Page 155 of Black Bird

The taste of his blood, while she’d only managed to acquire a tiny bit of it without fangs of her own, was like a fix from a drug she’d absolutely lose herself in … one she never knew she’d needed. She hadn’t told him how badly she wanted more of it. Not after he’d finally come back to the present once she’d wrecked him nearly senseless, and not after he’d wrecked her back for it two more times in the shower—after they’d cracked the tile in several places. Sarah had come to the realization that he really had held back more than she initially had suspected when they were at the cabin. It pained her a little … to think that even after the way he’d thoroughly demolished her last night, that maybe he was still holding back … only because she was still human. She didn’t want to be anymore. Truthfully … she found herself wondering if she even had been all this time. If maybe that was the reason why she never really fit. Never felt like she belonged—until now.

“Our arrival,” Athan said quietly, lying next to her on his side and lightly kissing her bare shoulder.

“Hmm?” Sarah scrunched her brows and rubbed the corner of her eye with a finger.

“The page you were asking me about last night. It was about the night we docked in the harbor on the Virginia coast.”

She raised up on an elbow and rested her head on her hand. “What happened?”

“The coven sailed from Dublin. Dahlia moved us after shit got too thick, and things like war started covering our asses a lot less. It wasn’t like we weren’t powerful enough to take down any threat, and honestly … she couldn’t have cared less how many humans knew about us. But if anybody even cared about my opinion, I still think she was just fucking bored.” His fingertips trailed up her shoulder, and he brushed her long hair over it. “So much was happening here. Colonies were stacking up everywhere, immigrants were trying to start new lives in a new world, and … I think that’s what she might have been thinking, too.”

“A fresh start?” Sarah pursed her lips. Athan nodded once.

“It was such a long damn ride. When we booked passage to get here, there were over a hundred on that ship. Then, when we docked, there were less than half. The coven wasn’t that large in number then, but they still needed to feed. It didn’t take long before the captain and the crew had us figured out. We couldn’t exactly roam around on the upper deck during the daylight, and feeding on the crew wouldn’t get us here any faster. She scared them all into submission, and I got put on watch with Decclan during the day … to make sure they didn’t try anything stupid. He became the only person in this coven I think I could call a friend.”

“What about Tony?”

“Tony was with us, but she didn’t ever establish him as part of what she calls ‘the council’. He’s a good one, yes, but not especially talkative unless you’re sitting at his bar. Decclan really didn’t give me much choice in making the best out of all the time we were forced to spend together. For what it was worth … I kind of liked him. He’s always been loyal to her, though. We landed in Jamestown in the middle of the night. Decclan and I were sleeping off our shifts below deck, and we woke up to find out that one of the crew sold us out to the residents. We didn’t know it before we’d set sail, but apparently vampires weren’t a new idea in this part of the world. They came for us, ready to burn us on that ship before we could even set foot on dry land.”

Sarah’s brows lowered and she stared at him with her mouth parted. “What did you do?”

“What didIdo?” he scoffed, smirking. “I did absolutely nothing. I sat on my bunk and watched the chaos unfold. To be completely honest, I was happy that we were about to die. I was forced to kill more humans on that ship just to survive, than I ever had when we stayed everywhere else. There weren’t any livestock or shit to use as another option. I slipped into this darkness that made me wish I were dead.” His eyes dropped to the bed like he couldn’t bear to look at her as he said it. Sarah reached up and eased his face closer with a soothing stroke against the back of his head.

“But you got out. You’re here. How did you end up getting out of there?”

Athan kissed her neck, sighing into it and leaning against her. “Decclan brought Dahlia down with him, panicking as usual. She expected us all to put up a fight, and he wanted me to protect her. I wanted to watch her fucking burn. I would have held her down myself and burned with her just to make sure her last breath was a scream of pain. But Decclan begged me. He told me that he understood why I wanted to die, but that he wasn’t ready. He begged me to help him save her, and the coven. I did it for him. I did it for him, and for all the others that she never gave any choice to … even though most of them could give a shit less about humanity. Dahlia promised me amnesty for even considering what I was doing … and obviously … we won.”

She raised his chin so that he’d look at her. “Amnesty? How could she call this amnesty, Athan? You’ve been her slave.”

“I’m not dead. She considers that forgiveness enough. That was the moment she realized how much I fucking hate her. I’ve been her favorite toy ever since.”

She couldn’t explain how absolutely livid she was hearing it come out of his mouth. It filled her with a rage she’d never felt before … not in her entire life. “I’m gonna fucking kill her, Athan. I wanna be the last face she sees. I want her to know exactly what I’m taking from her. Let her know you were never hers to begin with.”

He looked at her like he was terrified. Like he’d blink and she would disappear. His hand grazed her cheek and she leaned into it. “Sarah … she’s dangerous. I told you, I’ll never let anything happen to you. Don’t seek her out. Please don’t.”

“What the hell do you mean? You think I don’t know what kind of games she’s playing? She’s not just staging these bodies to fuck withyou, Athan … she’s coming afterme. Let her. She might not give a shit about humanity, but she’s underestimating me. Especially now,” Sarah said through clenched teeth as she toyed with his bottom lip. “I’m the human she doesn’t wanna fuck with.”

His answering smirk stretched into a wicked smile, and he eyed her mouth before parting it with his tongue. She pressed herself against him, kissing him back. “You’re the humanIwanna fuck with,” he whispered into her mouth as he laid her back and eased over her. Her arms found their way around his neck and her legs instinctively raised on either side of him.

“You’re supposed to be arresting me, detective.” She grinned, spreading her thighs wider.

Athan huffed a laugh and hissed through his teeth. “Oh, that’s right. Back in Boston … it’s a workday.”

“You bet your ancient ass,” Sarah smiled, wrapping herself around him.

Brent wiped at his nose as he sat in his car, keeping an eye out for the detective in the parking lot. The precinct seemed very busy this morning. Several people had been brought in sporting handcuffs, just in the time it had taken him to finish spreading cream cheese over his bagel. He couldn’t bring himself to try to eat breakfast at that hospital. Had it not been for his promise to his mother to eat this morning, he wouldn’t even be bothering now. Leaving her today was one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do. Thelastthing he wanted to do … was look emotional while he came to Sarah’s defense today. Brent checked the rear-view mirror, his red-rimmed eyes not as bad as he’d suspected, and he bit into his breakfast.

A black Charger pulled into the spot next to him. Brent thought nothing of it as he chewed vigorously on his food. That was, until Detective Kane appeared from behind the tinted window and jerked his head in greeting as he slammed the door shut. He paused his eating and watched him circle around the hood of his car, opening the other side and hauling Sarah out by her upper arm—to which she grinned hungrily at the detective—a look she’d never given Brent once, the entire time they’d been together. She was cuffed, and he knew they were supposed to be putting on a show, but it couldn’t have been more obvious that the two of them were very much …together. Brent swallowed, wiping his mouth and stuffing the bagel back into the brown paper bag before grabbing his briefcase, and stepping out of his car.

“Don’t lock it yet,” Sarah called, letting Kane lead her toward him. She gave the detective an assuring nod, and he reached into a pocket inside her leather jacket, pulling a bag of blood out of it and discreetly handing it to him. Brent warily took it and met eyes with her. “Whoever you give that to…keep it quiet. I hope it brings some light to your life, Brent.”

What he wouldn’t give to string this thing up and infuse it to the reaper that was claiming his mother’s life.“Loud and clear,”was Sarah’s response on the phone that day. She had understood him and was giving him the choice to save one of them. Brent started having trouble keeping his feelings in check. “Thank you, Sarah.”

She only nodded, half-smiling. He opened his passenger side door and opened his case, tucking the bag into it and snapping it shut. In all honesty, he wouldn’t have needed the briefcase anyway. He locked it inside his car. “We doin’ this?” Sarah smiled, her hair almost a dark shade of blue as it blew in the icy wind and caught the morning sun. The side of her neck was bruised … as was the detective’s. He tried not to stare. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to.” Her hazel eyes raised in amusement as they followed his own.

“You don’t really leave much to the imagination.” Brent scoffed, stepping forward as they started making their way toward the building. For some reason, he found it hard not to smirk, especially when Detective Kane chuckled through his nose in agreement. They walked slowly, the three of them catching stares from several of Kane’s colleagues as they crossed the front of the building. Brent noticed the way a few of them eyed the detective and fell into step beside them. “I half expected them to try to take you in themselves, Kane. They’re all looking at you like they’re hungry for a raise.”

Kane’s smirk grew wider, and Sarah snorted. “There might be a flashy story on the news, but they all know the story the world would hear next if they made one move towards her.” He stared forward and his free hand rested on the small of Sarah’s back, the other firmly holding her shoulder.

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