Nikolai had saved her from the vampire who’d taken her, and all she wanted was to be in his arms. She didn’t understand what the female vampire was doing, why she was holding him back, when he’d just saved her.

Lauren took a couple of steps forward, but instead of opening his arms to her, he shook his head.

“No, Lauren! Stay away from me.”

“What?” She didn’t understand what was happening.

“Get away from me,” he snarled.

The other people in the stone room exchanged glances, and she looked to Ivan for an explanation. “Ivan, what’s happening?”

“It’s The Thirst,” he told her.

The blond man who she now assumed was a witch of some kind said, “Where’s the hourglass?”

Ivan looked to him. “Are we too late? Has he gone too far? Is it irreversible now, even though Lauren is here?”

The male witch nodded his chin towards Nikolai. “The hourglass will tell us.”

Ivan moved towards Nikolai and, with a shaking hand, reached into his pocket and pulled out the hourglass. The bulb at the top was empty.

“No!” Ivan growled, crushing the object in his fist, and the glass shattered. It must have pierced his skin, but he barely seemed to notice.

She looked around at everyone, not understanding what was happening.

“It’s too late,” Ivan explained. “The Thirst has taken hold for good. The Nikolai we know has gone.”

She looked at her Bloodmate. He already seemed so different, his face changed on a perceptible level. His eyes were almost white now, the silvery blue paled so he looked albino. His face, too, had changed, every jut of his bone more defined, so his jaw looked rigid, his nose carved from ice, his brow jutting out over his eyes in a shelf.

“No,” she cried. “No, I won’t let him go!”

Nikolai struggled in the female vampire’s arms. Drooling and snapping like a rabid dog. Lauren assumed the other vampire was far older, and that was the only reason she’d been able to hold him back. He looked at Lauren as though he wanted to kill her, and that was exactly what she thought he would do.

Her heart broke at the thought. No, she wouldn’t allow this to happen. Her love for him was too great.

“I’m not afraid.” She pushed back her shoulders and lifted her chin. “You’re not going to hurt me, Nikolai. I know you.”

The female vampire behind Nikolai glowered at her. “Stay back. I can’t promise I can hold him if you get much closer.”

A familiar tingling started in her fingers and travelled up her arms. She glanced down to see the blue light glowing from her skin. Blue flames lit and danced from finger to finger, and she held them up. This was her connection to Nikolai, the thing they’d created together. Maybe she always had it inside her, but it was Nikolai who’d brought it to life. It was what bound them. Inside, she no longer felt fear, but only peace.

“It’s okay,” she said. “You can let him go.”

Ivan’s voice came from somewhere to her right. “Lauren, don’t!”

But she ignored him and kept walking.

“Let him go,” she told Delia. “I don’t care if he kills me. I won’t be able to live my life without him anyway, but please trust me when I say I know he won’t.”

Something in her tone must have reached her, as the other vampire loosened her grip.

With a snarl, Nikolai bounded towards her.

Lauren let out a cry and lifted both hands. She didn’t know how she managed it, but before his teeth had reached her throat, she placed both palms against his chest, and gave a mental thrust, pouring the blue light into Nikolai’s heart.

The effect was as though she’d just electrocuted him.

He flew back, hitting the floor, his body jerking and trembling under the power of the energy she’d passed on. The light condensed at his chest, but then spread out, encasing him entirely.

For a horrifying moment, she thought she’d done the wrong thing and had managed to kill him herself, but the blue light gradually faded from around him. His face returned to normal, and his eyes blinked open. They were back to being blue again, and, when she caught his eye, he looked like himself again.

Nikolai pushed himself to sitting. “What happened?”

Lauren let out a sob of relief and threw herself to the floor, into his lap. He caught her up in his arms and held her tight, his hand stroking her hair.

“Shush, everything’s all right. Everyone’s safe.”

And they were.

They stayed that way for awhile, allowing everything that had happened to sink in, and to finally comprehend that they were back together, and no one was going to hurt them again.