Forbidden Bite by Cynthia Eden (12)

Chapter Twelve

Sanity came slowly. A ferocious hunger had consumed him, a cold blackness had surrounded him, and Griffin had needed to fight his way back to reality.

Reality.

A blood-soaked room—or lab? A dead man to his right. And…Isabella.

Griffin lifted his head, and Isabella’s arm fell back, falling limply to the stones beneath her. Her skin was stark-white, her eyes closed, and she was far too still. “Isabella?”

She didn’t stir.

He leapt to his feet. Weakness didn’t fill his limbs any longer. He’d been shaking when he attacked Felix. Griffin had used every ounce of his beast’s power to complete that kill. The silver had poured through his veins, and Griffin had been sure he was dying…

Isabella saved me.

She’d given him her blood. He—he remembered her wrist pressing to his lips. He remembered her sweet taste.

Griffin scooped her into his arms and held her tight. She still didn’t stir. “Isabella?”

Nothing.

What have I done? Had he taken too much from her? Had he killed his mate?

No, no. “No!” Griffin roared. His claws slashed open his forearm, and he put the blood before her mouth. She didn’t take it, so he rubbed her throat, trying to force Isabella to swallow. Trying to force her to live. Because she had to live, for him.

He’d just found her. They’d only had days together. He wanted a lifetime—a dozen lifetimes. He wanted forever. He wanted her. Always. Only her.

But the blood just trickled from the side of her mouth. She wasn’t swallowing it. She wasn’t responding. She was terrifying him.

“Isabella?”

He tried again, needing her to have his blood. He’d taken too much, Griffin realized that—he must have taken far too much from his Isabella when he’d been injured. If he could just give her the blood back, she’d be okay. If she’d just take the blood back.

But even when he forced her to swallow, she didn’t wake. She didn’t stir.

She just…her body grew colder.

And the beast inside of Griffin went dead silent.

***

“A transfusion?” Carter’s voice was quiet as he stood at Griffin’s side. “That’s not really the way vamps are supposed to take blood, is it?”

Griffin didn’t look away from the bed or from Isabella. She was on that bed, her skin as white as the sheets beneath her. A nurse—a werewolf nurse—studied the blood as it slid into Isabella’s veins.

“I thought vamps needed to drink blood,” Carter murmured. “Not get, um, infused—”

“I’m giving her the blood any fucking way I can.” Griffin had tried to make her drink. It hadn’t worked. She’d swallowed some of his blood back at that hellish pit where Felix had died, but Isabella hadn’t roused. So he’d rushed her back to a werewolf safe house. She’d been there for two days. Two fucking days. She had a pulse, a very weak one, but her eyes hadn’t opened. Griffin had stayed at her side the entire time, but he kept thinking…she’s slipping away from me.

“I read the files at Felix’s place.” Carter walked around the bed, moving to the other side. The tapping of his footsteps seemed too loud in the quiet room. “You know what he was doing, right?”

Had Isabella’s fingers just moved a bit? Griffin wasn’t sure, so he took her left hand in his. Her skin was so cold.

“Felix was a vamp, and his werewolf mate died a hundred years ago. He missed her,” Carter added. “Shit, you should see his journals.”

Griffin didn’t want to see anything but Isabella.

“They are filled with insane rambles about the world being dark. Being hell without his Layela. Felix wrote that he could barely breathe without her. That she was in his head every day.” Carter whistled. “I didn’t realize the mating bond was so intense. I talked to a few werewolves, and some of them have lost their mates to death. Despite the terrible loss, they kept going. They told me it hurt, but they got past their grief. They didn’t go…well, ass crazy. But maybe it’s different when vamps and werewolves mate. The blood exchange, the different genetics, the—”

“If she dies, I don’t know what I’ll do.” Get over her? Fuck, no, he couldn’t. “I don’t know what my beast will do.” His fingers caressed her inner wrist. “He’s silent now, because he’s afraid. But there’s danger in his fear. The fear cloaks rage, I feel it. If she dies…” Griffin forced himself to look up. “Stop me.”

Carter blinked. “Stop you…from what, exactly?”

Griffin just stared at him. “The beast will take over.” Because the man would break. “I love her.” Quiet, ragged. “Already…I love her. She’s in me, and I am in her.”

Carter rocked back on his heels. “Not if Felix had his way, you’re not.”

Griffin looked back at Isabella.

“He wanted to sever the mating bond. To see if he could do it, the crazy asshole set out to create another bond like the one he’d had with his Layela. He needed a born vamp to form a mating bond with a werewolf. So he put Isabella in the path of werewolves. Those others—Felix had eyes on them. His guards. They saw that the first three werewolves were going for the kill as they closed in on Isabella. They had no hesitations—I read all this shit in his notes—so Felix had his men step in. They stopped the werewolves.”

“And Felix took blood from them before they died.” Werewolf blood was too powerful of a commodity to waste. “That’s why the werewolves had puncture wounds on their necks.”

“Felix put her in your path, just like he’d done with the others. But something different happened with you two. The link forged, and—bam. Felix had his experiment. And once he had you, he could finally try to break the link that had haunted him for so long.” Carter gave a grim laugh. “He was afraid the cure wouldn’t work. He didn’t want to die, so he needed Isabella to take the cure first. If she severed her connection to you and survived, then he wrote that he was going to try the same damn thing on himself—”

“That’s it.” Griffin sat on the bed and pulled Isabella toward him. Her head sagged back weakly. “That’s fucking it.”

“Uh…Griffin?” Carter questioned uneasily. “Are you sure—”

Griffin motioned him away—Carter and the nurse. “Get out of here.”

“Look, man, I want to help.” Carter’s voice was flat. “I know I made mistakes with you two, but she saved my ass. I want to help her. I want to bring her back to you.”

“You can’t. Only I can.” Because it wasn’t just the blood loss that was hurting Isabella. It was the fucking cure itself. He thought that cure was killing her. She needs me to survive, just as I need her. I have to get through to her. I have to bring her back to me.

If they’d lost the mating bond, then he just had to bring it back. He had to bring her back. How…how…how?

“Get the fuck out,” Griffin growled.

“The…the blood will keep transfusing,” the nurse said. “It’s set to—”

Carter hustled her out.

Griffin gazed at Isabella. “I love you.” He pressed his lips to hers. Sleeping beauty, please wake the hell up. “I love you.” He called forth the beast that had gone silent inside of himself, willing the wolf to give his power to the mate who needed him so badly.

He eased her back against the headboard. Griffin breathed slowly and tried to think. Isabella was his mate. The other half of his soul. If the cure had severed their connection, if it was killing their bond, he had to stop it. Because killing the bond kills her. He brought her right wrist to his lips, and he remembered when he’d bit her in that alley. That moment seemed like it had happened a thousand years ago.

What I wouldn’t give to spend a thousand years with you, Isabella. He lifted her wrist to his mouth, and Griffin bit her, right in the exact same spot he’d bit her that first time.

We have to bond again. Stronger than before. Our bond can save her…it fucking has to save her. And when Griffin bit her, the power of his beast was in that bite. The wolf’s fierce strength, his determination, the magic of the beast—it all poured into her.

Her eyes stayed closed.

No, no. “I love you,” he said again. “And I will love you forever.” He brought his own wrist up. He eased open her mouth and her fangs scraped lightly over the skin. “You have to bite, Isabella. That’s what’s missing. Your bite. You need to bite me.” He was rambling and begging. Desperate. “Please, I know you’re weak. I know you’re tired. But if you bite me, everything will be okay.” Because he didn’t think it was about the blood.

It was the bite. The one that wasn’t supposed to happen anymore. Vampire and werewolf.

Taboo.

Forbidden…

Screw that.

“Nothing about us is forbidden. Do you hear me? We are meant to be. I was born to be yours, and you were born to be mine, sweetheart. So I need you to bite me. The power is in the bite. That poison cure he put in you? We’re going to get rid of it. We’re going to blow it straight to hell.” He hoped. “I just need you to bite me. I need you to fight for me. For us. Live. Bite. Just—”

Her fangs sank into his wrist. A jolt of pure heat coursed through his body, seeming to bounce from him to her, then back again. Her body shuddered. He felt her inside of himself, touching his soul. The warmth and life that was Isabella.

His mate.

Her eyes opened. The color was weak, not so dark and warm, but her eyes were open.

Her tongue licked against his wrist, and her hand rose, hesitantly, to curl around his arm. Slowly, she pushed his arm down. Color began to fill her beautiful face once more. “Griffin?”

He kissed her. Hard. Deep. Desperately. Wildly. Isabella. Isabella! “You are never scaring me like that again,” he vowed. He pulled her closer. Held her so tight, and let out a roar of absolute relief.

The door flew open, banging against the wall. “Griffin!” Carter yelled. “Is she—”

His roar hadn’t been from grief. “My mate is back.” And she would never, ever be hurt again. Not while he lived.

“Hell, yes!” Carter’s footsteps retreated. “Hell, yes!” The door closed once more.

Isabella stared into Griffin’s eyes. “I was cold.”

She was breaking his heart.

“I couldn’t feel you.” Her fingers rose and pressed over Griffin’s heart—the heart that beat for her. “I needed you.”

“Sweetheart, I’ll be with you forever.”

A furrow appeared between her brows. “He was curing me…”

Griffin tensed.

Isabella shook her head. Her delicate jaw hardened. “No.” Her voice was stronger. “He was killing me.” The darkness of her gaze deepened. “You saved me.”

“Isabella, you saved me from day one.” He kissed her again. Relief was making him dizzy. Isabella—she was okay. The bond that his kind had feared—that bond had saved them both. “I love you.”

She smiled for him. And his beast wasn’t afraid any longer.

As he stared at her, Isabella appeared to become stronger, healthier. She ripped the IV out of her arm and shoved it aside, and then she was locking her arms around him. Pulling him close. “They were wrong,” Isabella whispered against his mouth.

“What?”

“All of the stories. The warnings. You didn’t gobble me. You made me stronger.” She licked his lower lip. “Griffin, I love you.”

His breath heaved out. “And I live and die for you.” Did she realize that? Did she understand—at all—just how much of his soul she owned?

Isabella gave a little laugh. “I think we’re done with dying,” she said, her voice a husky caress. “How about we try living—a very long time—with each other?”

To quote Carter… “Hell, yes.”

Griffin kissed his vampire. Inside, his beast growled his pleasure. Then Griffin lifted his head and gazed into Isabella’s beautiful eyes.

Don’t look into her eyes. If you do, she’ll take your soul.

She didn’t have to take it. It had been hers from the very beginning, just as his heart was hers. And hers alone.

My Isabella.

Her mouth took his again, and, soon, Griffin knew he’d be taking her.

Forever.

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