Page 54 of Misfit Monsters
I tip my head to the side. I’m picking up frustration and defiance but also a whiff of longing. Definitely nothing that feels content.
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
I raise my eyebrows. “I don’t think that’s true, not completely. I don’t have to even talk if you don’t want me to. What if I just sit with you and we can see if that’s better than staying by yourself?”
Raze scowls, but something softens in his eyes at the same time. “Well, come on then, Glowbug.”
Despite his grumpy tone, something lights up inside me at the nickname. It sounds more fond than dismissive. As if he likes the fact that I glow, just like Mirage suggested he appreciates my rainbow of colors.
It’d be nice if my mood-ring tendencies came with a few benefits.
The basilisk shifter tramps back across the slope, and I hustle behind him. He glances back to check on me just as a spike of pain radiates up one ankle.
I stumble. Raze is there unexpectedly fast, grasping my elbow to steady me.
He peers at me with sudden solemnness. “You’re not clumsy. You’ve been injured.”
Darn those predator instincts.
An uneasy flush spreads under my skin. I force another smile. “It was a long time ago. No big deal. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
I don’t want to dredge up those awful memories.
Raze’s thumb skims over my arm in a gentle arc. He echoes what I said to him just minutes ago: “I don’t think that’s true.”
My throat tightens up. He’s the only one who’s ever noticed.
That doesn’t mean I’m going to bawl all over him. I shrug with a light laugh. “I had a bad run-in with a cruel human. He hurt me, and some of the wounds left lingering effects. It was a good lesson in what to watch out for. And in getting creative about staying on my feet. I learned a lot!”
Raze doesn’t look impressed by my studiousness. His lips draw back from his teeth, which extend into the razor sharp edges that come with his basilisk form. “What man? Where is he now?”
I can only answer honestly. “I don’t know. I’d rather think about the much nicer people I can hang out with. All right?”
Raze expels a growl followed by a long, slow breath. Then, before I have time to react, he scoops me up into his arms as if I weigh no more than a feather pillow.
Tucking me against his broad chest, he strides onward.
The feel of his sculpted, heated muscles against my side sends all sorts of tingles through my body. Not the effect I’d imagine he intended to provoke. A flare of need sparks between my legs.
The few times I dabbled in physical merging in the past, I didn’t really know those other shadowkind. Just a quick romp with someone who caught my eye and had the same impulse.
How much better might it be with someone I’ve come to care for? Who cares about me?
Could that be the missing ingredient that makes humans jump on each other so avidly?
I shouldn’t let my mind wander in that direction. Raze is only stopping me from slowing him down, not propositioning me.
“It’s okay,” I protest. “I don’t mind walking.”
He lets out a decisive huff. “Imind.”
Something inside me wilts despite my best efforts. “I’m sorry I’m slow. I?—”
Raze stops and gazes down at me, his mouth gone taut. “No. I mind you hurting when you’re only trying to help me.”
Oh. I stare back at him for a thump of my heart. He starts walking again, and I let myself relax in his careful embrace.
He doesn’t go much farther, just to a small clearing where a ridge of protruding rock sticks out like a bench. Raze lowers me gingerly onto one end and then sits down at the other, a few feet away. As if he assumes I wouldn’t want him any closer than that.
