Endless (17 page)

I
closed my eyes, put my hands on his chest, and drew up on the well of power that simmered within me. It came to me easily, like an old friend, eager to help. Lincoln was my partner and despite anything else we were made for healing each other. It was the one thing I could do that felt completely good and natural.

My amethyst mist flowed from me, frosting the room and settling on Lincoln, searching out the source of his pain and gradually healing him. I was thorough, taking my time and starting at the base of his body before working my way up. I left his shoulder till last, wanting him to be as strong as possible. Because before I healed the pain – I was going to have to put his shoulder back in place manually.

Lincoln’s eyes opened.

His nose was healed and the cuts on his face were now gone. I used the towel on his face again, wiping away the rest of the blood carefully. He tried to move a few times, an intensity that he rarely let out showing in his green eyes.

My breath caught but I kept going. He wasn’t healed yet.

Before I could say anything, he lifted his good arm, wincing at the pain from his dislocated shoulder, and put his hand on mine. The one Drenson had crushed.

Over my dead body.

I shook my head at him. ‘I need to fix your shoulder first.’

‘You’re going to need both your hands for that,’ he said, breathless.

It wasn’t exactly true. I was pretty sure I could do it with one hand. And I didn’t want to be fixing anything about me until I knew he was okay. As if he knew exactly what I was thinking,
he didn’t wait. His power, the array of colours led by green, poured from him and into me.

‘Violet,’ he said, insistent. He could be irritatingly stubborn when he wanted to be.

Reluctantly, but knowing from his look that it wasn’t worth fighting, I added my power to his. It wanted to go back to him, sensing he was still hurt, but I directed it towards my hand instead, each of the broken bones knitting together until they were completely healed.

Immediately, I broke the connection between us, not wanting to waste any extra energy.

‘You should rest for a while,’ Lincoln said, his eyes watching me with that same deep concentration. My heart picked up its pace.

To cover it, I narrowed my gaze. ‘Would you stop ordering me around?’

‘I can wait until you’ve rested. I’m feeling better. It’s just my shoulder left. I don’t want you doing too much.’

I ignored him and instead began to prepare his arm, but the angle was off. His shoulder had popped out of its socket in such a way that putting it back would require great pressure on him. It wasn’t a huge ask with my strength but the angle had to be right.

‘You’re just avoiding me yanking your arm back into place.’

I knew it wasn’t true, but he gave up on disagreeing with me.

‘Just do it,’ he said.

I batted my eyelids, trying to keep him talking and distracted. ‘Oh Linc, you’re so brave.’

He
tried to roll his eyes but his attention was really focused on the impending joint adjustment. Grigori or not – it was going to hurt.

I took the pillows out from under his head so he was lying flat. He pretended it didn’t bother him, but the muscles in his neck betrayed him, bulging. I moved up, straddling him to get in the best position, ready to push his shoulder back into place. Suddenly, Lincoln’s attention shifted back to me. I gnawed on my lower lip, and an idea.

‘Ready?’ I asked.

Oh crap, what am I thinking?

He gritted his teeth. ‘Do it.’

Screw it.

‘Close your eyes,’ I ordered.

Surprisingly, he did. Without giving it another moment’s thought, I leaned down and pressed my lips to his.

Lincoln’s body flinched at the contact, but it only took a couple of seconds for the shock to end and then he was kissing me back. All the emotion that had been building as I’d been healing him released. He made a sound low in his throat and I took that as my cue.

I thrust my hand down hard and fast. His shoulder popped right back into place. His body jerked with the pain and I released my power back into him, my strength healing him quickly.

Lincoln’s lips stayed on mine even as he tensed in pain. In a matter of seconds his kiss had changed from one filled with surprise, to pain, to relief and then … to something else altogether more urgent.

Yes, my plan had a significant flaw, because just as desperately as he kissed me, I was kissing him back. Both of his
arms, now fully operational, pulled me down to him and in a particularly stealthy move he somehow flipped us so that I was lying under him.

My hands found their way up his bare back. Lincoln made another sound and something within pushed me forward, demanding that I have all of him. When his hands started to push my top up, I felt myself repositioning and whipping it over my head.

Think, Vi. Think.

Can’t.

Lincoln’s lips were at my throat, his hands travelling up my sides. Everything about him was surrounding me. His warmth reminded me of summer days and seeped into me, igniting my desire. This was exactly where I wanted to be, exactly what I wanted to be doing. Mind, body, soul. I ran my fingers through his hair and he did the same to me.

But his body began to tremble.

No.

I knew what he was doing.

I could feel his power, the distinctive honey flavour beginning to flare while the sun sensation faded. He was putting up the walls between us again.

But my walls weren’t up. Mine were all the way down and my soul was hungry, agonisingly so.

‘No,’ I heard myself say. ‘No!’ I was growling. I didn’t care.

I pulled his face up to mine and I kissed him. He kissed me back and his power dwindled, but he continued to tremble, continued to try to put walls between us that did
not
belong there.

His
lips moved down along my jaw, but they were slowing now. His hands stroked my hair, gently instead of frantically.

‘Don’t stop,’ I almost yelled, overwhelmed by a sense of panic at losing him. ‘I need you. I … No! You can’t stop!’

I arched my body towards him, trying to break down the walls, but he didn’t respond, he just kept kissing me up to my ear and started to talk soothingly.

‘You’ve used up all your strength. Your defences are down. Listen to me, Vi. Come back to me. Remember all the reasons.’

I ran my hands up and down his back, feeling every groove that was meant for me.

We are supposed to be together, damn it!

Our souls were matched and not only that, they’d tasted one another and would settle for nothing else.

My mind and body were on fire with my need for him. Everything that made me who I was, was crying out to be with him.

He wrapped his arms around me and moved to the side of me, pulling me close. I couldn’t let go and he didn’t make me. I pressed kisses into his neck, his shoulder, I kissed his lips and he let me, all the while talking to me softly and building the wall between us. Eventually, my soul’s demands overcame me. Tears poured from my eyes as I started to pound my fists against his chest, small screams falling from my lips.

He took it, let me hit him, let me scream. He just pulled me back to him, waiting patiently for me to remember. Letting me know he was there for me, letting me know it was okay.

Finally, my screaming and the hitting stopped, replaced by exhaustion and a feeling of loss. I fell weakly into his embrace, tears pouring down my cheeks as he kept holding me.

‘I’m
here. I feel it too. It’s … crushing and it hurts. You’re not alone. You’re not alone.’

But I was alone. That was the whole problem. For as long as we were apart, I would always be alone. I buried my head into his chest. ‘I can’t do this. I’m not strong enough.’

He stroked my hair. ‘You’re the strongest person I know. You’d just gone up against the head of the Academy and pulled on a tonne of power to heal me, your defences were down. If anyone should be apologising, it’s me. I should have stopped sooner.’

‘I just wanted to distract you.’

He grinned. ‘You did. I’ve never been so distracted in my life.’

The enormity of what I had just risked hit me.

Guilt didn’t begin to cover it.

If Lincoln and I were together, if we let our souls join completely … If one of us died the other one’s soul would shatter … I wasn’t stupid. I knew just as well as everyone else, a war was on the horizon. And it didn’t take a genius to work out that with Phoenix’s physical hold over me it was more than likely that I wasn’t going to be walking away from the inevitable battle.

I couldn’t believe I’d been so selfish, so willing to just take Lincoln as mine when I was so close to my end. And there he was, still talking to me, soothing me.

Disgusted with myself, I started to pull away from him.

‘Hey,’ he said, tugging me back to him.

I shook my head, too embarrassed for words.

‘Don’t,’ he said. ‘Don’t blame yourself. Hell, Vi, I declared my love for you in front of everyone on a volcano for Christ’s sake!
When Phoenix had you prisoner in Santorini I turned that island upside down looking for you and almost lost my mind in the process. We have to help each other. Staying away didn’t work. We’re going to get through this together.’

I half laughed. ‘We’re going to work out how to not be together,
together
?’

He chuckled back. ‘Yep. And I made a promise to you, in case you’ve forgotten, and I plan on fulfilling it one day.’

I swallowed, remembering that night after we’d come back from Santorini, when I’d asked him to promise that one day we would find a way to be together.

He pulled me to him.

‘Are you okay?’ I asked, worried I might be hurting him.

‘A hundred per cent,’ he said. ‘You’ve got that healing thing down pat.’

At least I could do one thing right. Even if it did come with sex-maniac side effects.

As if reading my mind, he added playfully, ‘And anyway, it’s not as if I’m complaining. I haven’t seen so much action in quite a while.’

My breath caught. I didn’t know what to say. I mean, I’d presumed since we’d discovered the soulmate thing that he hadn’t been with anyone else. But that didn’t mean I hadn’t wondered about other girls before. I wasn’t a fool. Lincoln may have only looked young, but he was really twenty-six. I knew he’d had other relationships. I’d just never dared to ask about them.

Sensing my hesitance he brushed a hand through my hair. ‘Wrong thing to say?’ he asked.

‘No.
I just … I don’t really know who you’ve … I mean, I don’t know if there has ever been anyone …’

‘Oh,’ he said, catching on. He was silent for a while, deciding what to say. ‘I don’t want to make things harder for us, for you,’ he said. When I remained silent, he sighed. ‘I’m not … I’ve had a couple of girlfriends.’

‘I didn’t think you hadn’t,’ I answered honestly.

He nodded, his chin resting on the top of my head. ‘I guess I’ve only had one relationship that has lasted more than a couple of months and that was when I was nineteen. I went out with a girl for two years.’

Wow. Two years was the equivalent of living together, according to Steph’s timeline.

‘What happened?’

‘We realised we were better friends than anything else. Even then, it felt like something else was pulling me.’ He shifted against me. ‘I … When we first met, I knew I cared about you more than I’d ever cared about anyone. I just wanted to make you strong and keep you safe. All of my focus went into that – not into picking up girls. I don’t know exactly when I realised my feelings had become more but it was around the time that we started to hang out away from training, when we just got to be ourselves around each other. From there I was lost.’

I chewed on the inside of my cheek, trying to bottom-line what he was saying. ‘So …’

His tone held a smile. ‘
So
,’ he mimicked.

‘So, you haven’t been with anyone since …?’

‘Since you came into my life.’

Any way you put it – that is damn impressive.

Guilt washed over me. I wished I could say the same thing.

I
looked around his room properly for the first time since arriving. ‘Do you realise your room is three times bigger than any of the other ones I saw on my way here?’

He shrugged. ‘Maybe it’s Josephine’s way of apologising for unleashing Seth.’

‘Max said no one has ever landed a hit on Seth before and lived,’ I said.

‘They have now.’

I smiled. ‘That’s what I said.’

‘Did Drenson get anything from you?’

‘Not much.’

‘That’s going to piss them off.’

‘Yeah, well, the feeling’s mutual.’

We lay in silence for a few minutes. I realised we were both lying there shirtless and I didn’t even feel self-conscious. That alone spoke volumes. But if someone walked in it wouldn’t be good.

‘I should go,’ I said. ‘Griffin will be waiting to hear how you are.’

But he didn’t let me go.

‘Griffin will be fine for an hour. Rest,’ he ordered, and, there in his arms, with his heart beating strong and healthy against my ear, I couldn’t think of anything I would rather do.