Page 89 of Wings of Ashes
“Will hurt,” Ryker grunted to her before dousing her bloody skin under the shreds of the nightgown to kill off any germs. Prey shifters were basically as immortal as humans after all; they could die from an infection.
“What the hell happened?” Bael asked. Why was she bleeding?And who do I have to kill?“And, I repeat, why do you look like that?”
“Disappointed?” she asked.
Bael’s brows shot up to his forehead. “Fuck no, do you know how much sexier you look as a redhead?” Even now, despite thescenario, Bael’s cock twitched and lengthened for her. He would get more details on her suddenly changed exterior later.
Nix rolled her pretty, golden-speckled bronze eyes. “My dorm room, uh, caught fire.”
Bael quirked an eyebrow. “You leave sex candles burning or something?”
“All twenty-two of my sex candles, yup,” Nix replied sarcastically.
Bael grinned at her sassy tone and commented, “Fuck, you arereallysexy as a redhead.”
Not as used to speaking aloud as Bael and Nix, Ryker took his time asking her, “How did you get on the roof?”
“Oh, uh, Professor Thierry found me. Saved me.”
Thierry?“Damn, gargoyle got to play the hero before us? That’s fucking unfair.” Bael crossed his arms and scowled.
He had grabbed Ryker and flown to Nix’s dormitory building immediately after the shared dream ended.The gargoyle moves fast. That damn stone man. Didn’t even make sense how something so heavy could fly.
Bael questioned, feelingveryjudgy, “Then, he abandoned you up here?Bleeding? And in nothing but a ripped-up nightgown?”
His judgment of the professor appeared to grate her nerves because Nix glared at Bael and snapped, “Someone needed to put out the fire, to protect everyone else in the dorm.”
“Fuck them, I’d never leave you on a roof like this,” Bael remarked at her torn nightgown and bleeding leg.
“You’d let people burn to death?”
Bael shot her a crazy, evil grin. “To keep you company? Baby, I’d let the whole academy burn.”
She gawked at him. Then…she hid a twisted smile.
“Your room…” Ryker began.
“Burned. Thoroughly.” Nix frowned and laid back down flat, staring up at the sky. “There is no way I can stay there tonight.” All of her possessions, her textbooks, her class notes…burned to ash.If I’d had anything left of my birth parents, I would be mourning it now.
“Stay with us,” Bael suggested.
“Stay…with you?” Nix echoed in disbelief.
“We have a small house off campus. Plenty of room in my bed for a feisty redhead.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, and he felt the gaze pierce right through him. “I am not sleeping in your bed with you.”
“You’d rather sleep on ashes?” Bael shot back, offended.
“Are those my only two options?”
Bael shrugged dramatically. “Iguessyou could sleep on our couch.” He playfully added, “Prude,” and grinned at her. The excitement of having her close banged around inside his ribcage.
“You can take my bed,” Ryker offered to take the couch.
Fuck you, dragon, she is mine, Bael thought bitterly to himself.
A gust of wind from flapping wings flung locks of Nix’s red hair around her blushing face.
