Page 171 of Fangs
“Do not tempt me to take more drastic measures,” he said in a familiar silky tone.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” I tightened my grip on his arm, golden light flaring. “You don’t scare me anymore. You try to find me, and I will kill you.”
A cruel smirk crossed his face. “Are you truly so eager to have nightmares about killing me?”
I opened my mouth to snap a retort, but he continued.
“Just like you have nightmares about that knife in Juck’s chest? Or the blood spurting from Madame’s neck?”
Fear turned my veins to ice, but I refused to back down. “I’ll gladly have nightmares if it keeps you from hurting anyone else.”
He laughed softly, making the hair stand up on the back of my neck. “Love, you think I don’t know what happened tonight?”
I sucked in a breath through my nose. “Was that you in the clinic?”
He scoffed. “No.”
I was beginning to feel nauseous, and I desperately tried to pretend I wasn’t. He suddenly got to his feet gracefully, and I flinched but still gripped his arm. His eyes narrowed, and he stepped into my space. Now that he was standing, I realized how tall he was. Shadows still covered his lower body, but they recoiled from my light. I was very aware I had no exit plan. I was afraid to let go of his arm since that seemed to give me a slight advantage, but I also desperately wanted to leave.
“The scent of Madame’s soap is all it takes to break you, yet you threaten me,” he murmured. “I still can’t decide if you are brave, foolish, or both.”
“Says the man who hid behind shadows and threatened me,” I sneered, my temper flaring.
His expression grew darker, and my heart leapt into my throat. My stupid mouth.
“You know nothing,” he said in a soft voice that made chills run across my body. “You think you don’t need my protection, but you have no idea what sort of monsters exist in the dark.”
“No, I don’twantyour protection?—”
His cold fingers seized my chin. “What youwantdoes not matter. You are mine.”
“I am notyours,” I spit out defiantly despite the fear coursing through me.
His smile didn’t reach his eyes. “He’s dead, Ember, and he’s not coming back.”
Pain stabbed through me. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll always be his.”
His eyes flashed, and the darkness pressed in, heavy and suffocating. “You would devote yourself to a man who died and left you here alone?”
“He didn’t choose to die!”
“He didn’t fight it, either.”
“His death started the rebellion,” I parroted Nemo’s words even as they hurt. “He helped free people!”
The shadows around him writhed and grew, and my golden light suddenly seemed small. “Well, that is the difference between us, then,” he murmured, leaning closer, “because I would let the whole world burn rather than abandon you. I would never make you beg to follow me into death. I would never promise to love you and then leave you.”
I stared at him, my heart pounding. I wanted to scream at him, but I hated the tiny selfish part of me that ached with pain—that wished Trey had felt that way.
“So remember that the next time you decide to label me a villain, Ember,” he said in a soft, dangerous voice, and then he vanished like smoke.
28
Ibolted upright in bed, gasping in panicked breaths.
“What the fuck?” a sleepy voice mumbled beside me, and I gasped, lurching away. “It’s Lee, Freckles. It’s Lee.”
I couldn’t respond, too focused on trying to breathe. The bed shifted as he sat up, and his warm arms encircled my shoulders. I gripped his forearms and tried to stop shaking.
