Page 69 of The Fire Went Wild

She whirls around to face me, eyes bright in contrast to the blood. “How?” she whispers. “What—We can’t?—”

“We can do whatever we want.” I step up to her, the clothes draped over my arm. “I can sense humans. No one’s nearby right now. If someone comes close, I’ll know with plenty of time to spare.”

Charlotte stares at me, trembling. I take her hand, squeezing it a little. She drops her gaze down to it. But she doesn’t pull away.

“Come on,” I tug her forward. “Just a quick shower.”

“They’re going to know it was us,” she whispers even as she comes with me, away from the bed and the corpse and over to the door leading into the attached bathroom. “They’re going to—we left evidence?—”

“We aren’t human. I told you that.” I switch on the bathroom light and stop short. The room is huge, with a big glassed-in shower. Fanciest bathroom I’ve ever been in. “They’ll findour DNA, but everything’ll be inconclusive.” I look over at her, standing in the doorway, her eyes taking in the bathroom. “Trust me.”

She gives me a look I can’t read. But when I step forward and turn the water on, she follows me.

The shower is one of those rainfall showers, with the shower head fixed to the ceiling so that the water falls in curtains. I get it warm for her, then strip out of my shirt. “Go on,” I tell her. “Wash off.”

Charlotte steps up beside me, staring at the shower. The blood streaking her body looks lurid in the bright bathroom lights.

She’s so fucking hot like this. I wish she could just walk around covered in blood forever.

But, of course, she steps into the shower. I finish stripping out of my clothes and jump in after her. She doesn’t say anything, just stands under the water as it rehydrates the dried blood and then sluices it away in crimson-pink ribbons.

I can’t stop staring at her. Which means I don’t miss the despair creeping into her expression.

“You look so beautiful,” I say, acting on some instinct. It’s definitely not my gods, anyway. Neither of them are interested in any of this. They just want the blood and the violence.

Charlotte jerks her gaze to me, eyes glimmering.

“You do.” I join her under the water, keeping my movements slow. She doesn’t pull away, not even when I put my hands on the top of her lush hips. Not even when I lean in and brush my mouth against her.

“I liked it,” she breathes against me, and I hear the shame poisoning her words.

And it hurts me, that shame. I don’t know what it’s like because I grew up in a family of Hunters. I was bred for this life.Raised for it. To hear her shame in what she is, knowing that it hurts her?—

That cracks me in two.

So I draw her into me underneath the warm water, and I kiss her for real, sliding my tongue between her lips. I still can’t get over how much I love kissing a living woman, all the heat and yielding reciprocity. Because Charlotte does return the kiss. She even winds her arms around my shoulders and presses her lush body against mine, the warm water sealing us together.

“I liked it, too,” I whisper into her ear.

She stiffens, just a little, against me. “You’re a monster, though.”

I tsk softly and nuzzle against her neck. “Are you trying to hurt my feelings, little Hun?—”

“Don’t say it.”

“Hunter.” I speak it into her skin and relish when she shivers against me. “And maybe I am a monster.” I pull back so I can gaze down at her through the curtain of glittering water, with her wide dark eyes and soaked hair. All the blood has washed away from her face. Pity. Fortunately, plenty is still clinging to her tits, and I massage them a little, helping it along. “But I’ve accepted what I am, Charlotte. And you will, too.”

She wants to be horrified, I think. But she isn’t. I can smell it on her, the first curls of her arousal. The flash of lust in her eyes. She tries to smother both.

“Let’s get you clean,” I whisper. “And then let’s take you home.”

And when I sayhome, Charlotte doesn’t protest.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHARLOTTE

Iwake up in the bed at Jaxon’s house, still wearing the clothes I wore when I?—

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