Chapter 518: Death And Rebirth
Zedya’s fangs bored into Lennart’s wrist like a pair of white hot awls, searing deep into his tender flesh as she pierced his veins and arteries, spilling hot blood into her hungry, eager mouth.
The white hot pain lasted only for a moment before a soft, comforting pleasure flooded through Lennart’s body. His muscles felt like they were filled with wet sand, quickly losing the strength to do more than maintain his upright posture and the gentle embrace of his arms wrapped around his feeding wife.
Wife. That thought alone filled his mind with a thousand ripples of joy as his mind drifted in the golden haze of the underground cavern. His eyelids grew heavy, making it difficult for him to keep Zedya’s enchanting beauty in his sight as she drank her fill from his wrist. The last thing he saw as his eyes drifted shut was the slight movement of her delicate neck as his blood flowed down her throat.
But even if he couldn’t keep his eyes open to watch her, his mind lingered on her figure. Clad in a black wedding dress, her enchanting face and mesmerizing eyes hidden behind her dark veil. Her lips moved behind that veil, speaking words that brought tears to his eyes but within the echoes of his mind, the words themselves felt distant and far away, too hard to hear even though she’d spoken them just minutes ago.
Slowly, the vision of Zedya within his mind seemed to beckon him forward, guiding him toward that dark, cold pool beneath the waterfall at the center of the cave. Before he realized it, Lennart found himself standing nearly waist-deep in the water as a bone-deep chill spread through his limbs.
The pain began as sharp pins and needles, prickling all over his feet, his hands, legs, and arms, before it enveloped all of his body. His chest felt heavy, and each new breath was harder and harder to take, forcing him to focus all of his effort just on filling his lungs with the biting cold air of the cave.
Still, the Zedya in his mind smiled at him, saying nothing as she took his hands in hers, pulling him deeper and deeper into the water until he stood up to his chest in water so deep that he felt like his feet could barely brush the bottom.
"Zedya. My wife," he struggled to say, staring at her glowing amethyst eyes that were the only part of her face he could make out behind her black lace veil. "I. I love. You," he said, struggling to kick with his legs enough to keep his head above water.
But Zedya said nothing as she held his hands while the water rose higher and higher. The candles in the cave went out one by one, and each time a light faded away, Lennart sank deeper, his head plunging briefly beneath the surface of the water before he bobbed back up just enough to draw a shuddering breath.