Page 87 of Sacrifice of the Vampir

NO.

The word hadn't come from me. It came from everywhere. From the air itself. From the collapsing walls. From the void rushing toward us.

From Elias.

Suddenly he was there. His eyes flicked down to my bleeding wrist and his mouth opened with a hiss, fangs bared, before they found mine again.

"Elias, what are you—how are you?—"

"I don't fucking know and I don't fucking care." His presence wrapped around me, silver light so bright it hurt to look at. "But you're not dying here."

"You can't be here! You have to go back?—"

"Watch me rewrite the rules." He moved toward Marcus's thread binding my wrist, and I saw what he intended to do.

"No! Elias, if you touch it directly?—"

"I know." His voice was steady, certain. "It'll burn through whatever's keeping me here. Whatever magic or mate bond bullshit let me follow you."

My heart shattered. "You'll die."

"Maybe." He'd looked at me then, and in his eyes I saw everything. Every moment he'd watched me, every time he'd fought his feelings, every second he'd loved me even while trying not to. Every future we could've had. "But you'll live. All of you will live."

"Elias, please?—"

The void rushed closer. Marcus's thread tightened, and I cried out in pain. Alex's life energy flickered weaker.

"You'll all be alive," Elias continued, his hand moving closer to the thread. "And that's all that fucking matters."

"I won't let you?—"

"You don't get a vote, little witch." He smiled then, that crooked smile that had undone me from the start. "I choose this. I choose you. I choose to give up forever if it means you get even one more day."

"No…Elias… NO!"

Terror paralyzed me, freezing my muscles as his fingers closed around Marcus's thread.

The scream that tore from him was inhuman. Silver fire erupted where his hands touched the binding, spreading up his arms, consuming him from the inside out. But he didn't let go. Even as he burned right in front of me, even as I felt him being ripped away from me, he held on.

Still on his knees, Marcus laughed.

"Take Alex," Elias gasped through the agony. "Take him and run."

The binding loosened just enough for me to pull my wrist out. Through eyes blurred with tears, I wasted precious seconds trying to memorize my mate's face. Then I grabbed Alex with everything I had and yanked us toward the dimensional barrier. Behind us, Elias's scream tore through me.

I looked back.

Marcus's thread snapped.

The backlash hit like a shockwave. Marcus's form dissolved, scattering across dimensions as the cavern's collapse accelerated into chaos.

"Elias!" I screamed, trying to reach back for him, but Alex's weight and the collapsing dimension pulled me forward.

Go, Elias shouted through our bond, the connection different already, altered somehow. Get him home. Save... everyone.

The void caught Elias as I crashed through the barrier with Alex, and the last thing I felt through our bond was his acceptance. His peace. His love.

Then—impact.