Page 72 of Cursed to Be Mine
The smell of burning flesh seeps from his mouth as his heart heats inside his chest. It’s not enough to kill him,but it’ll take him a while to recover.
So many words burn inside his eyes, but they fade back to green, and he wisely keeps his mouth shut.
A pity. I was hoping he needed to get in one more word about Scarlett leaving with that fucking WALL member.
Rising to my feet, I send his doll back into my shadow domain. Vlad slumps forward, spewing out black smoke from his nostrils, and Moira rushes to his side. She bares her teeth at me on a growl but doesn’t say anything as she helps her friend to his feet.
Turning, not giving a damn that I’m showing them my back, I walk through the sea of parting vamps.
Blood trickles down my chin, and I wipe it away with the back of my hand. With every step, pain lances up from my half-consumed kidney, but I push it back, keep it contained. Pain is nothing new to a reaper.
The door pushes open beneath my hand, and I step into the public area. Noise buzzes around me as cops take calls and interview witnesses. Heads lift in my direction. A few eyes narrow on me – more vamps that didn’t run to poor Vlad’s aid.
A scintilla of respect rises for them for being smart enough to know not to get involved.
Under their wary gaze, I step out into the sun. An urge pulls me left when I enter the parking lot, and I look in my girl’s direction, our bond giving me a trail to follow. I breathe in, almost able to taste her, and my fists clench with a need to drag her back to my side.
But despite my earlier words to her about introducing her to my brothers, if I took her home now, it’d traumatize her more than the last twelve hours have. I need Derek to watch her for a bit while I smooth things over with my older brother...and make sure Maddox knows not to be alittle shit.
Antonio Garcia is undoubtedly still trying to find her, but Derek’s house is magically protected. Werewolves and vampires can’t get in. Nor can most witches.
I can, but then, I’m the one who cast the spell last night before visiting Hannah.
Derek, the ignorant little fool, is nothing but a puppet in a game he can’t understand.
Turning my head from the pull of my girl, I head for Hannah’s car. I slide her keys out of my pocket, then settle into the driver’s seat. My phone vibrates against my thigh right as I turn the key.
I let it ring as I drive away from the police station. I’m only a few minutes from my house, but as soon as the station is behind me, I pull my mobile out and hit the accept call button.
Maddox has probably been telling them all sorts of lies in my absence.“He’s bonded to a WALL member. Worse, she’s their creepy scientist.” “She dissects all the bodies.” “Cuts off bits for trophies too, which she hangs over her bed…”
“Where the fuck are you?” Varius spits, his tone not its usual flat control, and I know he’s angry over something more than a few missed calls and Scarlett being a ‘high’ member of the WALL. Something has happened, and I sit up straight as my foot presses on the accelerator.
“Who’s hurt?” I ask, overtaking a flashy red Mercedes driving under the speed limit.
“Talon,” he says sharply. “Antonio caught him alone, but he’s stable. Why haven’t you taken any of my calls?”
I glance in the side mirror as I knock the indicator to pull back in. “I had some personal business.”
“Maddox told us you started a blood ritual.” He doesn’t sound happy about it, but Varius rarely does. “Assumingit’s the woman?”
He’s known about Scarlett –albeit not by name– for over a year. Him being the head of the Shadow Domain Family, me being his security – there can’t be any secrets between us. He knows I ran into her two years ago, right before she went off to uni for her sophomore year.
Or rather, she ran into me with her head in a book, laughing that half-snort, half-laugh over some scene. She mumbled an apology, but by the time she looked up, I was gone.
I tried to ignore her. A reaper with such a weakness is laughable. But every few months, my shadow form ended up in her dorm.
Then every month.
Then every week…
Towards the end of the school year, I started shifting into my human form whenever her roommates were out. I didn’t touch her, just stayed on the other side of the room, trying to figure out what in Hel’s name was drawing me to her. But every time I did, she seemed more restless. As if she could sense me. And when she first started touching herself in her dreams, moaning and gasping as she rode her fingers…
It drove me mad, making me not myself. Making me want things a man in my position couldn’t have.
I told Varius when it started to affect my job as reaper, half expecting my brother to give me the order to kill her for the good of the Family. He didn’t – perhaps he knew even then that I wouldn’t. Nor did he give me an order to stay away from her, knowing that if I failed to follow, he’d have to carry out my execution.
He simply told me to get a handle on it. He didn’t care how I did it, just to make her no longer a problem.
