Pain caused me to open my eyes to darkness, but it was not my pain, and it was not the darkness of the cave that I was in. Long ago, I had learned the minute distinctions between Lady Luna's internal-ness and my own. This was definitely not my own. The pain and the blackness belonged to her.
Through the thread of our blood-tie I instantaneously sought her out. She shot to her feet on a rocky ledge high above Snow Melt Lake.
My Lady Moon was about to die.
Panic --something I had never felt as my own emotion before now-- rocked me from within. I sprang from the cave's floor, shot through the gaping mouth in the earth and shoved my self into the sky. I grasped at the morning air with my wings, thrusting it down to the ground fast and hard and I took myself into a static soar. I stayed linked to Lady Luna. I had learned long ago how to navigate through my world while still being able to see into hers.
I was fast, slicing through the sky just barely off the water, but I wasn't confident that I would be fast enough. Now, through her eyes as well as mine, in two totally different perspectives, I watched her jump. I watched as she began to plummet toward the rocks below.
I cut the sky with my wings, angling the alula inward on each downward stroke, flying faster than I knew myself to be capable of.
She was inches from her death when I collided with her body. The impact was a force that sent us sideways through the air. I secured Lady Luna in my arms just in time, before my left wing clipped the water and we spun, belly-up, belly-down then crash-landed into the lake. Snow Melt drank us in, momentarily.
As we became completely submerged, I curled my wings around my possession then took her back to the surface, and quickly, so that she would not try to take a liquid breath. I felt her determination to end her miserable life, but I would not allow that. I was very angry that she had done this. I wanted to rip her apart with that anger.
Once we hit the surface, I heard Lady Luna gasp for air. It was a simple sound. One I had heard her make countless times before, and yet, here and now, it was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard.
My Lady Moon had nearly died. This struck me with a force more damaging than even Ashmodai's ball of a thousand lightning strikes. And I knew with great certainty that Lady Luna could not die. I knew, even if it took my own immortal life to make this so, I would not allow her death.
Keeping us afloat at the surface, I turned Luna in my arms, uncurling my saturated and heavy wings so that I could see her face.
I needed to see her face.
I knew she was all right. I knew that she had not been harmed, but that was not why I needed to see her. The panic had to be snubbed. Though she was safe and in my arms and looking up at me, my heart still pounded wildly in my breast. It was my heart that needed to see her.
My exotic Lady, looking up at me with those exotic, spellbinding eyes, satiated the panic. Relief swam through me, and I felt a strange and unfamiliar desire to laugh. Deeply, quietly, I laughed, while I drew My Lady Moon against me and embraced her.
"Sleep, My Lady Moon," I whispered. I watched in complete and utter exaltation as her thick, dark lashes fluttered then softly fell over her eyes. Luna went limp in my arm.
Unaware of my own intentions, the painful heat bubbling through my blood, my eyes fell to the slightly bulging vein that pulsed blue up the side of Luna's neck, and I was overcome by the desire to sink my teeth into her flesh, rip it wide open and drink from that very vein. Every last drop, I desired to drink. This desire overtook me, overpowered me. My mind thrummed, Free. Free. We will be set free.
We?
Only vaguely was I aware of my own desires. Drinking Lady Luna's blood until she ran dry was not one of them. It would never be one of them again.
Luna had weakened me. Somewhere between exaltation and the warm feeling of love, I had let down the mental barricade that kept my brothers from entering into my thoughts.
I was not alone in my mind.
Which meant Luna was not alone with me.
But this did not matter now. Draining Luna Lanchester's blood from her body so that we would be set free was all that was important.
Drink! My mind demanded from two voices in unison. Drink! Drink! Drink!
My body responded. My nail-less fingers dug into the tender flesh of Luna's arms, and I yanked her upward so that my mouth could reach her neck. Her limp head rolled to the side, easing the access to that beautiful, pulsing vein.
I brushed my lips across her flesh, just beneath the lobe of her dainty ear, my tongue salivating. Deep beneath the invasive control, I felt the warmth of my love for her spreading like the zaps of light Ashmodai wielded.
But this was not enough to stop me.
The beast in me let out a deep, guttural growl of inner agony. Then my teeth gently punctured Luna's flesh and slowly scraped her skin, leaving behind a thin ribbon of blood that glistened like liquid rubies in the sunlight.
Free! We will be set free!
****
Chapter Forty-Six
Luna