Ecstasy Untamed (Feral Warriors #6)(84)

The violent need to hurt him barreled through her, then receded, pushed back by the will of the falcon. Ally. Partner. The thoughts sank into her head.

Save Hawke. This hawk. Need him.

Ours.

Pushing past that alien need for violence, Faith reached for him, pressing her palms to his face. "Hawke." A distant bird's cry filled her mind. Not the falcon's. The hawk's?

Hawke's gaze was unfocused, his eyes filled with a pain the darkness reveled in, a pain that sliced her heart to shreds. At the push of the falcon, she slid her hands higher, pressing her palms to his temples. The screeching exploded until she gasped from the sound of it. As she held the man, the falcon flew into that maelstrom and, through sheer force of will, began to calm it.

Faith kissed Hawke's cheek gently. "Look at me."

Glazed eyes lifted, confusion and relief warring with the horror. "Faith. You're back." He pulled her into his arms. "I hurt you. Goddess, I hurt you."

"No." She kept her palms pressed against his temples. The falcon needed her to, though how she knew that, she wasn't sure. "I wanted it rough. I needed it rough, and you gave it to me. We were both caught up in that storm. You didn't hurt me."

He tipped his forehead to hers, a shudder going through his body. "I'm glad." His hand slid up her side and back down again. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to help you. Hawke, I'm fighting the darkness, but it could win again at any moment. It's pounding in my head, the drive, the demand to escape. To hurt you! But the falcon is helping me. You need my help. Your connection with the hawk is shattering. He's furious."

"Tell me something I don't know. He blames me for getting us caught in that spirit trap."

"That's not it. That's not the problem."

He pulled back, his gaze narrowing even as he brushed the hair back from her face with shaking hands. "What do you mean?"

"The falcon is talking with the hawk. She's relaying the gist of the conversation to me."

The look he gave her would have been comical if the situation hadn't been so dire.

She shrugged. "What can I say? I have a gift for language."

"Falcon speak?"

"I don't know, and it doesn't matter! All I know is the spirit trap frayed the connection between you, you're making it worse, and he's frantic."

"I'm making it worse? He's the one who keeps stealing control! How am I the one making it worse?"

"You're not working with him, you're doing nothing to heal the connection."

He stared at her, as if not quite believing, yet trying to. "Tell me how."

"You have to give up control to him." She persisted despite Hawke's scowl. "You have to become one with him."

"You think I haven't tried? He takes over, and I lose hours at a time. Thirty-seven, last time."

Faith stroked his hair back from his face before once more pressing her hand to his temple. "You've never given up control to him, Hawke. He snatches it, but you've never truly given it."

The scowl returned. "You don't know what you're asking."

"I'm asking you to do what you have to in order to survive." She gripped his face, leaning forward until she felt as if she were pouring her will into his eyes. "You're going to die if you don't. And soon. The connection is nearly broken." Emotion ripped through the wall of will and darkness, rushing her with anguish and pain. She caressed his cheek. "I don't want you to die."

His jaw clenched beneath her fingers. "If I give in to him - "

"No. Not give in. That's just it. You must freely, willingly, completely hand him control."

He stared at her. "I can't."

The darkness began to sweep over her again. She felt it rushing back in and snatched her hands from his face. "Hawke!"

He must have realized what was happening because the next thing she knew, she was on her stomach, his warm body lying along the length of her, his hands pinning hers above her head.

"Don't leave me, Hawke. Don't leave me."

"I won't, Smiley. I won't."

But he didn't understand. And she couldn't help him any more. Terror ripped through her at the thought that she'd try to fight him again, that she'd drive him past the brink.

"Don't die," she whispered brokenly as the dark magic swept her away.

"We have to get her cured."

Hawke turned his head from where he lay atop Faith's back, both of them stark naked, as she fought and bucked beneath him, struggling to get free of his hold. Kougar stood just outside the cell door.

"Have you been standing there the whole time?" The thought of another Feral watching him make love to a woman didn't bother him. Hell, if he ever got the chance to take Faith as his mate, they'd all watch. It was part of the mating ceremony. But the thought that Kougar had witnessed him attacking her made him sick with shame. "Why didn't you stop me?"

"First, I haven't been standing here the whole time - I shifted and curled up on the floor in the corner. But I heard clearly enough - rough sex and two very willing participants. If you'd been harming her, I'd have stopped you."

Hawke would have liked to get up, but Faith was still thrashing, facedown, lost once more to the darkness that demanded his blood. She couldn't draw it like this, which helped him hold on to his own control. Besides, he was just possessive enough not to like the idea of Kougar seeing the full extent of Faith's beauty, though with her being Feral now, they'd all see her nude, eventually. It was just a matter of time.