Chapter 2

2

H is words barely register in my head. Instinct takes over. I arch up in his arms and strike like a cobra, sinking my teeth—fangs—into his flesh. I don't even know they're there until the long sharp teeth are buried in him. The pressure on the fangs, the feel of him in my mouth, is exquisite.

His blood is icy cold and dark. The depths of the ocean where sunlight never reaches. So cold that shipwrecks—and their dead—are forever preserved.

His fingers are still wrapped around my neck. As if he needs to feel my throat working beneath his hand as I swallow. Each drop of his blood blows through me like a gale-force blizzard, pumping me with impossible energy. I'm biting down on his muscle, holding his flesh in my mouth, and it's not enough. I want more.

Urgency builds, a whisper in the back of my mind. We don't have long. I can't stay. Something always happens, pulling me away. I can't stop it. Even with his dark gift spreading through my veins.

His voice is low and soft but a thread of malice winds through his whisper. "Where are you, love?"

Images flicker through my mind lightning fast, making me recoil. Cutting edges, razors and shards and unending pain. Sound making my ears bleed and my heart explode and?—

I would have flung myself away, scrambling in terror, if he didn't hold me. The high, shrill sound scrapes inside me, fraying my nerves. Cutting so deep that marks are etched in my bones. "I don't know."

With his blood dripping down my chin, I can see him a little better despite the infinite darkness. The unending expanse of his shoulders. The glint of his black eyes, as cold and sharp as the obsidian tunnel that made me bleed. "Show me, love."

His fingers tighten on my throat. His thumb beneath my chin, keeping my head tipped up to his searching gaze. I don't recognize the harsh planes of his face. High cheekbones, shadowed eyes, the unforgiving slash of his lips, square jaw, softened only by swirling hair flowing about his face and down his back. His identity is imprinted on my soul, as if we're two sides of the same coin, always together even if we're facing opposite directions.

He knows me. Even when I'm so damaged I don't know myself.

There's so much power in his magnetic eyes. As if the slightest tilt of his head or flick of a finger will crack every bone in my body. Yet somehow I'm not afraid. Not of him.

His cold, black eyes still manage to burn with rage. He leans down, even as his grip on me tightens, lifting me up his body. His mouth hovers inches from mine. His eyes burn colder with flecks of blowing snow. Snow begins to fall inside my mind. A light dusting, at first, soft and gentle. So pretty.

:Show me,: reverberates through my mind. :Show me where you are.:

I'm lying on a thin, narrow cot in a large room. A gymnasium, maybe? The sounds of breathing and snores echo in the large chamber. There are other people nearby. I'm not alone—but I don't know any of these people. Though for a moment… I'm startled that they're actual people . Recognizable to me as humans, even if I don't know them.

I don't know what that means. Have I been somewhere… where there weren't people?

:What's outside? What does it look like?:

I don't sit up or move but suddenly I'm standing outside on a street. It's nighttime. Parked cars line the road. There's a single streetlight on the corner. More people huddle along the exterior of the buildings along the street. Bundled against the cold. Some sleeping. Some shuffling along the sidewalk, headed… somewhere. I don't know.

An aching well of sadness spreads inside me. I was lucky tonight. I got inside the building and have a roof over my head. They didn't.

:Look at the street sign. What does it say?:

The white metal sign with black writing flashes through my mind, but I can't read the symbols.

A sound clashes through my mind. It takes me a moment to recognize it as the sound of his teeth grinding with frustration.

:Do you remember anything in particular about this city? Any unique buildings? A bridge? Anything?:

Bridge. That word dings inside my head. :There's a river.: I point toward the ragged trail where people are walking. :Down there.:

:At least I know you're back on the human plane.: His breath sighs out, ruffling my hair. :I will find you, love. Even if we must search every city in every country of the world.:

Back on the human plane. Those words stir dread in my stomach. That means I must have been on an inhuman plane. A place of chaos and pain so intense that I don't feel as if I'm whole. A shattered chalice, chipped and incomplete. Barely held together with a bit of weak glue.

Deliberately, I focus on him. The heat of his body against mine. The strength of his fingers on my throat. The taste of his blood in my mouth. Not icy slush now but rich and complex on my tongue, like a chilled thousand-year-old wine of night and shadow.

I don't want to remember what came before.

Before I was sleeping on a cot in a shelter in some nameless human city.

I relax all the muscles in my body, drooping in his grip. "Make me forget."

"No." His eyes glitter with snow blown by blizzard winds. He lifts me higher in his arms, cradling me like precious cargo. "But I will make you remember."