Rapture Untamed (Feral Warriors #4)(75)

And he was too close to her.

The Earth had set up an ungodly howl, melding her fury with the screaming of the vortex until he could barely hear himself think.

His gaze sought out his brothers. They were all moving with less speed, less animal grace than normal. They were all tiring. As he watched, one of the humans fell unconscious. But, dammit, the Mage weren't affected by her feeding at all. They weren't out there long enough. In twos and threes, they ran back to the brick building as reinforcements took their places.

One of the Daemons floated over the vortex where the Ferals couldn't reach him, then flew in to slice a chunk out of one of the human male's faces. His scream melded with that of the Earth's as the blood gushed from the wound.

Goddess, they had to find a way to kill these things. If only the Daemons would grow weak from Olivia's feeding instead of the humans and Ferals.

A second black cloud erupted on the far side of the vortex between Lyon and Kougar.

Another Daemon down.

Jag straightened, struggling against the growing weakness just as another Mage came at him, a knife in each hand. He was so through with this shit. As the Mage dove at him, Jag ducked and rolled, using the sentinel's own momentum to send him flying into the glowing hell pit.

For the moment he was free of Mage attackers. He had to stop Olivia, though goddess, he wanted to do anything but that. He ran back to her, tried to get through the warding, and was knocked back yet again. The only way he could get through the damned wards was in animal form, but the shifting was draining him as fast as Olivia was.

No choice.

He shifted back into his cat, grabbed his knife in his mouth, and ran through the barrier, then dropped it at her feet and slowly turned back into a man.

"Jag. Quit being sentimental! You must rip out my heart."

He cupped her face in one hand, feeling a sudden, hard jolt as he took all her feeding onto himself. "Sentimental, am I? I'd as soon rip out my own heart, Liv."

"Let go! I'm feeding only from you!"

His hand dropped away, but he stared into her eyes. "I love you."

Tears sprang to her own. "Jag, just do it. Don't make this any harder than it already is."

"I know." Before she weakened him to the point he couldn't lift the knife, he had to kill her. "Goddess, Olivia, how am I supposed to live without you? You've given me back my life. My heart." And now she would rip them both from him again when she died.

At his own hand.

He was a Feral first. And if he didn't stop her, and soon, they would all die. But he wasn't giving up without one more try.

Olivia closed her eyes, bracing herself for the death that had to come. The thought of what this would do to Jag tore her heart out of her chest even before his knife touched her. He thought he loved her. Oh, Jag.

But instead of the bite of cold steel, she felt his hand once more cup her cheek.

Her eyes flew open. "What are you doing?"

His tired gaze bored into hers, a flash of devilment in their dark depths. "You turning into a quitter, Red?"

Her temper snapped. "I'm fighting it as hard as I can!" But she saw what he was doing.

Making her mad. Giving her the strength to fight harder. "You want me to kick your ass, Feral?"

His mouth tightened, but his eyes crinkled at the corners. "Give me all you've got, Liv.

Don't you dare give up. We're going to stop it. Together. The damned Mage are not going to win."

"Jag, I'm out of ideas."

He dropped his hands, but stared at her with eyes lit by a fierce determination. "Can you feel the lives individually like you did when you fed from the draden last night?"

"Yes, but not as well. And I can't control the feeding. I've tried!"

"What about the reverse feed? When you fed me?"

She stared at him, her mouth dropping open. "I forgot. I didn't think..." With a sudden, desperate hope, she found his life force, closed her eyes and willed herself to feed him.

Nothing happened. She was too locked into the feeding to reverse it.

Her eyes flew open. "It's not working!"

He swayed.

"Jag, you've got to get away from me. You're too close!"

With a hand, he waved her words away, but his motion was slow and lethargic. "Liv, concentrate." He slapped his hand awkwardly, as if he were drunk. "Inside me, I feel you. In my mind...I see this glow, this light, and I know it's you. It's the start of a mating bond."

His gaze bored into hers, at once achingly soft and hard as granite. "I don't know if you'll ever feel it. Goddess knows, I've never given you any reason to love me. But try, Liv. Right this moment, try to love me. Try to find that bond, then reach me through it."

"Jag, you're endangering all of your lives. I know how hard it's going to be on you, but you have to stop me. You can't feel guilty for it."

"I'm not trying to save you because I feel guilty. I'm trying to save you because I love you." His gaze snapped, as did his words. "Find that link, Olivia, now! For both of us."

His eyes blazed with an emotion that burrowed deep inside her, lighting all the dark places, filling her with an incredible warmth, and igniting a matching emotion within her.

Love. It blazed within her, shoring up the crumbled mass of her heart. And deep in her mind, a light flared. A glow. A glow she knew was Jag.