She was tired. The mind link was difficult for her even with Darius’s strength infusing her. Her body was worn and tired. A sound was beginning to impose itself into the violence of Dayan’s mind. It was weak, irregular, a soft thumping like a distant drum. The code was strange and erratic. A beat. A miss.
Corinne felt Dayan move within her mind. A soft hiss, a groan of despair. ‘Corinne!’ Her name was whispered in that velvet soft voice. She closed her eyes, certain he would come. The beast could never hold him when she needed him. Nothing would stop him from coming to her. She felt the strength of his determination, knew he was wrestling for supremacy, to cage the beast within him. Corinne left him to it. Breathing was an effort now, her lungs laboring.
She felt Desari at her side, holding her hand, whispering a chant. She felt the healing energy of the three women. It was a warm tingling moving through her body, Desari was tranquil, she was always serene, yet Corinne sensed an alarm. It didn’t matter, none of it did. Dayan was on his way, and she knew he would somehow make things right. She wanted to hear the sound of his voice.
Corinne drifted in a dream world. She heard his music, the beautiful poetic words that emerged from his soul as he expressed his need for love. His need for Corinne. Only Corinne. She believed him at last. He could do things others could not, and he would come back to her from the dark terrible struggle for his soul. She had faith. “Complete faith.” She murmured the words aloud, but her voice was too soft even for the acute hearing she had acquired recently. ‘Dayan.’ His name was her strength, her anchor so that she wouldn’t drift too far from the real world.
‘Corinne.’ His voice whispered through her mind, filled her heart and lungs, so for a moment it was easier to breathe. Her long lashes fluttered as she tried to reassure the women she was still alive. Her lashes were far heavier than she remembered them being. In the end, it was too much of an effort to raise them, so she made herself smile instead.
‘I knew you would come. Hurry, Dayan. I don’t know why I’m so tired.’ Corinne was certain she thought the words clearly in her mind, but they seemed to be slurred, running together like fine grains of sand. Her free hand moved slowly over the thick quilt, seeking something she needed.
Desari bunched up the comforter so that one particular symbol was under Corinne’s moving fingers. At once Corinne’s hand closed around it, tranquil once more.
Dayan streaked through the sky, faster than he had ever moved in his life. Corinne was fading away. He could feel her sliding away from him, moving in a direction he dared not allow her to go. Dark vapor parted as he burst through the clouds, a streak of blue-green against the roiling black of the heavens. Mist swirled in long tails along the ground and began to build up around the trees and houses.
Darius kept pace with him, concentrating on the child, whose hold on life was so fragile he was uncharacteristically worried. Gregori was attempting to hold Corinne to earth, focusing on her fading heart. The amount of energy she’d used to keep Dayan from succumbing to the lure of the kill had been more than her weak heart could stand. Corinne was fighting it, wasn’t afraid – she simply trusted in Dayan, knew that he would be there for her as she had been for him.
Dayan could find no recrimination in her mind, no shock at the knowledge of his darker side. She was as accepting of him as ever, and her acceptance humbled him. As he moved across the night sky with the raging storm reflecting his inner turbulence, he gathered himself, preparing for the ceremony to come. He had no choice. He had to bind her to him for both of their sakes. He had to give her his healing blood. The baby was at risk, and Dayan, more than any other, knew the loss of her child was the one thing Corinne would never accept. She would trade her life for that of the baby.