Page 69 of Shadows of Light
“I won’t let you keep him!”
The Cole creature advanced on her, but she held her ground. When one of the shadows caressed her cheek, she involuntarily recoiled from its cool touch as another stroked her arm.
Unable to stand their touch, she retreated until her heels came up against the pile of rubble. When more of the shadows rubbed her cheek and arms, she retreated up the debris and through the opening.
Cole followed her as she descended the pile. When the shadows laughed, Lexi planted her feet and refused to give another inch. She wouldn’t back away from them again.
The shadows jerked back as the crack and pop of his shifting joints filled the air. “Don’t touch her.”
Lexi kept her face composed but inwardly winced as a war waged across his face and throughout the muscles of his quivering body. She had no idea how to help him find peace, but she would try.
“Cole—”
“Run, Lexi.”
This time Cole’s voice issued from the creature across from her. The anguish in it brought tears to her eyes as she lunged toward him, but she pulled back when the shadows rose to block her.
Cole’s face extended into a snout as claws erupted from his fingertips and the shadows hissed. Some of them slithered toward her, but the wolf’s claws slashed through them. The shadows split but quickly reformed.
The flames on Lexi’s hands and arms burned higher until they caught on the sleeves of her shirt and burned it away, along with her bra. The fire also caught on the waistband of her pants. Pieces of them floated in the air as her clothes dissolved until she stood naked before him.
Something flashed in Cole’s silver eyes, and the half-transformed wolf growled as he stretched a paw toward her. Needing to touch him, Lexi extinguished the flames on one of her hands and reached for him.
Their fingers connected, and he gripped her tight. She stared at the entwined fingers and the claws resting against her hand as love and a feeling of coming home swelled within her.
They weremeantto be together. They were stronger together and always would be.
Her attention shifted back to Cole’s tormented eyes as his snout receded, his fangs retracted, and the beautiful Persian blue of his eyes flashed through the silver before black crept in to replace it. Her heart sank when she saw the shadows trying to control him again.
“Stay with me, Cole,” she whispered.
From all around her, the shadows laughed and slid up her arm to whisper in her ear. “He’s already gone; you can’t change that.”
They would lie; she knew they would. These things would do anything to keep Cole, but she couldn’t stop the doubt radiating through her.
She had no idea how to save him; the Lord destroyed that knowledge. The shadows leapt and danced through the air when Cole yanked his hand away from her.
“Fuck you!” Lexi shot back at them.
Insane, hideous laughter came from around her, and she was suddenly reminded of the Lord as he sat on the throne, laughing down at them. Pieces of her heart shattered, but she refused to give in to the sorrow choking her.
She could never let something like the Lord walk these realms again. She’d protect them, and the immortals living in them, until her dying breath.
“You better run, little girl,” the shadows murmured.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
When Cole advanced, she held her ground and relit the flames on the hand where she’d extinguished them. The fire chased the shadows closest to her away.
Lexi tipped her head back when Cole stopped directly in front of her. They stood chest to chest as Cole towered over her. This close, she saw the injuries marring his skin; most were nearly healed, but a few looked as if they’d been pretty bad.
When his hands stretched into the flames, his skin sizzled and popped. She jerked her hands away when he reached for her again.
“Stop that,” she commanded as his hands seized her biceps.
And then, because the scent of burning flesh filled the air, she extinguished her fire. She refused to let the shadows torture him further, but she realized too late that was what they wanted her to do… or maybe it wasColewho did.
CHAPTERFIFTY-FIVE
