Page 30 of Never Say Die
The door slammed.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Aiden didn’t know if he should’ve lived, but he did.
His feet had turned to anvils as he’d trudged down the strip. At some point, he’d stopped to rinse his bloody hands in a water fountain and re-tie his boots. The four holes in his throat had soaked the collar on his black shirt. Turned the water pink in the shower, circling his toes and the silver drain. He’d scrubbed his body with neatly packaged hotel soap, somehow convinced he could wash the night away if he cleaned well enough. He shaved his jaw, each arm, his legs, between his thighs. Lathered his hair, disinfected the bitemark, and dug at his ears with a towel. Sleep had arrived instantly. Almost like he’d been trapped in a dream and lying down meant waking.
Something touched his nose. A soft, slow stroke, brow to tip, again and again. He wanted to stay in that darkness, that pleasant, simple silence. But he thought,Shay, and opened his eyes.
Shay gazed at him. Pretty eyes. Big, blue, Bambi eyes. He brushed his finger down Aiden’s nose again, and said, fondly, “Hey, dipshit.”
“Hi, asshole,” Aiden rasped.
Radiance replaced the sick Shay had carried yesterday, plumping his mouth and cheeks, chasing the ash from his olive skin. He touched Aiden without pause, thumb to mouth, resting there, then inching downward, pinching his chin. Shay lifted his head and leaned closer, studying the fang-prints on Aiden’s throat. “I went alone for a reason,” he said.
“That didn’t sound like ‘sorry for almost eating you, Aiden. I’ll buy you breakfast’,” Aiden said.Get away from him, you idiot.He swallowed, steering his eyes away from Shay’s parted lips. He didn’t want to look at him, to be caught looking at him. But he was fucking trapped—captured like a fox in a snare. Shay touched him casually, as if they’d touched each other a thousand times before.
“Guess we’re even,” Shay said, and followed Aiden’s jaw with his fingertips, tracing a constellation between each puncture.
Everything below Aiden’s navel clenched. He imagined moving, but couldn’t. Imagined kissing Shay, but didn’t. “Thought I was a goner, honestly.”
“Me, too.” His throat worked around a swallow. “You sounded scared, Aiden. Really scared.”
“You did, too. That night at the trailhead.”
“I was,” he said, and laughed under his breath. “Thought I’d finally hit the jackpot and then you kicked me in the chest. Rude awakening, you know.”
Jackpot.
Unmistakable heat ignited behind his heart.Impossible, he thought.Absolutely the fuck not, he thought.Shay, you didn’t, he thought.You didn’t. “Can’t believe you bit me.” He blinked away the sting in his eyes. “Like a dog,” he added, snidely.
Shay nuzzled the pillow. “Like I said, we’re even.”
Aiden pushed the comforter away and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. With his back to Shay, he allowed his jaw to slacken, his eyes to widen, his fingers to flex in his lap. Theoverpriced psychic was right. He needed to tear this feeling out by its roots. Exorcise himself of this love, this acquiescence, this wretched, overbearing want.
Shay touched a thin, red cut on Aiden’s tailbone—the place his claw had snagged. His voice softened. “Why didn’t you stop me?”
The stone Thomas had pounded into Aiden’s throat reappeared. He shook his head, trying and failing to find the right words to express how his willingness to die in that specific moment tethered ruthlessly to Shay’s refusal to stay dead a few nights ago. How self-preservation had always been prioritized over other people until Shay Bennett chose his own glory over Aiden. How when Aiden tried to do the same, he still chose Shay.
“Those claws were new,” Aiden said, because sayingI am completely fucking ruined by youwas not an option.
Shay sighed through his nose. “Don’t avoid the question.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’re alive despite each other. Let’s keep it that way.” Aiden stood, glancing over his shoulder. Shay propped himself on his elbow, expression strung between irritation and curiosity. A jagged, pink scar marked the place where Aiden’s hunting knife had skewered his stomach. “Vampire shit,” Aiden said, matter-of-factly, and pointed at his woundless belly, then lifted his hand and pointed to the bitemark on his throat. “Extremelyvampire shit.”
Shay furrowed his brow. “Did anyone see us leave?” he asked, and flopped onto the bed, tangling himself in the comforter. “Me and… I think her name was Cassandra. Cassie. . .” He stuffed his nose in the blanket. Aiden hated these parts: when Shay became unguarded and vulnerable, nestled in the king-sized bed with his fingers coiled around still-warm sheets. When he made himself available, easy to want after becoming a beast. Shay huffed adorably. “I didn’t realize. I mean, Idid. I knew what I was doing, but?—”
“You didn’t think about being on tour with the band she was following around,” Aiden said. He shook his head. “Laura, that weird fuckin’ girl with the ugly gloves, she saw you leave with her. I’m sure a few security cameras did, too.”
“I don’t think I’ll do very well in prison.”
“You’re not going to prison, princess Bennett. You’re rich and you’re white and I’ll vouch for you, calm down.”
“Aiden, Ikilledsomeone, I?—”
“You fed,” Aiden snapped. He stood beside the bed, raking his fingers through his hair. “You did what you had to do. Besides the almost-killing-me part, you could’ve skipped that.”
Shay paled, staring at Aiden. He looked scared, almost. Softened by guilt. “You feel okay, right. . . ?” Shay asked, voice hushed. “You’re not, like,turningor something?”
