Remaining rooted to the spot, I crossed my arms and frowned. “That’s all you’ve got to say? It would have been nice to have you at my side when I faced the FPA. They cuffed me, you know. It was the only way they would let me see Kale.”
“Cuffs can’t hold a werewolf,” he scoffed. “Settle down, Alexa. I can feel your brimming anger like hot needles. I had no control over what happened to me in the hospital. Whatever is in there, it manipulated me. It was the power of the dead. I couldn’t resist it. But I’m fine. We’re all fine.”
Arys regarded me with a haughty expression. I sighed and shook my head. Power, blood and death, the combination was capable of doing bizarre things to a person. I’d seen it with Arys, Kale and even myself.
Trying to reason with him right now was senseless. I was just grateful he’d come down enough to resist tearing my throat out.
“Arys, the cuffs the FPA used were magically enforced. If I used my power, they reflected it back at me with a negative charge so I couldn’t re-absorb it. You can’t dismiss these people as harmless government idiots. They have resources that can be used against us.”
He seemed to ponder this revelation. The small bedside lamp light glinted off his jet-black hair, creating a blue sheen. The sheets were pooled haphazardly in his lap, inviting me to seek out what lie beneath.
I had to give myself a shake. The subtle but strong pull of his allure sought to draw me in again. I couldn’t shield against him. Not when I could always feel him inside.
We stared at one another in silence. I could see him turning it over. The FPA had been a silent threat, so silent that I hadn’t believed the rumors of their existence until I saw them for myself.
Simultaneously we said, “You can’t go back there.”
I laughed and Arys scowled. He was trying to downplay what the old hospital had done to him, but I wasn’t buying it. Not after seeing it with my own eyes.
“Works for me.” I ignored the seductive gaze he turned on me and kept talking as if oblivious. “If I never step foot inside that place again it will be too soon. I’m not sure what was worse, the FPA torture chambers or the dead people on the way up.”
“So what did they want from you? Something you couldn’t give them? Is that why you weren’t able to spring Sinclair from his prison?”
I saw him try to hide it, but his satisfaction was written all over his face. If I were Arys, I would have been satisfied, too. It still irritated me.
“The agent I dealt with accepted my offer of Veryl’s files. In fact, he was quite intrigued when I mentioned them.”
“You can’t even get into those files. If you hand them over and they find something they shouldn’t, you’ll be the one paying the price.” With his head tilted studiously, he rubbed a hand over his chin. “Is that really a risk worth taking?”
“Don’t ask me questions that you don’t want the answers to.”
The black tinted energy leaked from Arys like an oil spill, murky and thick. I was careful not to react, wary of setting him off again. It was going to take some time for him to come down entirely from the rush the hospital’s dark energy had given him.
Arys reclined against the mountain of pillows stacked against the headboard. Folding his hands beneath his head, he fixed me with a look that directly contrasted the casual appearance he exuded.
“I didn’t wait this long to find you just to watch you gamble your life away over another vampire. Be careful, Alexa. I’d hate to have to kill Sinclair to cure you of your recent bout of insanity.”
I gaped at him in shock. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. You’re not yourself right now, and I’m not in the mood to fight with you.”
He beamed a perfectly creepy Cheshire cat smile at me. “But, you’re so sexy when you’re pissed. I thought you were really going to let loose when you threw that slap.” He chuckled, and the sound made me weak in the knees. “Come here, my wolf. Show me the fire inside you.”
Immediately I wanted to go to him, to crawl over the bed to him and climb on top. I resisted with great difficulty. Arys was manipulating me with his intoxicating thrall, pulling me in like he so easily did his victims. I didn’t trust him, not with the predatory way he was looking at me.
“I’m not your victim, Arys, and I won’t be threatened.” I took a few steps toward the bed. “I’ll deal with the FPA however I feel is best. Got it?”
With a raised brow and a twitch of his lips, Arys nodded. “As you wish, your highness. I’ll sit back and watch you figure it out.”
Conflict. Always some kind of conflict. Now that I was more aware of it, I saw how embedded the battle had always been in our relationship. Arys and I had been butting heads long before we’d shared a bed. It was always in us, the inability to maintain the delicate balance of what we shared.