-ALEXANDER-
A full month of watching Lilian slowly fade, hovering on the precipice of death, had stripped away my last vestiges of control. My power, once a loyal servant, was now a rampaging beast, a reflection of the raw, consuming despair that tore at my insides. But beyond the maddening grief, another torment had begun to fester, a primal, insistent demand that grew more unbearable with each passing hour: the bond.
It screamed for her. For contact. For the completion only she could bring. The heat that radiated from me, a deep, bone-aching fire, was maddening. It pulsed through my veins, making my skin prickle, my muscles ache with an unbearable tension. It was the physical manifestation of the heat, amplified by the unbreakable, unrequited bond with my dying mistress. I could not so
