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"Then I guess you’ll be the one carrying me up those stairs"

She must have said it aloud She wet her lips, stared up at hi Deal with it You proet out of it so easily"

"Yeah, well, I pro See how that turned out?" Her voice was fainter His brow creased and the pressure of his hand on her chest increased

"Be still, baby Just close your eyes and let it happen"

He built the power in that circle so fast and strong, it was overwhel This hat he kne to do, what ca It didn’tdisrupted his focus She had to open her eyes to watch hiic user she couldn’t not watch hiic there was She’d had to do it with coies and dipping into the Dark well of the Underworld He simply focused the power on himself, reached into that well of… essence, for lack of a better word, and split a chunk off for her A piece of his soul

He stiffened, a lance of obvious excruciating pain doubling him over "Derek--"

She cried out then, alarmed, because suddenly she was pinned, held down by an incredible weight, as if soe, soht… but then, like a dislocated shoulder, it popped into place

She was gasping, her vision blurry Twisting to her side, she retched out black, vile-s liquid The stench of it, the feel of it, told her she was seeing the Darkness she’d taken into herself, the change from those pieces of soul she’d sold for Rose’s Heaven She knehat to do here, didn’t need to make Derek do more than he had already She cleansed it hite fire as soon as she could prop herself on her arms Then she turned to find hi from the cut on his arm

Scrarunt of exertion and had a harrowingHe opened his eyes

"Going to lie here a bit Then we’ll get that coffee"

IT WAS AN INEXPRESSIBLE FEELING HER SOUL, BUT so more than her soul, too, cobbled with his That intuition they’d always shared was somehow enhanced, as if they didn’t even really need to talk at all She was as aware of his proximity and the emotions he carried as she was of her own Was this what tere like? One overly large soul split apart at birth? Of course, they were already soul mates, weren’t they? She’d denied it for over three years, but as a young girl, it seemed like she’d known it before she even knehat it meant This just enhanced the truth of it

He did lie there for quite a while When she could ot some blankets, pillows She wished she had so down and add color and life to the dank basement room while he convalesced there Funny, it had been a while since she’d thought of soruht her first-aid kit and at least cleaned the gash on his skull, which fortunately hadn’t fractured the bone, as far as she could tell

"So not even a deht from Hell can crack your hard head," she noted "Color me shocked This could use so to hide her worry Her body felt revitalized, whereas he was still pale and obviously sapped Had Derek given her too ed his own life for hers? It would be like hieless, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t be killed She’d never asked hio soulless zo that pigheaded and stupid?"

His blue eyes opened, fir in that way she loved, that made her heart hurt "As much as you would obviously appreciate that sacrifice, no What I did… It’s like giving you a piece of lung, and the cells regenerate to create ave you an extra piece of soul to adhere to your own, and as you practice the Light then it, restore you fully as tioes on"

"And what about you?" she asked shrewdly "How does this i as you’re near, I havea hand, he brushed it across her cheek "I’m sorry about Rose"