Page 144 of A Dusk Of Stars

“Yeah, I mean,” he keeps going with such admirable earnestness, “she does havesomeredeeming qualities.”

“You sure you didn’t imagine them?” I ask with sweet innocence in my voice.

“No no.” He vigorously shakes his head, “I mean, she’s kind of a know-it-all, whichisannoying, mind you, but can be useful at times.”

“Um-hum. Go on.”

“She makes a mean grilled-cheese sandwich.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“And well, she’s got this incredible ass,” he says as both his hands come to close around said ass, “the kind you just want to follow around.”

“Um-hum.But?”

Holding me tight, he leans me back, getting in my face with that smirk of his. “ButI’ve just spent the last couple of months gallivanting around the world with her.” He shakes his head with a click of his tongue. “And let me tell you—”

“Yes,” I cut him off, eager to be the first one to get a stab in, “dotell me, Mister I-Take-Three-Goddamn-Hours-To-Order-A-Single-Bottle-Of—”

“Shhh.” He presses a finger to my lips. I let out a little growl, but he ignores it, a spark in his eyes. “Turns out she’sreallymessy. It’s like books and papers and candy wrappingseverywhereyou look.”

That makes me laugh. “She sounds downright awful,” I concede with a serious nod. Then I lean to whisper in his ear, “Yet I think she’llsomehowfind a way to change your mind about her.” And I take a bite out of his neck, reveling in the way that makes him shudder.

He grabs me tighter, locks eyes with me and comes to whisper into my lips, “We won’t have to be apart, Anyi.” The voice makesme breathless with desire for him. “Not tonight, not ever again. Does that make you happy as much as it makesmehappy?”

I close my eyes. “Not just happy, Jericho,” I tell him with a smile, “happier than I ever thought I’d be.”

I hear him groan and feel his mouth on mine, his tongue parting my lips as his hands start roaming over my body.

The very next second, we’re both freezing and opening our eyes.

There’s this faint sound of screaming drifting up to us from the hallway.

For a second, we just stay frozen like that, staring at each other with his jaw clenching and my fingers digging into his shoulders.

It’s not just the screaming that’s made my heart stop. It’s the feeling of something familiarly sickening fast approaching.

The next thing I know, Jericho is lifting me up and lowering me down, extreme focus and determination in his every movement as he gets the bag from under the desk, takes my hand and starts leading me to his nearest escape route.

My mind starts reeling. I know he only wants to protect me. That’s why he’s lugging the goddamn bag around in the first place, “just in case we ever need to disappear”.

But there’s screaming andworse, and every fiber of my being is against me just running away from it.

I can’t help stopping and making him follow suit. He doesn’t let go of my hand. He looks over his shoulder and throws me a pissed-off look that’s somehow pleading at the same time.

For a split second, we just stand there, wordlessly arguing about it.

Then, in a sickeningly fast flash, his body tenses up, he opens his mouth to say something, and the nightmares enter the gym through all the openings and cracks — both seen and unseen — to invade our bodies like the whisper of death itself.

If they could move, my eyes would round. Frozen, they just keep staring into Jericho’s.

My mind goes blank and I hear the screaming intensify just as something slams into the locked door of the gym, breaking it open.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Serra making a wobbly trek to us, her mouth sagging and her face blank.

My mind reeling, I try to look for the answers in his eyes. How is this even possible when I dismembered her before she even managed to awaken him? How do we kill her? Does he know how sorry I am for putting him through this again?

There’s so much in his eyes as well, but the next thing I know, all the screaming dies down.

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