Page 41 of Touch Her and Die
He stopped my ramblings with a kiss.
The deep pressure of his mouth against mine was a warmth that broke through the darkness. The prodding of his lips broke through the chill of the poison in my mind and second by second, I could see myself. This was my safety. This was my therapy.
He broke the kiss, and it was only then that I realized his arms were wrapped around me. The pressure should have hurt but instead, I could feel my lungs finally pulling in a long deep breath. My body was matching his breaths. My heart? The deafening thunder slowly dulled to a silence that was just as deafening.
“Halle, fucking talk to me.”
I couldn’t stop shaking as I looked up into his eyes.
“I need to kill something.”
SIXTEEN
parks
The controlI’d tried so hard to keep in place, didn’t make sense with her. She was shattering in front of my eyes, and I wasn’t sure how to help.
This wasn’t the Halle that hid behind blood and revenge. This was something else, and I wasn’t sure I could fix it. Fuck. I never dreamed of having to fix someone.
I wasn’t sure I knew how to be the someone she needed, and that was the worst part. I wasn’t sure I could be the thing she needed, but I fucking needed her.Life, my life, had no meaning without her.
“Halle. Talk to me. I need to get back to the city. What is going on? You can’t kill anyone here. I’m sorry. But it’s just until I get everything sorted out.”
The way she looked at me? Where was the crazy?
“You can’t sort it out. There is no fixing it. No one can fix me. I shouldn’t have relied on you. I shouldn’t have let you in.”
I sucked in a breath.
She squirmed, trying to break my grip. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t letting her go. But fuck, I’d let her down.
“Halle. Break my nose again if it will help. But talk to me. What can I do? I’m sorry this isn’t what you wanted.”
She stopped and suddenly I was worried I’d somehow held her so tightly that I’d hurt her. Her breathing was calmer, still not normal, but calmer.
“Halle?”
She was just looking at me, and then it dawned on me. She looked almost—innocent.
“Halle?”
A tear slipped down her cheek. Just one. But it was a real fucking tear.
“Princess? It’s only for a couple of days. I swear.”
Her mouth opened, and I waited. Waited for something to come out and make my own guilt subside. What else could I fuck up?
I’d nearly lost her so many times and it was all my family. Maybe my own fucking stupidity for thinking that I could somehow control things. I needed to end the control they had over me.
“My sister,” she said.
I paused my own self-destruction and listened. I swear I didn’t want to breathe for fear of missing a single word.
“She was all I had. She left me.”
The way her eyes bore into me, they held all the anger I imagined her small frame could possibly hold. If I didn’t understand her, didn’t feel that she was everything my soul needed, I’d worry she was contemplating my death.
“She took the easy way out. Didn’t she?”
