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  “Taylor…Taylor…” It was coming from the other side of the hallway, from the crack I had pressed my eye to—the place where I had seen the pit. I didn’t want to go there again, didn’t want to see the nameless things down in the depths. I kept going, heading toward the warm, golden light. But then the voice called me again.

  “Taylor, come back,” it said and it sounded vaguely familiar.

  Reluctantly, I turned toward it. Who was it and what did they want?

  Retracing my steps, I went back to the cracked door and put my eye to the tiny sliver of cold light once more. This time I saw not a square of light but a single figure, standing there alone in the darkness on the other side of the pit. Gwendolyn.

  “Open the door,” she called to me, her voice echoing across the vast, empty space. “Open up, Taylor—I know you can hear me. I need you to come back.”

  I put my lips to the crack.

  “Yes, I can hear you. What if I don’t want to come back?”

  “Come back anyway,” she insisted. “You’re not done living yet—not by a long shot.”

  “Maybe I am,” I said stubbornly. “I see another door here—it’s got warm light and soft music. It smells wonderful—I want to go there.”

  “No!” She sounded panicked. “No, don’t go there, Taylor—it’s not time for you to go there yet. Stay here—come back with me.”

  “Why should I?” I demanded. “I hardly know you.”

  She ran a hand through her long black hair in agitation.

  “I can’t stay here long or I’ll get trapped. Look, don’t just come back for me—come back for Addison. She loves you so much.”

  “She’d want me to be happy,” I argued through the crack. “I think I’d be happy in the place behind that other door. In fact, I know I would.”

  Gwendolyn took a deep breath and paused, as though thinking what to say.

  “Yes, you would,” she said at last. “You’d be very happy. But you know who wouldn’t be happy? Victor.”

  His name hit me like a blow to the heart. Victor. How could I have forgotten about him? The siren song of the open door and the golden land beyond was so strong it seemed to have wiped everything else away from my mind.

  “Victor?” I whispered.

  “Yes, Victor.” Gwendolyn stamped her foot impatiently. “He loves you, Taylor! He risked his life to get to you. I should never have broken the bond between the two of you because you belong together. Come back for him. Come back now!”

  Her words finally made me decide. I had to go back. But it was easier said than done.

  I pushed against the door, pushed with all my might. It seemed to be stuck fast. I took several steps back and ran against it, ramming my shoulder against its plain wooden panel. Suddenly, it swung open.

  I stumbled out and my foot slipped on the loose rocks and gravel. Just outside the door, the ground tilted away sharply, a fact I hadn’t noticed before. A steep, short slope was all that separated me from the vast blackness of the pit.

  On the other side of the pit, Gwendolyn was crying my name. I screamed and stretched out my arms, reaching for something—anything—but there was nothing to hold on to. I was slipping, sliding toward the pit. Already I could see the eager tentacles of the nameless things reaching up to me, reaching out to grab me and drag me down forever and ever into an eternity of endless night and damnation…

  Suddenly another door opened right in front of me—right at the edge of the pit. Gwendolyn was standing there, holding out her arms to me. Somehow she had crossed the vast distance to catch me. I fell into her arms and she grabbed me, holding on for dear life. Something dark and cold and slimy curled around my foot and I shrieked and writhed in her grasp.

  “No!” she shouted in my ear. “No, Taylor, don’t let go! Hang on to me.”

  I grasped her, panicky tight, and she leaned backward, pulling me away from the thing that wanted me.

  “Come on!” She pulled harder, trying to drag us both into the moonlit night I could suddenly see below her, as though I was looking down from above. The night where my lifeless body lay on the ground and Gwendolyn lay beside it, barely breathing. Addison was pressing her bleeding wrist to my lips and crying and Corbin was rubbing her shoulders.

  For a moment, I felt the tentacle tighten around my foot. And then I kicked out and the cold, hungry grip slid away—we were free.

  Gwendolyn seemed to feel it at the same time.

  “Good,” she yelled. “Now come on—we have to go back while we can.”

  We dived forward and I saw my own body getting closer and closer. We were sliding forward and at the same time, Gwendolyn was fumbling with the door.

  “Have to…close it…all the way,” she panted in my ear. “If I don’t…”

  And then I was falling…falling into myself. Falling until everything changed directions and I was looking up at Addison instead of looking down at her. The familiar taste of her blood—faintly sweet and strawberry flavored, burst across my tongue and I swallowed convulsively.

  I heard Addison say, “Oh my God—she’s all right! Look, she’s breathing—I really think she’s going to be all right!”

  I could see the moon overhead and somewhere a wolf was howling, long and low and lonely.

  I’m going to be all right, I told myself, feeling both wonder and worry at the words. Oh Victor, I’m going to be all right. I came back for you. I came back…but will you still want me?

  Chapter Twenty-eight—Victor

  “Is Taylor okay?” I asked anxiously, clutching the phone to my ear. “Please tell me she’s all right, Corbin. Please.”

  “She is well and resting comfortably,” he said soothingly. “In fact, she has already had a pint of blood and two cheeseburgers today. Apparently, though the bond between you is broken, the effects of the prophecy still hold true.”

  “Whose blood?” I asked, immediately jealous. I didn’t give a damn about the cheeseburgers, but the blood… “Who is she drinking from?”

  He sighed. “From Addison, unfortunately. I do not like it but my beloved consort will have it no other way.”

  “I don’t like it either,” I growled. I knew there was nothing but friendship between Taylor and her best friend but still…taking blood was a very sensual act. I wanted to feel Taylor’s fangs deep in my throat again, not hear that they were buried in someone else.

  “Come and feed her yourself, then,” Corbin said, making it sound like the easiest thing in the world. “I am certain she would like to see you.”

  “Right…” I said sarcastically. “I don’t think so, Corbin. I’m sure she’s seen enough.”

  “If you are referring to your beast—”

  “Hell, yes, that’s what I’m referring to,” I snarled. “She saw me at my worst. In my cursed form. You know that female weres won’t even associate with a cursed wolf? Let alone mate with one—they’re too afraid to pass the curse on to their offspring.”

  “Taylor is not a were,” he said softly. “But she is a not fully a vampire, either. She is something wholly new and different. However, there is one thing that I don’t believe has changed—the way she feels for you. Truly, you should come and see her.”

  “I don’t think so,” I said. I wanted to believe him, I really did. But honestly, how could she want to be with me again after seeing what I became when the curse overtook me? Corbin might not have been freaked out but he was a fucking four hundred year old vampire—not much was going to get to him. Taylor on the other hand…

  She’ll hate me now. Or I’ll disgust her.

  There was no way I couldn’t and not just because she’d seen me as the beast. There were…other factors to consider now. I rubbed my tingling cheek and sighed. I didn’t want to see that look on her face, that fear and pity when she saw me. Didn’t want to hear the anxiety in her voice as she talked about how nice it was to see me again but how she really had to be going now.

  “Victor?” Corbin’s voice on the other end of the phone