Page 106 of For Love and Blood and Fury

Leaning over the sleeping Luna, Marisol couldn’t resist the urge to press her lips to the pale line on Zuri’s tanned skin. And then her fingers were at the nape of Marisol’s neck, nails gently scraping her skin in an affectionate gesture.

“If I’d been there,” Marisol said when she looked up, chest tight and skin on fire, “I would have tried to heal you.”

“Then I wouldn’t have learned a valuable lesson,” Zuri said as softly as the fingers running through Marisol’s hair. “I wouldn’t have learned to avoid the things that burn me,” she added, making it clear that she wasn’t talking about a curling iron.

“Do you need a scar to remind you of that?”

“Some lessons are tempting to forget,” Zuri said quietly, attention never leaving Marisol’s eyes.

Her gaze was a weighted blanket, heavy around Marisol’s chest and shoulders. It was safety and comfort and warmth. It was the heat spreading in her chest. It was the courage to ask, “Do you ever get used to this? Waiting for Elena and being scared out of your mind that she’s not going to come back?”

Zuri looked like she was going to lie, eyes searching Marisol’s face, a heaviness in her heart that Marisol felt in her own chest. But she sighed and reached for Marisol’s glass and dropped the protective act. “No. Not ever.” Straw between her teeth, she drained the rest of Marisol’s drink.

“Is that why you didn’t work out the first time? Or part of the reason, I mean?”

Zuri put the empty glass next to hers on the floor and took another deep breath. “A normal person would probably say yes.” She sighed. “But not really. I mean, I don’t love this shit, but she’s taken care of herself for a long time. There’s not a lot in theocean that can get a Great White, you know? Odds are always in her favor.”

“Is that how you see her?” Marisol’s head was light from the rum. “Like a predator?”

“That’s who she is, Bambi.” Zuri was saying more with her eyes, but Marisol couldn’t divine her thoughts. “She’s a fucking vampire. Her love is violence.” She paused as if waiting for Marisol to say the second half of some well-known refrain. “But people are violence too. We kill what we eat. We destroy each other, ourselves. She can sustain herself without killing?—”

“But what she’s out doing tonight?—”

“She wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t necessary,” she said, like she hated giving Elena credit for temperance. “I honestly don’t mingle with her crew, but the only one of them who has ever expressed joy in killing is Sofia.” Zuri chuckled. “And if Elena told you about some people Sofia had erased from society, you’d be all for it.”

“I doubt it?—”

“There’s a lot of ugly, babe. And some people are willing to get their hands dirty taking out the trash.” Zuri’s tone sharpened, but only for a moment. “But Elena is fair, and she cares about her bloodsuckers.”

“And you,” Marisol added.

Zuri’s soft lips flashed a little smile. “And you.”

“Not the way she cares about you,” Marisol admitted before she could stop herself.Freaking rum.

Sitting up straight, Zuri cocked her head to one side. “We have history. That changes things,” she admitted. “But there are very few people she’s allowed into her home.”

“Yeah, well, she wasn’t going to leave me to die with some killer looking?—”

“She would,” Zuri said without an ounce of hesitation. “Even though her body looks twenty-eight, her heart has known anunfair amount of loss. Give her time and she’ll show you. It takes her a long time to open up. I’m not sure how vulnerable she is even with herself. But trust me, she wouldn’t gamble on you if she didn’t feel something worth the risk.” Zuri’s eyes were the depths of the darkest ocean, the mystery of the Mariana Trench, when they held Marisol’s gaze. “And neither would I.”

“I feel so out of your league,” she confessed because she couldn’t seem to find the off switch on her stupid mouth. “Both of you. When this is over, you’re going to realize that?—”

“That you’re stupidly brave and smart and generous and probably the kindest person I’ve ever met?” Zuri quirked a brow. “Such hideous qualities. Definitely going to realize those are dumb.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Oh, and I should also add that it somehow feels like the three of us should have been together all along. Yeah, that’s easy to find wherever?—”

Body hot and heart racing, Marisol leaned over Luna and captured Zuri’s lips in a kiss. An objectively terrible kiss that was all teeth and her own smiling and the effervescent pressure building in her chest.

Before she could pull away, Zuri cupped her cheek and kept her forehead pressed to hers. “I’m not a warm and fuzzy bitch, okay? That’s not going to change. But stop doubting your place here,” she whispered. “You are so very wanted. You are where you fucking belong.”

Tears ambushed the backs of Marisol’s eyes and her hands shook under the weight of Zuri’s words. Words she seemed to believe so much that Marisol had no choice but to do the same.

“I’ll try,” Marisol breathed.

“You will,” Zuri demanded and kissed her again.

Behind them, the door swung open a nanosecond before the dogs woke out of their snoring and darted for the door. Walking in alone, Elena was covered in streaks of blood. It thrust Marisol back in time. Back to when Elena was unconscious in the ER anddidn’t look anything like an apex predator. Fear shot through her body, turning her veins to ice.

Scrambling to her feet, Marisol regretted the booze when her legs didn’t move as quickly as she demanded. A second behind Zuri, she reached Elena at the edge of the open kitchen before it flowed into the living room.

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