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“Gracie!” Adam paced a trench in the floor, his insides corroding with fear.
“Adam?” His sister knocked, and he yanked the door wide. “What is—” Her hands covered her mouth. “Oh, no...”
“She’s not waking! This is taking too long. Something’s wrong!”
His stomach churned with worry as she examined his mate. He waited for the slightest flutter of life, but only cold, stillness filled the room. His connection to her severed, and her pulse stopped.
“Her wounds haven’t healed.” Grace gasped, pressing a trembling hand to her brow. “This gash should have closed.”
“The bleeding stopped an hour ago.” But he understood her concern. Her wounds should have healed. Choking on his doubts, he lowered to the bed, his chest heaving with worry. He gripped her cold hand and rocked. “Anna... Open your eyes. I command you to wake up!”
Gracie lowered a hand to his back, and he flinched.
“What’s happening, Grace? Why isn’t she shifting? I feel nothing from her. I need you to get in her head.”
“All right. Shh. Let me concentrate.” Her eyes closed, and he sensed her straining, felt the pinch of her shared panic.
He choked on a sob. “Anything?”
“Shh...”
He continued to rub her hand, trying to warm her skin. He wouldn’t live without her. Not because she was his salvation, but because she was his heart. How would he breathe without her? How would he ever smile again?
He pressed his damp eyes to her fingers. “Please, ainsicht... Don’t leave me.”
“Her mind is quiet.”
“Quiet or ... silent?”
Grace masked her emotions and drew in a slow breath, her eyes unblinking from his. “You must trust God’s plan, Adam.”
His mind grappled to explain stillness. Everything had gone wrong the moment he saw Cain with her. “Did I do this?”
“What? Adam, no.”
“I lost control. Cain tried to protect her, but my rage...” His head pressed to Annalise’s still shoulder. “I love her. I vowed to protect her. And I did this to her!”
Grace’s sympathy railed at him. “Adam, this is no one’s fault.”
He choked, unable to swallow. He could hear the defeat in her voice. Predict the excuses waiting on her tongue. Humans were fragile. The bonding hadn’t gone exactly to plan.
He pulled her into his arms, her limp, lifeless body draping over his lap. “No...” He refused to accept defeat. “We’re bonded. There’s no risk when—”
“Adam, she was injured. If she’d had your blood earlier, perhaps—”
“No!”
Grace stilled and the air shifted. The hair on the back of his neck rose as if another presence entered the room. They both looked at Annalise, but she remained deathly still.
His gaze shifted to the broken window, as the curtains lifted. His spine prickled, as wind howled through the trees.
A rumble of thunder built in the distance, rolling toward the house. Gracie stood, approaching the sill as shards of wood and glass vibrated.
Her gown whipped in the wind, and she cupped her kapp to her head. “What is that?”
He squinted, gathering Annalise to his chest and moving to the window. Tree limbs bowed as the wind howled across the valley, pressing the fields flat with ripples of grain. Tables, left from earlier, tipped onto their sides and debris skipped across puddles.
Gracie’s breathing quickened, her hands opening against the wind. “Do you hear that?”
His neck prickled. The hair on his arms lifted. The howls grew as a sheet of rain formed a downpour, visibly speeding toward the house in a wall of hail.
A deafening clap broke the sound barrier, as a bolt of lightning cracked the sky, knifing into a tree and setting fire to the limbs.
He stepped back, his arms tightening around Annalise, and his other hand gripping Gracie’s sleeve. She stepped back, her hands still extended and trembling.
“Something’s coming,” Adam whispered. “Something angry.”
“The basement—Ahh!” She gripped her head, doubling over and releasing a blood-curdling scream.
“Grace!”
Her knees buckled, her body driven to the floor by some unforeseen force. Rain sprayed through the broken window as another tree blazed. Bolts of lightning split the sky, veins of fire stabbing into the earth, unlike anything he’d ever seen.
“Grace!” The wind tore into the room, shuffling loose objects and buffeting his shouts. Using his body to shelter both Annalise and his sister, he crouched around them in the corner. “Tell me what you feel!”
“Pain!” she screamed over the howling squalls. “Unbearable pain! I see it! Darkness. Cold and empty.”
The wind climbed to a steady roar.
“It won’t let go!” Gracie screamed, batting at her head and ripping at her hair. “Someone... I see...” Her jaw opened, and her eyes flashed. Her fangs punching through her gums as she hissed in pain.
He felt the fury in the rain, heard the agony of the storm. “What do you see?”
“Hands... Claws... Digging... Adam, who’s doing this to me? Get them out of my head! They’re in terrible pain!”
“Who? Is it a male or female?”
She covered her face, a sob ripping through her. “Bars! I see bars!”
Thunder boomed, shaking the house as a gust of wind whipped open the bedroom door, blowing objects off every surface. The pitcher of water shattered, and Gracie screamed.
The roof moaned as if ripping from the house. Trees bowed and the sky lit with a strobe of light. He cradled Annalise’s head to his chest and Grace screamed,“Caaaain!”
As if syphoned deep into the earth, the wind cut away, pulling out of the room and tunneling into nothingness. They panted in the sudden silence, clothes drenched and eyes wide.
Gracie blinked at him and scrambled to her feet, throwing a blanket over Anna. “It’s Cain. We have to go. Now, Adam!”
“Where?”
“We have to help him! He’s in pain. He forced his thoughts into my mind. He was in the wind. We have to leave, now! This is why she’s not transitioning!”
Ice formed around his heart.
“Look at me, Adam!” She gripped his face hard, demanding his focus. “I hear your panicked thoughts and I don’t know. Maybe he is... But we have to go. If you love Anna, we have to get her to Cain and we have to go right now.”
Concern. Suffocating fear. Depraved fury. Shame. Anger. Regret. Humility. Desperation. Waning hope. Sorrow. He couldn’t tell his own emotions from the ones infiltrating him.
He closed off his senses and caught his breath. Cain could save her. She needed Cain.
His eyes shifted, and he leapt from the window, holding Annalise’s still body tight to his chest. His feet bit into the marshy ground and he lunged into a sprint.
The wind pushed at his back, speeding his steps. He sensed Cain reaching for his mind, felt him pulling him closer with his desperate emotions.
His heart jolted at the first sight of the hall and his mind opened. He kicked in the door and heard Cain’s scream, “Brother!”
“Cain, I’m coming!”
He raced through the building, down a flight of unlit stairs, and along a dark, winding corridor. Cain’s screams filled the underground passage, calling him to hurry.
Adam turned the corner and slammed to a halt. Bishop Eleazar King blocked him. The Elder’s gaze dropped to the precious bundle in his arms.
“You don’t belong here.”
Adam bared his fangs. “I demand to see my brother!”
The Bishop shoved into his mind and Adam shoved back. “Your brother is locked in a holding cell for the safety of your mate.”
Adam looked at the man with wide eyes, his hand flicking the quilt off of Annalise’s face. “She needs her mate. I’ve failed.”
The Bishop’s lips parted, and Adam pushed past him, yelling for Cain and racing down the long corridor.
“Adam! I’m here!”
He slid to a stop, crawling with Annalise on his lap, as close as the bars would allow. “She’s not waking!”
Cain blinked up at him. Blood seeped from his eyes, a sign of impending death. His face was gaunt, and he looked as though he’d suffered several deaths since Adam last saw him.
Adam pulled away the quilt, exposing her pale features. Cain lifted an unsteady hand and touched her cold skin. Regret flashed in his eyes and Adam understood what needed to happen.
There was only one way to save her. He would be forever lost without her, but she would not be lost to the world.
“She’s yours,” he rasped.
Cain’s gaze clashed with his. The Bishop approached, a mask of uncertainty on his face. Adam nodded for him to unlock the bars.
“Bond with her,” he rasped, gently passing Annalise to his brother’s lap. “You must.”
“She’s already bonded,” the Bishop snapped. “You defile the sanctity of your calling—”
“We’re losing time!” Adam shouted. His eye’s pleaded with his brother. “Please.”
The Bishop’s voice hardened. “She’s your wife!”
They ignored him, their focus solely on Annalise. Cain pulled her swaddled form into his arms, his voice a battered rasp, “She’s his wife, but she’s my called mate. And she’ll die if I don’t save her.”
Adam put his body protectively between his brother and the Bishop. “Please...” He glanced at the male who held the highest authority in their order. “He speaks the truth, Eleazar. She was my salvation, and he is hers.”
The Bishop shook his head in defiant refusal. “I cannot allow this.”
“She’s with child.” Grace appeared at the end of the hall, her clothes drenched and muddied, her hair a wild mess. Her eyes met Adam’s and she nodded. “I felt the baby earlier today. She planned on telling you after the wedding.”
The Bishop sighed. “She should have transitioned hours ago. I’m afraid—”
“Then let them try!” Gracie shouted at the Bishop who stood twice her size.
The man’s jaw ticked as his eyes narrowed on her. “We will never speak of this to anyone.”
Gracie nodded and turned to Adam. He faced Cain. “Now.”
Cain tore open his wrist. Blood trailed down his arm as he pressed the opening to Annalise’s lips.
He cradled Anna’s head, sweeping her hair aside. Adam watched her flesh shift from white to pink and relief collided with regret.
His vision blurred as Cain’s grip tightened around her. Pulling her closer, his head lowered, and Adam flinched as his brother bit into her neck, emptying her of his blood and replacing it with his own.
His heart froze to a glacier of ice. Cain’s shoulders bunched as he moaned and fed off her vein.
A crushing ache formed in Adam’s chest. The chamber silenced, except for the slow sipping sounds of his brother stealing his soul.
Visions of Annalise flooded his mind. The first time he heard her laugh. Their first dream. The way her voice lilted when she sung. The feel of her in his arms the first time they danced. The first time they made love. The taste of her skin. The velvet touch of her body to his.
Each vision stabbed through him like a red-hot poker, leaving nothing but an empty hole in its wake. He released a shaky breath and willed himself to stand.
Cain lifted his head, his eyes dilated and his fangs red. His purr hummed in the silence.
Annalise lay motionless, her lips coated in his brother’s blood. No one spoke.
Their worry crippled him. Cain gently rocked her. Time suspended.
A scraping wheeze broke the silence as Annalise’s chest expanded. Grace gasped and Adam’s muscles locked with denial, shaking him to the bone.
Cain’s arms tightening around her. “She’s waking.”
“Impossible,” the Bishop hissed.
Her lashes fluttered and her finger’s twitched. Adam panted, each breath more shallow than the last. As Cain’s fingers tenderly brushed the side of her face, he felt the caress ripping away his soul.
“Her mind’s waking,” Grace whispered, a smile tucked in her voice. “She’s coming to.”
Annalise licked over her lips, and he spotted the protruding tip of a fang. His relief left him staggering, as heartache dropped him to his knees.
Her head tipped back as she drew in a slow breath through her nose. Her skin pinkened to a vital shade of peach, and her lashes sprung apart, revealing twin diamond eyes.
“Ainsicht...”
His brother’s stare hit him like an anvil.
Annalise’s stare found him then jerked to Cain. She sprung to her feet, her motions quick and agile, her hands grabbing for the falling sheet before it touched the ground.
“Where am I?”
Adam and Cain stood. She stepped back, her gaze darting to the Bishop then Grace.
“She’s confused,” his sister explained then clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “And she just figured out how to block me from entering her mind.”
“Anna,” Adam whispered, approaching her slowly. “You’re safe.”
She cocked her head, lifted her wrist, and sniffed. Her gaze narrowed on Cain.
She dragged a thumb over her lower lip and sucked it into her mouth. “This is your blood.”
Cain nodded, his eyes unblinking as he studied her. “There were some ... complications.”
She jerked her head toward Eleazar. “Who’s he?”
“I’m your Bishop.”
Her eyes narrowed. She gripped her stomach through the quilt, her gaze snapping to his sister. “Grace?”
His sister stepped into the cell and approached slowly, pressing a hand over Annalise’s flat stomach. She smiled. “Your immortal blood supports him.”
Her mouth twitched into a smile, her eyes finding him. Her emotions washed over him. Relief. Contentment. Joy.
He dropped his gaze to the floor.
Joy shifted to concern. “Adam, what’s wrong?”
His head lowered under the weight of his shame. “I was wrong, Annalise. My blood, my actions... All of it wrong.”
Her voice hardened as it often did when she argued. “What does that mean?” Her words pushed through clenched teeth.
He couldn’t meet her gaze.
“What does that mean, Adam?” When he couldn’t answer, she snapped, “Cain?”
His brother’s tone stayed gentle as if he were calming a wild animal. “It means your body wouldn’t respond to Adam’s blood. The wedding took, but the bonding did not.”
“We’re married?” she snapped. “I was unconscious!”
“Think of it as marriage by proxy,” the Bishop suggested.
Annalise scoffed. “Who are you again?”
“Your Bishop.”
She huffed out a laugh. “No.” Her eyes narrowed on Adam. “Marrying me when I’m unconscious doesn’t count.”
“I’m afraid it does,” Eleazar said, his tone and expression forbidding further argument.
She glared at the Elder and Adam stepped forward. “Nothing’s been consummated.”
Her eyes flashed to him, her anger spiking through the air. “Excuse me?”
His chest restricted as crushing pain cinched around his heart. “You bonded with Cain.”
“Your child’s inside of me!” When no one responded, she looked to Grace. “What’s going on?”
His sister wrung her hands, deep regret seeping from her pores. “Cain’s your true mate.”
“No, he’s not.” She turned to Cain and shook her head. “I love Adam.”
His brother’s lips compressed into a straight line. “I’m aware. But it’s my blood that brought you back to life. You’re only Adam’s wife.”
“Only his wife?” Her voice ricocheted off the walls. “Adam, say something!”
His eyes squeezed shut. He’d said it to her before, but he never thought saying it to her again would bring so much pain. “A bond is always stronger than marriage.”