I smile at her words, knowing she is right.
Her hands are slick, her hair falling into her tear-streaked face, her entire body trembling with fear, but her eyes burn with a fire that anchors me to this world.The house may be broken.My body may be torn.But as long as she’s here, pressing her hands into my wound, fighting for me, I will not fall.
Harlow’s hands won’t leave me, even when Riggs steps back into the chaos to check on the others.
“Do you ...do you need a doctor?”Her voice trembles, brittle with fear, eyes darting to the wreckage like someone might appear and take me from her at any moment.
I catch her wrist before she can bolt.My voice is ragged but steady.“No.I just need to rest.And blood.Someone will bring bags as soon as they’ve tended to everyone else.”
She stares down at me, lips parted, tears streaking her cheeks.For a moment, the fury in her gaze outweighs the terror.
“When they’ve tended to everyone else?While you’re bleeding out?”She shakes her head sharply, strands of hair sticking to her wet face.“No.No waiting.”
My chest tightens when I see the resolve in her eyes.She leans closer, trembling but defiant.
“Take mine.”
The world seems to hold its breath.Her pulse beats wildly under the skin of her throat, a rhythm that calls to me even through the fog of pain.The offer is reckless.Dangerous.Beautiful.
“You don’t understand what you’re saying,” I rasp.
“I do.”She presses her palm harder against my wound, her jaw set, her voice shaking but unyielding.“You need it.And if it saves you, if it keeps you here, then I don’t care what it costs me.”
My fangs ache at the thought.The scent of her—fear, fury, devotion—wraps around me like fire, and I realize with brutal clarity that she means it.She would give me her blood.Her life.Everything.
I grip her chin, forcing her eyes to mine.“You don’t know what you’re offering.My bite isn’t gentle.It isn’t safe.It will bind you to me in ways you can’t imagine.”
Her lips tremble, but her gaze never wavers.“Then bind me.”
The words tear through me, more healing than any blood.
I drag in a breath, fighting the hunger clawing at my insides, fighting the urge to give in completely.
“Not here.Not like this,” I manage, though every instinct screams to sink my fangs into her now, to take what she offers and make her mine.
Her tears spill faster, dropping onto my chest as she bows her head.“Then don’t you dare die, Mateo,” she whispers fiercely.“Because if you do, I’ll never forgive you.”
My hand closes over hers, steadying her trembling fingers against my wound.“I told you, mi alma,” I whisper back, voice raw with pain and devotion.“I’m not going anywhere.”
The destruction around us fades into the distance.Right now, there’s only her ...the taste of her name on my tongue, the fire in her eyes, and the knowledge that I’d bleed myself dry before I ever let her go.