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willing to give you more time if that’s what it takes, but I can’t be shut out of the process. What happened?”
    Z stared up at the cage of medical lighting hanging above him and there was a long silence, one so long that Bella thought maybe they’d hit an insurmountable wall.
    But then a single fat tear had formed at the corner of his left eye. “She’s in the dream with me.”
    The words were so soft, Bella had to make sure she’d heard him right. “I’m sorry?”
    â€œThe dream I have of still being with the Mistress. Nalla . . . she’s in the cell. I can hear her crying as the Mistress comes for me. I strain at the shackles to get free . . . so I can protect her . . . get her out . . . stop what’s going to happen. But I can’t move. The Mistress is going to find the young.” His haunted eyes shifted over. “The Mistress is going to find her, and it’s my fault Nalla’s in the cell.”
    â€œOh . . . my love . . . oh, Z.” Bella stood up and draped herself carefully over his upper body, hugging him lightly. “Oh . . . God . . . and you’re afraid the Mistress will kill her—”
    â€œNo.” Z cleared his throat once. And again. And again. His chest started to pump up and down. “She’s going to . . . make Nalla watch . . . what they do to me. Nalla has to watch. . . .”
    Zsadist struggled to keep his emotions in, then lost the fight, weeping in the hard, powerful bursts of a male. “She’s going to have . . . to watch her . . . father get . . .”
    All Bella could do was hold on tight and wet his hospital gown with her own tears. She’d known whatever it was was bad. But she’d had no idea how bad.
    â€œOh, my love,” she said, as his arms came around her and his head lifted so that his face was buried in her hair. “Oh, my darling love . . .”

SEVEN
    I t was about five the following afternoon when Zsadist finally woke up properly. It was good to be in his own bed. It was not so great having a cast on his lower leg.
    Rolling over, he opened his eyes and looked at Bella. She was awake and staring back at him.
    â€œHow are you feeling?” she asked.
    â€œOkay.” Physically speaking, at least. The rest of him, his mind and his emotions, were open to question.
    â€œWould you like something to eat?”
    â€œYeah. In a little bit.” What he really wanted was to just lie around and stare into his shellan’s eyes for a while.
    Bella eased over onto her back and looked up to the ceiling.
    â€œI’m glad we talked,” he said. As much as he hated the past, he’d do anything to keep her from leaving, and if that meant conversation, he’d blabber on until his voice box bit it.
    â€œMe too.”
    He frowned, feeling the distance. “What’s on your mind?”
    After a moment she said softly, “Do you still want me?”
    He actually had to shake himself. She couldn’t possibly be asking . . . “Good Lord, of course I want you as my shellan. The idea of you leaving is just—”
    â€œSexually, I mean.”
    He blinked, thinking about the hardcore arousal he’d gotten the night before—just from watching her towel off. “How could I not?”
    She turned her head to him. “You don’t feed and you haven’t reached for me . . . well, I haven’t either, but I mean—”
    â€œNalla needs you most right now.”
    â€œBut you do, too . . . at least for my vein.” She nodded down his body. “Would your leg have broken if you’d been fed properly? Probably not.”
    â€œI don’t know. I fell through a floor . . . onto glass.”
    â€œGlass?”
    â€œA chandelier.”
    â€œGod . . .”
    There was a long silence, and he wondered what she wanted him to do. Was she opening the door to . . . ?
    At even the prospect of sex, his body woke up sure as if it were