Page 28 of Blood Magic (Ariel Kimber 3)

After that, it was on. They both rolled around on Dash’s living room floor while they struggled for dominance. Somehow, in their struggle, Tyson managed to get Julian on his stomach and had his forearm wrapped around Julian’s throat in a very firm looking choke hold.

I couldn’t see Julian’s face from this angle and I was glad for it. Fortunately, I couldn’t see Tyson’s face either. I imagined seeing both would have frightened me. I didn’t want to see their expressions right then.

I realized the phone wasn’t giving off anything more than radio silence, so I pulled it away from the side of my face and looked at the screen. The call had ended. Quinton had gotten fed up with my non-answering him and he’d hung up on me.

Good for him.

I probably would have hung up on myself too.

Julian was kicking his legs under Tyson and bucking his body violently. Tyson didn’t look like he would be letting go any time soon.

“Shit,” a deep voice said from the doorway and my head jerked to the side so I could see which twin had spoken. They both had identical voices and I could never tell who was speaking unless I was looking at them while they were doing the actual talking. If they had a tell with their voices, I had yet to find it.

And I wouldn’t know who had spoke unless I asked because they both stood in the doorway. For a second. Then they were on the move.

I checked them out as I watched them pry Tyson off of Julian and then Addison dragged a red-faced Julian out of the room by under his arms. Very undignified. I had a feeling Julian wouldn’t be pleased about that when he thought back on it later. I wouldn’t care, but I knew a guy would. Whether it be male ego or male pride, it didn’t matter because it was there and all the same to me.

Abel had his hands wrapped around Tyson’s biceps and he was pushing him back while telling him to calm down. Well, more like yelling at him to calm down.

I had Tyson’s cell phone clutched to my chest and I was trying really hard to control my breathing. It wasn’t working very well, and my entire body was shaking from nerves.

That whole scene had been so extreme, and I didn’t understand why. Tyson and Julian had been perfectly at ease with each other on the car ride over and even more so when we’d walked through the front door. They hadn’t started to bicker with each other until Julian got his black bag out and then Tyson started to pick at him for no apparent reason. He’d done it again, and again. And I absolutely did not understand why they had snapped at each other or why Julian would launch himself across a freaking couch at his friend.

None of it made any sense to me and I felt like I was missing an important piece to the puzzle. I did not like not knowing things.

Abel muscled Tyson over to the couch and forcefully shoved him down until he had no choice but to sit.

I wasn’t surprised by this. The twins were big guys, clearly capable of throwing their weight around for whatever use they wanted. They were big. Not fat, but muscular. If you excluded their hair and eye colors, both twins were identical in physical form. They were the same height. That height being roughly six-foot-two. Maybe even slightly taller. They were the same build, the same exact size. They had full, wide, muscular shoulders. Wide hips. Thick, tree trunk like thighs. They were solid and packed with muscle.

Abel was my Pepper twin. He had the blackest hair I had ever seen on a person and vibrant, bright green eyes that practically glowed in his face.

Addison was my Salt twin. He had hair so blonde it bordered on being white. His eyes were a pale, light blue, and they, too, glowed in his face.

Together, they made up what I lovingly referred to as my Salt and Pepper twins.

To some, their sheer size and the intensity they radiated might intimidate them. To me, I thought they were pure, masculine beauty at its finest.

And, right this moment, I had Abel eyeballing me as I huddled into the wall.

I had always thought of Abel as the sweet one of the two, even though Addison had his moments, but he had a more aggressive personality than Abel did.

Just then, Abel wasn’t looking like the sweet Pepper twin that I knew him to be. His mouth was pinched in a tight, angry line. His eyes were narrowed and on me. His body was strung tight, like he was struggling to keep himself in check.

“Why are you huddled into the wall like that?” He asked carefully in his rough, deep voice. “Like you’re scared. What are you afraid of?”

His angry gaze dropped down to where Tyson sat hunched over on the couch and he balled his large hands into tight fists at his thighs.

“What’s she afraid of, Ty? Is it you? Are you the reason she looks like she does right now? Scared and huddled into herself. Is that your fault, or do I have Julian to thank for it?”

I thought, at this point, it prudent to keep my mouth shut so that’s exactly what I did.

Tyson’s body jerked, like he’d been physically struck, before he whipped around. His eyes found me immediately, I wasn’t hard to miss. His jaw clenched, and he immediately surged to his feet.

Abel put his big hand in the center of Tyson’s chest and he shoved him back down into the couch.

“Get out of my way, Abel.” Ty snarled viciously. He sounded remarkably like his Uncle Quinton. “Get the fuck out of my way.”

Abel leaned forward and down, sticking his face directly in Tyson’s. They both wore dark, sinister expressions and I feared another fist fight would break out at any second. I did not want to stick around for another brawl in Dash’s living room.

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