34. Thirty-Four

“Son of a bitch! Fuck! Ow!” I shrieked when he lowered my broken leg into the warm bath.

He’d taken off all the bandages and splints and said he wanted to see what he was mending. When he told me about his powers, I wasn’t quite sure I believed him. It seemed impossible if I’m being honest. But the way his brows furrowed, and the seriousness on his face had me thinking it was true.

He could actually will something away from existence.

“You have a very low pain tolerance,” he said, pinching my nipple.

“I do not!” I didn’t! Pain and I were best friends. We frolicked through the fucking fields together. The lack of tolerance was due to not being able to heal.

I wasn’t used to that.

Smirking, he removed his clothes, setting them neatly on the floor. Then he climbed in. The water level rose and spilled over. “Tell me again.”

“He was choking me, and then it felt like my back was melting off. When I woke up after being thrown through a damn wall, I wasn’t healing. Aryn must’ve tweaked my curse.”

“And it was Aryn who placed it on you, to begin with?” He reached for the soap bar from the wooden ledge above the clawed tub.

“Yes,” I whispered, splashing some water with my fingers.

He grunted as a way of acknowledgment. “After I do this… I might be… different.” He dipped it into the water, sudding it up.

“What do you mean?” I asked as he took my hand, washing each finger with a meticulousness only Vastian could have.

“When Alora appeared at the tavern, I was blinded by jealousy, and the beast came forth. This side of me emerges more when I use my powers. That was why you found me in that tree, wild and bloodthirsty.”

“Then you sucked my cock,” I pointed out.

His eyes met mine. “Yes.”

“So when you use your powers, it makes you wilder?” I’m totally okay with that.

“It is a frenzy. Depending on the scope of what I remove, my lack of control will become worse.”

Well, that was rude. “You don’t have to do this.” I winced when he lifted my broken leg onto his.

“I know,” he whispered, running his palm over it.

“Whatever Alora did to distract Aryn must be really fucking ingenious. The fact he hasn’t killed us both already is still hard to believe.”

“Which is why I’m doing this. Do you have any idea where we can go? At least for a head start?” He lathered his hands, leaning forward, and stroked my cock.

Where to go… fuck…

“Atreyis,” he warned.

My head fell back, eyes rolling. Then he slapped my thigh. “How am I supposed to think when you’re doing that?”

“This isn’t meant to arouse you. I’m washing her bloody scent from you.”

“Everything you do arouses me.” My cock flexed in agreement. ”And I highly doubt her scent is on my cock.”

Smirking, he asked again, “Where will we go?” He continued to ‘wash’ me.

A guttural groan ripped from my throat. “Anywhere. I don’t care.”

“Don’t you dare come.”

“Why not?” I whined, snapping my head up to look at him.

“Because I said not to.” He slid me closer to him; the motion forced my ribs to shift, and I yelped.

“I’m clean enough!”

His thick fingers ran up my thighs, and I trembled. I’d think my Vampyr was showing off if I didn”t know any better. His thumbs kneaded at the tender flesh between the pelvic bone and groin area. My mouth watered. This was too much.

“Did she make you hard like this?” His eyes flickered.

“No,” I ground out, fingers clawing into the tub ledge. We didn”t get that far, but I could tell that detail didn”t matter to Vastian. It was the fact that I”d have done it.

“Did you want her to make you come?”

“No,” I breathed.

Cupping me, he tightened his hold, sending jolts from the base to the tip of my cock. “Are you lying?” His fingers brushed against my taint.

“I”m not lying, Vastian.”

“Good.” Then he pulled away entirely and cracked his knuckles.

“What the fuck!”

“I don’t know if this will hurt, but I will need to feed afterward.”

Who riles a man up like that only to threaten pain after? Gods, why was I kind of into it? “Hurry up!” I snapped. This man was fucking torturing me.

I needed him to touch me now—pain or not.

With another charming smirk, he held up a palm, and then his eyes darkened—so dark for a split moment that I thought they’d gone black. His skin shifted in color, almost as if a halo of light appeared. It got brighter and brighter until I was forced to avert my eyes.

My heart raced, and every instinct told me to haul ass out of that tub, but I didn’t. I”d never been very attuned to ”energies” and whatnot, but I knew I was in the presence of something I shouldn”t be. It is a deep, core feeling one only gets when your lizard brain takes over all else.

Then my bones cracked.

I bit back a scream because I recognized the sensation. He was healing me—or taking something away. Regardless, with every passing second, the injuries mended themselves. Daring a glance at him, I hissed instantly because the brightness reminded me of staring into the sun.Instant spots blinded my vision, so I glanced at the ceiling.

Then I saw the fucking beam.

The same one was in Belfor when I was returning from the apothecary.

Fuck!It was a gods damn beacon.

“I’m good! It’s done! Stop, baby, please.” I grabbed him, and the light died immediately. He sagged forward into my wet chest.

It all made sense. With the light in the sky, Vastian slumped into the wall… he couldn’t even get himself dressed that day. He was so weakened.

Thankfully, I was fresh as a fucking daisy right now.

As I finished getting a shirt on him, my bedroom door opened. Craning my neck to see who was there, I couldn’t fight the scowl that formed when I saw Brianne.

“So it’s true,” she whispered, her eyes swimming in sadness.

“What?” I stood.

Vastian hissed, and I placed a palm on his shoulder. “You never wanted me. It was just a ploy to get to him.”

“Oh,” I said, shoving out a breath.

“Get out,” Vastian warned. His voice dropped, and his muscles tensed under my hand. Guess that frenzy shit was coming faster than I thought it would.

“Yeah, it’s true.” What else was I supposed to say?

“I should have known.” She sighed heavily, dropping her shoulders.

My bed groaned, and I spotted his fingers clawing into the blankets. Effectively shredding them. “Brianne, you need to leave.”

“Atreyis, I don’t want any trouble. But can we discuss this?”

Vastian grabbed my wrist. “I can’t hold back much longer.”

“We can talk later. You need to go right now,” I barked. She didn’t know what was happening to Vastian. When he squeezed my wrist harder, I knew there wasn’t time to explain.

Her lip trembled. “Please, I only wish to understand.”

Vastian bolted from the bed a moment later. He was at her throat in an instant. Fangs latched deep, and she couldn’t even scream. Tackling his back, I rammed my arm between them and used all my body weight to pry his face loose. He writhed and hissed, nails slicing into her arms.

“Run!” I yelled at her before Vastian flipped and sank into me instead.

Thankfully, she listened that time. Vastian’s body felt like steel on top of me. This wasn’t the erotic neck-sucking like before. He was tearing into my tendons, muscle—bone.

He was right about going into a frenzy because I repeatedly slammed my fists into his back, and he didn”t stop. Minutes went by, and anyone else would have been dead. Whatever he did worked because I didn”t feel any different besides the sting of his savagery.

But when I heard Ariel’s roar, everything fell apart.

“No!” I called to her, throwing a hand out.

In her bear form, she bit down and jerked him free. Shaking him back and forth, he spun and latched onto her. Chris wasn’t far behind, and when his eyes met mine, he shifted into a beast lion, not in his cute street cat form. His massive paws sliced at Vastian’s back as his canines sank into Vastian’s arm.

The noise of his flesh ripping echoed in my ears.

“He can’t control it! Back off!” I growled and kicked Chris as hard as I could.

Snarling, he jumped off Vastian. Then, I wedged myself in the mix of skin and fur. Locating Vastian”s throat, I squeezed as hard as my fingers would go. He eventually let up, releasing Ariel, but she was limp.

Chris shifted back to his human body and fell to his knees. I punched Vastian square across the jaw; the impact rattled his teeth, and he stumbled back a touch.

Pressing my ear to Ariel’s broad chest, I couldn’t breathe.

“Fuck!” I cried, slamming my fists onto her—anything to try and get her heart pumping again.

“Ariel!” Chris sobbed, his forehead buried in her bloodied neck.

“Move!” Brianne’s voice echoed. Had she been lingering that whole time?

She shoved both of us away, pulling something from her leather vest. A vial of blue liquid filled it. Yanking the lid off with her teeth, she dumped the contents over Ariel’s neck. When she started speaking in tongues, I froze. Soft strokes down the bear’s snout followed by her blowing out air over it, and Ariel twitched, her back paws flexing and wiggling.

Brianne kept mumbling whatever elvish spell, causing more life to flow back into Ariel. What was she saying? Don’t ask me. But it fucking worked.

Rolling over onto all fours, Ariel shook her head. Fur rustling and blinking. Chris rushed her. Sweet words and loving touches poured from him as those bear eyes honed in on Vastian.

Fuck—Brianne could do that? As much as I wanted to ask questions, now wasn”t the time because when I turned to locate Vastian, he was flat against the wall. It was all too familiar; if not for the lack of a tree, he had that same bestial expression as he”d had that day in the forest. Scared, eyes alight with something akin to bewilderment.

“Get the fuck out!” Chris roared, shifting his gaze from me, Vastian, and Brianne.

“Chris, he didn’t mean to. And look! She’s all better now, thanks to a little elvish magic!”

“Fuck you, Atreyis! She is pregnant!” His eyes pricked with unshed tears.

Oh.

“Congratulations,” Brianne whispered, and Ariel swatted at the elf.

“Let”s go,” I said to Vastian and took his hand.

”I can hear the babe”s heart,” he muttered hesitantly.

”Excuse me if I don”t trust that beast”s word,” Chris heaved. ”Get out.”

I probably should have tried to get Chris to get over it. Try to reassure him that Ariel was a tough broad and would probably be fine. But I didn’t. With Aryn in the vicinity, a rabid Vampyr, there were other things on my mind. I never said these people were my fucking friends. I didn’t have friends. Even as I thought the words, my stomach sank.

Those two were good to me, and I brought that dark cloud here. I trusted Vastian that the bear-cat growing in Ariel would be fine, but—

”Atreyis,” Brianne said, grabbing my attention. I gave her a curt nod.

As I approached the doorway, Brianne closed the distance, opened a portal, and shoved us through.