Travis snorted. “Are you sure about that? Because from where I stand, you were only thinking about yourself.”
Chase shook his head. “That was a real dick move, attacking Angel, and you know it.”
Travis shrugged. “Maybe, but you have to know that I don’t care about shit anymore.”
Remorse spread across Chase’s face. “You leave me with no choice.”
“I am going to take away the very thing you love most in this world. Then you will know what true pain feels like,” Travis hissed.
Umm, wrong answer.
Chase went apocalyptic.
The two of them flashed in and out of focus, gliding across the forest floor. When they collided it sounded like thunder shaking the ground. I winced, my nails digging into the cold ground to steady myself. Regardless of what had just gone down between Travis and me, it broke my heart to see them fighting. I knew that it hurt Chase more than he was willing to admit.
Travis and Lexi were Chase’s only family, and he valued family more than anything else. He would go to extreme lengths to protect them, even from themselves.
No mercy shone in Travis’s eyes. He wanted blood. And blood he got as he slammed his fist into Chase’s stomach. Knowing Chase, he was letting his cousin get in a few cheap shots, but that didn’t mean I liked it. A squeak escaped my mouth. Travis didn’t stop with one hit. In quick succession, he threw punch after punch. Not everyone connected, but enough to make me want to jump in the middle.
It was the worst feeling in the world watching your boyfriend get hurt. I tried to remind myself that the injuries would not last long. Chase would heal. No scars would mar that face.
I was guessing Chase sensed my desire to intervene. He finally showed his dominance and hammered Travis against a tree. There was so much power behind his movement I was sure the tree was going to crack down the middle. He held him there suspended with a brute strength that Travis lacked. You don’t mess with a badass.
“We are going to try this one more time,” Chase rumbled. “Or I will wipe your face on the ground for round two.”
“Bring it on,” Travis replied, flirting with Chase’s temper.
Oh boy. Not good.
I prepared for round two.
Chase’s fist shot out, connecting with Travis’s boyish face. His head snapped back like a Pez dispenser. There was a deep grumble in Travis’s chest right before a slow glimmer of sea green began to flicker at the center of his molten gold eyes. It was like watching the ocean consume the sandy shore. Had I not just had a brush with death, I would have found the transformation breathtaking.
His blond head hung in defeat, refusing to meet either of our gazes. I waited patiently for somebody to say something, the cold air entering and exiting in my lungs. Then he was gone.
I sunk against a tree, running a still shaky hand through my hair. “Is this what you do every night?” I asked Chase.
He was immediately in front of me, studying my face. “That was mild,” he informed, brushing the pad of his thumb across my cheek.
I closed my eyes.
Travis is worse than I thought.
“Chase, you have to let me do this. It’s the only way,” I tried to reason.
“Damn it, Angel. I should lock you in your room for the rest of your life. If you pull another stunt like that again…”
My clothes were wet. I was frozen to the bone. And I was in a piss-poor mood. I did not want or need a lecture from the high and mighty Chase Winters. “You are being a stubborn prick.”
His expression never changed. “Damn right I am.”
Arrr.
The man drove me insane.
I hated that they fought, knowing that I was the cause. Sure I hadn’t forced Travis to attack me, but I had been the one to force the confrontation. All those times that Chase went after Travis late at night, I knew things had gotten heated, but…that had been beyond my expectations. Travis wasn’t Travis. He was volatile. He was unpredictable. He was just down right dangerous, to himself and to others. I saw that now.
Deep down I knew Chase was only looking out for me, and here I was making things more complicated. It was what I did best. Drama follows me like the stink of a skunk.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized, wiping away droplets of blood at his forehead. “I just wanted to help.”
He caught my hand. “I know.” He pressed a kiss to my palm. As he glanced over my head, I felt him stiffen. “There is something lurking out here. I can feel it. It makes my skin crawl and my demon mark burn. I don’t like it.” His eyes kept scanning the area, looking for something to pinpoint the warning that his body was sending him.
“I feel it, too,” I said shivering, and it had nothing to do with the chilly air.
The scratch on my cheek stung, but I knew by morning it would be gone. I just needed to suck it up like a big girl until then. Both Chase and Travis had sustained injuries much worse and neither of them was bitching.