Page 107 of Fated In Forever
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The sun was barely over the trees and I gripped Malachi’s much larger hand as he led me down a gravel path, my hair still damp from my bath, my legs more unsteady than I would have liked, but I was up. I was moving. I was brimming with Malachi’s blood and I was just a little bit stoned.
Okay.
Alotstoned.
We ended up in a quiet walled garden, where Angel and Bex were squeezed together on a stonebench beside a bed of nodding blue delphiniums, both of them sitting ramrod straight, cheeks pink, eyes wide, and every time Malachi’s tail swished, I swore they both let out a little squeak.
Seriously.I grumbled.You’d think they never saw an eight-foot monster before.
Nine, he murmured, squeezing my hand.I’m nine feet tall. I think they like my tail. He swished it again and I rolled my eyes, glad most of his nakedness was hidden by the mist of shadows wrapped around his hips.
Stop that. Don’t encourage them.
Are you jealous, Vicious? Because you sound jealous.
I didn’t answer, because I totally wasn’t jealous.Much. Blake and Riordan were here, too, watching from beneath a towering oak tree, arms crossed, feet braced wide, and once again, that sureness settled deeper inside me, the conviction we were on the right path.
That every twisted, shattered moment that led to right now had turned us all to tempered steel, to become the weapons we needed to be to finish this fight.
To win.
Nikolai lounged against a stone wall in the garden, Sabine sat cross-legged on a mossy bench, barefoot, in a parfait-colored dress of sequined tulle and a tiara, brown eyes dancing as she looked between us.
As if we were an interesting experiment she couldn’t wait to start on.
I shifted my weight, quite sure I didnotwant to become one of her science projects
Barely visible, black veins still crawled beneath my skin like living shadows, pulsing vaguely with each heartbeat, beside me, Malachi towered, eyes burning like embers, swishing that damn tail. Yet somehow, I could still see myMalachi, in every beautiful curve and hardened edge, in the way his lips twisted into a sardonic smirk.
Is the fairy godmother really our only option? He grumbled.What about the Elder, doesn’t he have some skills?
Not the sort of skills we need. We’d been bickering for an hour, and I was starting to think he was going to refuse to go through with this.
“Let me get this straight,” Sabine’s wild grin was a thing of absolute terror. “You want me to turn him back into a mortal? I have to ask…why? Look at him. He’s an apex predator. He’sperfect. He can rip through steel and rock with his bare hands, I mean…” she waggled her eyebrows. “Once you go monster, you never go back.”
Nikolai closed his eyes, a veritable picture of the long-suffering brother if I ever saw one. Behind us, Angel and Bex giggled like a couple of teenagers.
Oh my God. You’re right. This is such a bad idea.I tugged at his hand. We’ll figure something else out.
“Just kidding. I can see where that form might be a detriment to Friday date nights.”
“What do you even know about date nights?” I asked, mystified by every aspect of her. The only girl I’d ever spent any amount of time with was Angel, and Sabine was a cobbled together version of a fairy princess, a werewolf and someone who just escaped from a mental facility.
“I read books, you know. Romances.Humanromances. There are always dates involved. On Fridays. Hence, Friday date nights.”
Well, she isn’t wrong. And she’d probably get along with Angel and Bex. We could introduce them.I glanced over to where the two of them sat, a rapt audience.
Vicious, stay on task here.
“Right. We need your help,” I said. “We…uhm, therearecertain situations where this form is not ideal. Can you change him back, or not?”
“Oh, you’re talking about sex.”
“For fuck’s sake, Sabine.” Nikolai muttered, dragging a hand down his face.
“Iamtalking about sex, and eating meals and fitting through doorways. I’m talking about sleeping in a bed at night and just…not scaring the living shit out of everyone around them.”Sorry, you really are kind of scary.
