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Nick ser than hus in and taste it To hear her beg for his uely fahtened his grip

"Nick," she choked out "Nick … please"

Nick He looked at his hand The skin was a swirling pattern of red and black No Not his hand A stranger’s hand …

Confused, he frowned at the woed Or were they dreams?

He wasn’t sure

Until she reached up and laid one tender hand on his cheek That one, soft touch, light as a feather’s kiss, shattered the anger and hatred he felt

His eyelids were suddenly heavy But as he lowered them, he remembered her touch Her taste

"Kody," he breathed her nah his demon’s voice rattled like thunder over the river He allowed her to pull his hand away fro hiain

Until she kissed the hand he’d had around her throat

Kody knew she had to ry toddler in the body of the e, the Malachai controlled him and not the other way around

He trembled as he cupped her cheek with his clawed hand

"You re, he dipped his head toward hers Even in his demon’s form, Kody welcomed his kiss She should hate him, and yet, even like this, she saw the real him, and it wasn’t a monster Her Nick could love, and most of all, he held her heart

Nick breathed her in as she kissed him, and his senses reeled He was a creature of hate and brutality

She was a creature of light and tenderness It was in his blood to destroy her kind

Only he didn’t want to Especially not when she wrapped her arainst her And then she started singing to hi his ear A soft berceuse like histo him when he’d been a child He let the sound of her voice and the softness of her hand in his hair wash over hi even warmer than his hatred

He was fully content to stay here

Until a sharp, stabbing pain bisected his chest

Kody pulled aith a gasp As soon as she did, she saw the spear that was shoved into his back so deeply, it protruded froony was unlike any pain he’d ever known It drove hireen eyes told him that she wasn’t a part of this attack

For so, he saw the one who’d stabbed hi, he lowered his head so that he could hone in his deht on the one who’d wounded him

Adarian put his thumb on the center of Nick’s forehead as he’d done before Only this ti pain "Sorry, son But I need--"

His father didn’t get to finish that sentence Nick had broken off the blade protruding from his chest and used it to stab Adarian

"Never underestiht, old ht hi wound Nick had left in his abdomen, then back at him His own blood covered his hands

Nick licked his lips as the smell hit him Whenever one Malachai consuths, but none of his weaknesses If he were to hed No one would ever be able to command him then He wouldn’t have to fear Noir or anyone else

With that thought foremost in his mind, he took a step forward

Adarian turned and vanished

Nick started after hiht, he felt that precious hand on his aro"

Still, he didn’t listen

Not until her lips grazed his That shattered his bloodlust and started a new fire inside hi pained her It was only then he realized that his father’s spear had gone straight through his buckled

Nick scooped her up in his arms Her blood was smeared across his armor and her beautiful skin Her features paled

She lifted her hand to touch his lips "Your blood is poison to et you help"

"You can’t I can’t go to a hurowled fiercely

A small tear fell down her cheek One that ripped hier than life that he forgot just how tiny she was She barely weighed anything in his arms

"You’re a creature of death, Nick You can’t coinable grief tore through hi without her The hole it would leave inside him It was bleak and painful …

He couldn’t breathe

And it was then he knew the truth

He loved her She was the strength that got hih his hardest days The sound of her voice … the touch of her hand Those hat he craved most Not her blood

Her life

I love her Now he understood what people had tried to tell him This hat love felt like But it wasn’t pleasant It stabbed him with more ferocity than his father had done Gah, it sucked to realize that someone else meant more to you than you did No wonder Acheron disdained it so

The Atlantean was right You gave a part of yourself to another A part you couldn’t reclaione before you even knew it

He had no idea when or how he’d given her his heart But he couldn’t deny the desolation inside hi her forever

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