Nothing more.
I kissed her harder.
Her nails dug into my skin.
"Fight it, Genesis." I was speaking to myself as much as I was to her. I needed to fight it too… because I knew firsthand there was nothing worse than mating with someone, wanting someone so badly, and thinking it was love.
And realizing it was nothing but a very pretty lie.
Her head dropped back, exposing her full neck.
Sweat dripped from her face down her neck as another stab of pain hit me and her in the chest.
She was fighting it.
But she was also fighting me.
She had spirit.
I only hoped that when death visited her in her dreams, she wouldn't take his cold lifeless hand.
Because maybe I could never love her. Maybe she could never love me. But I respected her strength.
And in all my years — I was beginning to think maybe it was time to have a friend I could at least share the loneliness with.
A real mate.
She screamed.
And blacked out.
I pulled her into my lap and kissed her forehead. She moved against me and then stopped.
Her body went ice cold.
Death was visiting.
All I could do was wait.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Genesis
I FELT ETHAN NEXT TO ME. I wanted to ask him what was happening next, why my body was suddenly cold — why everything felt numb — but I couldn't open my eyes.
I was trapped in darkness.
"So," a low whispery voice spoke into the darkness, "will you stay or will you go?"
"What?" I spoke into the darkness, unable to see anything around me. White smoke suddenly appeared in front of me, and then a hand reached out through the smoke.
"Will you come with me? Allow me to ease all your pain? Or will you stay?"
The hand looked so welcoming.
The closer it came to my body the more I wanted to take it.
But I could still feel Ethan, and leaving him… felt so wrong. My body shuddered at the thought.