Imril was careful not to cast light over Nykithus’s charred remains as he guided Esania out of the chamber. She walked slowly but confidently, staying just far enough behind him that he couldn’t drink any more of her vir.

He’d taken enough from her already, and although he could return some strength to her in the form of power, at this stage the elgida wasn’t developed enough to be able to truly merge her energy with his.

When he was done with her, she would be a creature of energy and light, able to tap into the vast power he generated from her vir, and she would be as long-lived as he.

The science of energy transfer was complicated and mysterious. Acheros had told Imril only the necessary details; that females of certain species were conduits to the rich veins of living energy—vir—that ran through the Universe.

Females gave life. They nurtured it. They were life itself, and Imril was just a tool, a weapon; able to take her glorious energy, amplify it, and turn it into something physical.

He turned and met her gaze, and she found the strength to smile back at him, even though she was clearly exhausted.

“You’re beautiful,” he murmured, unable to help himself. This euphoria… he’d never felt anything like it. They were still deep in the bowels of Nykithus’s eyrie. He was weak, recovering from a near-fatal stab wound in his belly, and his scale-armor had burned away, leaving him completely exposed, but he was ecstatic.

He was alive, and he was with his lukara. That was all that mattered.

Color rose in her cheeks, a subtle, delicious shade of dusky pink that made her dewy skin look even more appealing.

He just wanted to devour her whole.

Every. Last. Morsel.

“Imril,” she whispered, and it was both a plea and a half-hearted protest. “You’re hurt. I’m exhausted. We need to find Rachel. We need to get out of here.”

“I know that, but can’t a man just take a moment to appreciate his good fortune? Don’t worry, Mael has already gone in search of your human.” Maybe his belly wound had stopped bleeding because all the blood was currently pooling in his cock. He had an erection again, and it was sheer torture.

How much longer did he have to endure this insanity? Imril vowed to finish creating his elgida as soon as possible. He could just picture Esania in his mind, his mark decorating every curve and plane of her glorious body, his power filling the intricate channels he’d carved in her skin.

Only then could he truly claim her, taste her, possess her.

Esania stopped dead in her tracks and stared at him, her expression unreadable. Being just outside the radius of her vir, he couldn’t read her so well, but he could feel the undercurrent of her desire through the bond.

It drove him mad. Imril gritted his teeth, his nostrils flaring. He was just going to have to endure it.

“It’s driving me crazy too,” she said at last, her lips parting to give him a tantalizing glimpse of her sweet pink tongue. “But don’t get ahead of yourself, big boy. I’m just glad you’re alive.”

“Yes.” Oh, how he wanted to go to her, to take her into his arms and fly away, to leave this monstrous dark city and its terrible memories behind.

But he couldn’t touch her. Not yet. Because he was a monster, and right now his touch would do more harm than good. The elgida wasn’t strong enough yet.

Imril beckoned to her. Come. “I’m yours, Esania. I’ll do anything for you. Anything you desire… anything.”

“Then let’s find Rachel, and then… I want you to take me home.”

Home.

Now that was something he hadn’t thought about in a long time. Where was home? In Kunlo’s decaying eyrie? In the abandoned halls of Eleia, his lofty eyrie above the waves?

“Home is with you,” his lukara said gently, as if reading his thoughts. With their tenuous bond in place, perhaps she really did know what he was thinking.

Not that he minded.

Not at all.