Page 140 of Eternal Ruin

A loud buzzing filled the forest. Nothing felt real. He was lost again, suspended in a nightmare.

Iniko extended a claw and cut down the middle of Kidan’s sweater. Past the smooth brown skin to reveal the sternum and heart. Seeing the flesh part so easily, like a hot knife through butter, collapsed the truth Susenyos had tried to ignore right above him.

Kidan washuman.

No matter how she acted, how violent and strong—she was in a human body, the weakest of all.

And he’d drained her of her blood.

“God,” he whispered, crouching down beside her. “God.”

Only Taj’s firm hand on his shoulder kept him from sinking to the ground. He clung to his trust in Iniko to bring her back.

Please, bring her back.

Above the cut, Iniko fisted her hand and poured her own blood into the body. It flowed continuously, gliding down the sternum bone and absorbing into the muscles.

They waited.

Susenyos had become used to her slow, pounding beat. A gentle rhythm that calmed his racing thoughts. The first few weeks she’d arrived at Uxlay, it had been this uninvited pulsing on the roof of his skull and pressing two pillows to his ears hadn’t helped. He’d wanted it to stop, to sink his fingers into her chest and pull her heart out.

It’d evened out to a beat he could tolerate during their tenuous arrangement to work together, and on the day he learned she planned to end her own life, he hadn’t been able to sleep. He had lain awake counting her heartbeats, that fragile sound had to keep beating to alert him she was safe and alive. With a sickening lurch, he realized maybe he could no longer sleep because he couldn’t hear it.

Susenyos released a short breath when vampire blood began to pump the still heart. It knit the exposed flesh together slowly, leaving no scar besides the one she received in childhood.

This… this was why he would always be grateful for what he was. The ability to heal, to bring one from the edge of death, what other gift was there?

He covered his face with his palms. “Thank you, Iniko.”

“Christ.” Taj’s voice, strained, finally came. “You nearly killed her.”

“Kissing was reckless.” Iniko’s tone was flinted stones, and her disapproval deepened his guilt.

He lowered his hand, studying the soft rise and fall of her chest.

Alive. Alive. Alive.

She would not be like Talaa. He would not fail her like Talaa.

Kidan would live.

When Kidan’s eyes began to lazily open, Susenyos took his coat and draped it over her cut clothes. He propped her head on his thighs. Her cheeks were still hot against the backs of his fingers, flushed from the endorphins coursing through her. At his touch, she let out a soft sigh, leaning into it.

It stirred another wave of desire inside him, and he quickly pulled back. “That’s the last time I kiss you.”

She made a sound of protest, coming awake. “I highly disagree.”

A sad smile claimed his mouth. “Your heart stopped.”

“Really?” He didn’t hear alarm in her voice. “Hmm.”

“Hmm?”

“Here I thought taking pills was the least painful way to die. Who knew I just had to kiss you?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Kidan.”

Leaves were caught in her braids, and he picked them out.