closed now. He’s barely breathing, and the jokes he made earlier have vanished. But he’s also not writhing in pain, so I’m not really sure how much pain he’s actually in at the moment.

We all stand around him on the bed. Riven standing on one side, with Brax and Talonis at his feet, and Sylara and me on the other.

Riven looks up at all of us, then back down at Nyx. “This is going to hurt.” He says as much to Nyx as to us to prepare us. Then Riven places his hands onto Nyx’s hand closest to him. The spot where there is still an open wound when Nyx offered his blood to them.

Agonizing, jolting pain rips through my body—like a thousand fireworks detonating inside me all at once.

I scream, the sound torn from my throat as I collapse, folding in on myself beneath the weight of the torment.

It’s blinding, all-consuming, as if every nerve has been set ablaze.

My hands fly to my head—that’s where the epicenter is, where the agony pulses like a drumbeat of destruction.

Was I shot? Am I dying? It feels like I am.

No one could survive this. Not intact. Not whole.

The world tilts and spins, and a wave of darkness sweeps through my mind, cutting through the pain like a silent, shadowed knight.

The agony ebbs, retreating beneath the cool, calming chill of night—and in that stillness, I know the presence that holds me—Nyx.

It was his pain I felt. And he used all of his energy and power to take it away from me.

“Lumi, are you okay? Can I help you?” Brax asks as I open my eyes and find myself on the ground next to Nyx’s bed. He reaches his hand down to me, and I take it, letting him lift me.

“Yes, but Nyx isn’t,” I say, staring down at him.

“He seems so calm, like he passed out from the pain,” Talonis says.

“He’s not. He’s in there battling it, and it’s the most intense thing I’ve ever felt. He accidentally let it through the bond and then had to slam it shut. It’s bad.” I look to Riven, who is focused. “Is there anything you can do to make it easier on him?”

“I can kill him and let his body slowly heal on its own, but honestly, with how bad this is, it could take months of him lying in this bed in a coma to fully heal, and I’m not sure if he’d stay passed out the entire time or not,” Riven says.

“Drugs? Booze?” Sylara asks.

Riven shakes his head.

“Blood?” Talonis asks, and the room stills.

“It could help him, but you know how he feels about drinking blood. Drinking it could bring the vampire curse on him faster,” Riven says.

I stare at Riven. “I have an idea. Just work as fast as you can.”

He nods, his power immediately flowing through Nyx again.

I take Nyx’s other hand in mine, close my eyes, and then concentrate on that door that Nyx has slammed shut to keep me from experiencing the pain again.

“It’s me, Nyx. Let me in.”

Silence greets me. But then again, Nyx is the most stubborn person I know. He was never going to let me in easily.

I find that cool, shadowed thread again in my mind, and I follow it, slowly, knowing that it will eventually lead me to another path around the door that he’s thrown up. He can try to focus as much as he wants, but he won’t be able to keep me out forever with the amount of pain he’s in.

“Let me in, Nyx. I want to help.”

“Leave,” a single word floats back.

I grin. Taunting him, that will work. “No, I want in.”

“Out.”

“I’m far too stubborn to leave you at this point, killer.”

“Humph.”

“Huh, you don’t like it when I call you, killer? Then let me in so you can do something about it.”

“Leave, tell everyone to leave.”

“You’re going to leave me unprotected for months while you slowly come back to life? I don’t think so, nightfall.”

“Nightfall?”

“Yes, you are the Nightfall lord—it's a title that suits you more than you know.

You're not the darkness itself, not the void you believe you are.

You're the moment just before it—when the last light clings to the edge of the world.

You're the in-between, where shadows stretch but stars begin to stir.

You're not despair. You're the promise that even in the fading light… there is still hope.”

Silence.

“Let me in. I promise I can handle it, and if I can’t, I’ll push myself out. Let me help you. It could be the reason we’re connected—to help each other.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“And I want to help ease your pain, so let me.”

I prod against his mind, gently, but he’s still doing everything he can to block me out. I look at Riven, giving him a nod, hoping he understands what I’m asking him to do, because if I say it out loud, Nyx will hear and be prepared for what I’m about to do.

With a flick of his wrist, more magic pours out of Riven so fast that I know it will shock the hell out of Nyx.

With Riven providing a distraction, I use all my mental resources to counter Nyx’s shield, blocking me out.

I push so hard that my teeth feel like they’re on the verge of breaking from the strain, and my entire body breaks out in sweat.

I push until I feel a gentle break of glass shattering in his mind. I walk right through the shards, even as they’re jabbing into me, and I push inside until I finally feel his pain.

And there is nothing that could have prepared me for it.