“You never loved me, did you?” A needle bit through the sensitive skin of my forearm. Then another. I didn’t need to look to know they were somehow connecting me to Melody. That the IVs in her arms would feed into mine.
My mother had done this before. But with a vampire instead of a Harpy. The healing properties in vampire’s blood were supposed to keep me alive, but I’d felt my life slipping through my fingers as my abilities had been torn out of me.
If it hadn’t been for Inarus and Declan’s rescue …
“You were my greatest love.” Her voice was whisper soft.
I snorted. She’d never loved me. My mother wasn’t capable of the word.
“Is that why you keep trying to kill me?” I asked, my eyes still clamped tight.
“That’s why I keep trying to save you. One day you’ll understand. The love of a mother is—”
My eyes snapped open as a thunderous roar filled the building.
I smiled.
Declan was inside.
18
I smiled and watched as fear washed over my mother’s face. I relished it.
“How—” Shaking the thought away, she waved toward one of the two telekinetics. Given my prone position, I wasn’t sure which, but it didn’t matter.
“Delay the shifter. If you can, get a lock on him and drop him on another continent.”
I sucked in a breath. No.
“Don’t touch him!” I shouted.
She tightened my restraints and then swept my hair away from my face, her hand lingering on my cheek.
“You will forgive me. One day.” She wore the patient expression of a mother trying to explain something to an irate toddler. It drove me mad.
I cursed her. Every vile name I could think of rolled off my tongue. “I hate you. I will never forgive you. Mark my words, you will regret this. You are the worst mother in the history of mothers!”
She didn’t respond.
I bucked against my restraints, a sense of urgency consuming me. Chaos erupted outside the room but I could only hear the single roar of my mate. He’d come in alone. Why? Where were the others? Where was his backup?
“Let’s begin.”
Red blood trailed through the IV. Melody’s blood. I flicked my gaze toward her. She was still standing. The liquid just beneath her chin but she was pale. So pale.
“Mel. Mel, just hang on.”
I struggled against my restraints some more. “Don’t do this.”
Fire burned my veins and my vision blurred at the edges. I choked on a silent sob, my back arching off the cool table. Pain speared through my veins, lighting me on fire from the inside out.
“Don’t fight it. Let it go and it will all be over.” My mother’s voice was almost pleading. For a moment I could almost believe she cared.
Another wave of pain wracked my body. It hurt. Like the last time, but somehow so much worse.
“St..stop.”
My body seized. Sweat beaded across my face. The temperature in the room was stifling. I knew from before that I needed to bury my psychokinetic powers as deep down as I could. I had to fight the urge to use them. Fight the impulse to bring them to the surface.
It would only make them easier to steal.
I needed to buy myself some time.
I craned my neck, searching for the other man. He would be the one trying to rip my abilities out of me.
I could barely breathe. God, it hurt. My chest constricted and I choked on my own breaths. Moisture leaked from my eyes. Dammit. I would not give her my tears.
There. Positioned in the far corner, his face a mask of concentration.
“It won’t work,” I shouted at him.
For a moment his focus wavered and I was able to suck in a lungful of air. “Did she tell you the last man to try this died? Aiden died. I killed him. I’ll kill you too.”
Nothing. Sonova—
I screamed. I couldn’t hold it in. It was like I was being torn in two.
I wasn’t going to be conscious much longer. My head pounded as though someone were digging a spike into my skull. Bile rose in my throat, and I turned my head to vomit over the side of the table. Then I felt it.
Wisps of air leaked through my pores like tiny filaments, leaving me in invisible threads. I choked back yet another scream and mentally held on to the threads, only to have them slip through my fingers.
No. Dammit no.
It was like trying to hold water in the palms of my hands. Each time I thought I had them, they’d slip through my grasp.
A part of me realized this wasn’t all of it. That somehow whatever he was pulling from me was either my telekinesis or my fire, but not both. But it didn’t matter. It still felt like dying.
I forced myself to ride through the waves of pain in order to come up with a plan. Declan was close. I could hear him. Any second now, he would find his way inside.
I closed my eyes and tried to suck in air.
The taste of copper filled my mouth and a sudden emptiness poured into my chest. A gaping wound tore through my middle. The sense of loss was so complete it left me frozen, unable to breathe.
I tried to grab on to the invisible threads but there was nothing there to hold on to. Gone. It was gone.
Before I could dwell on the loss another tug at my center forced the air out of my lungs.
“No!” I screamed. “No!”
Fire poured out of me. I screamed again, my fury fueling the strength
