Page 115 of Crave Me

I shook my head. “No, he’s not. He’s with Vesperus. He’s… he’s done something to him.” I palmed my chest as I felt the ache expanding. “We have to go to him.”

“What?”

“We have to go to Vesperus,” I told her, my voice a rasp of sound as my energy began to rapidly deplete. “N-now.” I tried to phase, only to land maybe ten feet away.

Every part of me ached, our bond ripping apart… shredding me…killing me.

No,killing him.

Oh, stars…I found the moon in the sky, noting its twinkling departure.Not now. Don’t leave me now.

I needed its strength. I needed the night. I neededVesperus.

I gathered all my energy, every ounce I possessed, and demanded that my spirit phase to a part of the world with a high moon.

But a sprinkling of stardust was all I could produce.

This is bad. Very bad.

A hand grabbed my shoulder, pulling me up off the ground. I hadn’t even realized I’d fallen, my legs weak. “What do you feel?” Fallon demanded.

“Death,” I told her, shivering. “But it’s… it’s hot. Like the bullet…”

She nodded. “He must have shot Vesperus before he could recover from the sleeping spell.”

“Sleeping spell?” I repeated, my teeth chattering.

“Yes. That’s what the spell he cast over the city does—it puts everyone in a deadly sleep. One they won’t wake up from unless released. And only if released in time for them to recover.” She looked at me. “That’s the spell I broke on you and over the city just now.”

This side of Fallon was very different from the one I’d unearthed. She was much more sure of herself now.

And she was staring at me with a grim expression.

“If he shot Vesperus…”

“Don’t finish that,” I said, my jaw clenching with the words. “We need… we need to go… to him.”And I need my moon,I thought, staring at the night sky. I tried to phase again, but nothing happened, my soul denying my ability to properly move.

But Fallon helped me proceed forward, maneuvering us out of the cemetery and onto a nearby street.

I had no idea where we were, how far away we were, if we were still in Reykjavik, or if she was even directing me toward the palace.

However, I felt in my soul that I could trust her to help. It was an instinct, one I recognized as belonging to Vesperus more than me.

He reads people,I realized.He read me.

It was why he’d trusted me from the moment we’d met. Why he hadn’t truly fought our connection.

Perhaps our rejection hadn’t worked because neither of us had meant it. The snapping we’d felt had been a superficial break, one our minds had accepted, but not our souls.

Because I’m not a being of this world,I thought.I’m something else. Something none of these supernaturals have ever seen.

I’d played by their rules—mostly—and had been polite, harnessing my power and demonstrating my control without any of them truly realizing it.

But maybe it was time to just be me. And fuck the consequences.

Vesperus is worth it,I thought.He’s mine.A simple declaration, one born of my soul. We were supposed to have eternity to figure this out, not mere weeks.

My medallion hadn’t forced me to remain here for nothing. It had wanted me to save Fallon Doyle. And it had wanted me to find Vesperus Veritas.