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"I want to bring her with ht have finally found out how far these creatures illing to go to satisfy my demands

But then he dipped in the sky and hurtled full speed toward the entrance of the cave

Landing with a thud that seemed to shake the entire on as about to pounce on her

"Find yourself another one," Charis ed Bella toward hiht hand

"Bella," I called down

Her sweaty face lit up as she sawway to relief

"Coht aron didn’t even have a chance to protest as Charis--albeit reluctantly--helped the ogress onto his back

As she plonked herself down next to e form almost squeezed the life out of me

Once she was settled down properly, Charis launched into the sky once more

As we left that bizarre realres’ beach, I just prayed that our arrival wouldn’t come too late

Chapter 24: Annora

Caleb’s thirst for --as could be expected

As a light rain drizzled over the boat, we both sat beneath the shelter

He had one arm around me as he sucked from my wrist

I brushed the hair away from his forehead with my free hand

He barely flinched

I noticed that as the hours passed, he seemed to recoil less when I touched hin that he was slowly losing hirow i

I would have given anything for him to just look at me even once with affection

To hold ainst s, I reached for a cloth and dabbed the blood away fro his eyes and groaning

Before he could protest, I lifted myself onto his lap and locked ainst his, I whispered into his ear

"We’re going to be okay, Caleb

We’ll find ourselves again

We just need time" He didn’t welcome my advance, but he didn’t immediately brush me away either, which I’d half expected hian to trail them across his skin up toward his cheek

He turned his head to face the other way

I raisedpalm closer to his face

His eyes still closed, I dabbed some of my blood over my lips and leaned forward to catch his inup as though trying to resist my touch