“Stop resisting me.” Arys’s lips were warm as they moved against my ear. “We belong to one another. Why deny that?”
Before I could voice my protests to that declaration, he kissed me with an intensity that burned through my body. Our two energies were strangely one, and a comforting calm filled me. Already my strength returned in a relaxing ebb and flow.
I could taste Catherine’s blood on his tongue as it traced a moist line along my lower lip before dipping back inside my mouth. Things tightened low in my body, and I wanted to beg him to take me right there. Knowing how irrational that was, I still had to remind myself that I’d just killed his ex-lover as well as a human being.
A part of me was so pissed at him, and I struggled to allow it to come to the surface. I had to chase him away from me.
I succeeded in breaking the kiss. My hand on his chest kept a small space between our bodies. “Don’t do this right now. I need to be angry with you.”
“No, you need to tell me why you killed a man before you came here tonight.”
The cuts marking his face looked red and angry, and I reached tentatively to brush my fingertips over them. He closed his eyes and leaned into my touch.
“I couldn’t deny the bloodlust,” I whispered. When he looked at me again, his expression was pained. “A young couple were arguing. He was trying to force her-.”
My voice broke and tears pricked the back of my eyes. David’s strangled screams echoed inside my head, and I reached to cover my ears in a vain attempt to shut out the noise.
“Hey, it’s ok.” Arys’s voice was softer than I had ever heard it, and I hated him for his tenderness even as tears rolled down my cheeks in two crimson lines.
He reached out with a gentle finger to catch them before bringing the bloody drops to his lips. “The f**ker deserved everything he got then. Don’t feel bad about dispatching a sorry piece of crap like that.”
I shook my head and took a small step back. “That kind of kill, it isn’t my life. You’ve done something to me that I don’t know how to live with.”
The rear exit door to Lucy’s creaked open then, and Shaz appeared, silent and white against the night. He made no move to come closer when he saw the strange tension and Arys’s crestfallen features.
I half expected Arys to blame me, again, for the slaughter of Mrs. Olson’s dog, but he said nothing. Instead, he nodded and let his hands drop as if just noticing that he still reached for me.
“Then tomorrow night, we visit your witch friend together and learn how to live with it.” He made no question of it.
He turned to Shaz and beckoned him to where we stood. “She needs you now. I believe you will be of more use to her than I am.”
Arys turned to go but paused to kick at what remained of Catherine’s quickly dispersing ashes. I made no attempt to stop him. I had nothing left to say. I had blamed him for all of it, and he hadn’t argued.
Shaz came to stand behind me and pulled me into his warm, living embrace.
“Are you ok, Lex?”
I was at a loss for words. I was physically injured, but the worst of my agony was mental and emotional. I turned in Shaz’s arms, to face him as I attempted to tell him what had happened to me that evening. A rush of emotion overcame me.
“Don’t try to explain right now.” He tucked my head under his chin and attempted to stroke my tangled, filthy hair. “Just let me hold you.”
With the hem of his t-shirt balled in my fists, I buried my face in the warm, familiar curve of his neck and fought back bloody tears.
Chapter Fourteen
Kylarai was ticked at me. No, she was pissed. She cussed me out good. I heard how very stupid I was in more ways than one. I should have talked to her after slaughtering the human. I should have let Shaz keep me out of Arys and Catherine’s fight. I should have done anything except what I did. It really was a shame that she hadn’t had children of her own.
She would forgive me. Shaz on the other hand…I wasn’t so sure.
Shaz and I had sat in the parking lot. Through my tears, I had told him everything. He had listened quietly, nodding and patting my hand as needed. Not once did I find the judgment that I deserved in his eyes. He had already forgiven me for everything.
Apparently, one mother hen wasn’t enough to keep me straight. When Kylarai got tired of chiding, I called Lena. Without telling her that I’d eaten a human, I told her enough to have her insisting that I stop by her apartment. She even agreed to help Arys.
By evening, I was a nervous wreck.
“I can’t believe you’re taking him to Lena’s. Do you think that’s safe?” Kylarai tapped her long, manicured nails on the kitchen table, where I sat looking into my portable makeup mirror. “And, why do you need to look so good anyway? I thought it was just a onetime thing with you guys.”