Page 50 of Beyond Reason

“Alieen? Really?”

“You were dead. And I—”

“Who the fuck are you?” she interrupted. “If you haven’t noticed, we’re a little busy here, so—”

“Oh, fuck off, you goddamn rancid amateur.” I drew the knife across her throat before she had a chance to say anything else, and watched Axel stare at me in shock as blood sprayed over his chest, his shoulders, the wall.

His pretty pristine floors.

Alieen spasmed in my arms for a second, her nails trying to scramble against my skin like she could take back the gash that was bleeding her life all over my man. And fuck, but she didn’t even deserve that.

Finally, she fell limp in my arms, and I dropped her unceremoniously to the ground.

“Uh, Xavier…” Axel glanced between the body on the floor and what I was sure was my very irritated expression. “I could have just asked her to leave.”

At least he didn’t seem mad about it, which told me that whatever was going on, his look of frustration was probably because of how she was throwing herself at him. It wasn’t like he’d been kissing her back—he’d been trying to push her away.

Still.

“Did you fuck her?”

The question flew from my lips before I could help myself, but he didn’t hesitate to answer.

“Yeah. A few years ago. I haven’t seen her since, so I’m not sure why she suddenly showed up for round two.”

I mulled over what he was saying for a second, then threw his knife—it landed with a loud thunk in her stomach. He didn’t even bother to glance down.

“Were you with a lot of people while I was gone, Axel?” Why was I asking him this question? It wasn’t exactly fair. He had no way of knowing I was hanging around, just waiting to be reborn—that technically, there was a version of me out in the world being all nerdy and getting a lab degree.

“I wasn’t with anyone, Xavier. I haven’t been with someone since I was with you.” He stepped over the dead woman on his floor like she wasn’t there, and when he cupped my face, I felt the warm, sticky sensation of her blood on my cheek. “I’ve fucked people, but I’ve never let anyone have me. You’re the only one.”

I stared at him for a second, searched his face and the sincerity in his bright blue eyes. He’d never been able to lie to me, never been able to hide from me.

And he wasn’t hiding now.

There was a small part of me that thought about being angry—thought about pointing to the woman who’d obviously been intimately familiar with him on the ground. That petty part of me wanted to turn and walk out the door just so he’d come crawling after me.

But that part died somewhere between the way his breath hitched in his chest and his arms sliding around me.

Death put things into a weirdly clear perspective. I didn’t have time to waste on that childish bullshit. I just had here, now.

And if I wanted to make myself feel better, I knew a way to do it.

“Shower. Now.”

My voice came out a fraction lower, more serious. The demand came from somewhere deep in my chest, and Axel’s entire body jerked like I’d stuck him with a live wire as soon as I spoke.

But he was turning before I had to tell him twice, leaving the woman on his carpet to go cold as he stepped past her and headed into the bathroom without looking back.

Killing Alieen should have settled the icy feeling in my chest, but it hadn’t. If I wanted it to go away, I needed fire.

Axel’s fire.

Our fire.

I needed to make him burn.

I needed to know that no matter how much time had passed between the two of us, I could set us both ablaze. I wanted to rise from the ashes like a phoenix.

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