“Take her.” Evren shifted before groaning. “Get her the fuck out of here, Jorah.”
Jorah nodded once toward his captain, but they were out of their minds.
“I’m not leaving you.”
Evren didn’t look at me. Instead, he spoke directly to Jorah. “Tie her to the damn horse if you have to, but get her out of here. Don’t stop until you’ve reached our destination.”
“I am not leaving,” I growled, and finally he looked up at me. “I will fight Jorah every step of the way. We are not leaving you.”
“I can’t ride like this, princess.” Evren motioned toward his stomach.
“You have magic. Use your magic.” I ran my hands over my trousers. “Please.”
“It doesn’t work like that.” He shook his head gently, and it took far too much of his strength for just that small movement. “I could possibly stop the bleeding, but I can’t… I can’t heal this. It’s too much.”
I shook my head as I stared at his wounds. I knew he was telling the truth, but I didn’t want to believe him. I couldn’t just leave him here to die.
“Feed from me.” I jerked up the sleeve of my shirt and exposed the wrist where Gavril had fed from me just days ago. “Take my blood.”
“What?”
“Take my blood, Evren.” My voice broke as I pushed closer to him.
“I thought you said you’d never let another feed from you again?” He looked up at me and looked so relaxed. “I am not my brother, princess. I won’t take something from you that you don’t want to give.”
“I want to,” I cried as I tried to get him to see reason. “I want to save you.”
“I’ll be fine, Adara, but you need to get out of here.” He looked back to Jorah. “Those men didn’t recognize it was me, not until the end, but they knew her. Don’t let them catch sight of her again.”
“Stop,” I cried again and lifted my dagger. I was about to press it to my own wrist before Evren placed his hand over my scar.
“Don’t, princess.”
“Then feed from me,” I begged him. “I’m begging you to feed from me.”
Evren looked at me for a long time, and I knew that he was contemplating what he should do. But the decision was simple. Evren wouldn’t survive these woods without my blood, and I worried I wasn’t going to survive without him.
His fingers wrapped around my wrist gently, and I wasn’t sure if he was simply trying to be careful with me or if that was all the strength he could muster. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I don’t care.” I shook my head before forcing my wrist closer to me and my dagger. “I won’t let you die.”
“She’s right, Evren,” Jorah spoke to his friend and captain, but Evren was still staring up at me.
“I don’t need your dagger.” He pulled my wrist toward him, and I helped him close the distance between me and his mouth. “I told you what I am.”
Evren opened his mouth, and I held my breath as he gently ran his teeth along my sensitive skin before sinking them in deeper. I gasped as pain shot through my arm, pain like I had never felt before, and Evren’s hand tightened around me as if he feared I would pull away.
His teeth sank deeper and deeper until I feared he would hit my bone.
His eyes fluttered closed as I felt a part of me draining out of my veins and into him. But it was different. Even as the pain still radiated through my arm, I knew that what was happening with Evren was so much different than with Gavril.
My marks came alive against my skin as Evren’s lips sealed over my wrist, and they felt like they were burning in an exquisite kind of pain. It was as if they hadn’t truly been a part of me until that moment, but now, right then, they were branding into my skin.
The urge to scream was overwhelming, but I wouldn’t allow myself that weakness. Evren would stop if he knew what was coursing through my veins. Pleasure and pain mixed until I couldn’t tell one from another.
He would stop, but I refused to let him.
My wrist trembled against his mouth as he fed, and I worried about what would be left of me when he was done. I had been told a hundred times over that Gavril was my destiny, but what if they all had it wrong? What if I was Evren’s destiny instead?