Page 28 of Fake Fae-Ancée

Don’t think. Run.

Behind me he yelled something. Of course he was following me. What the hell was his problem? This conversation was so over! I bolted through the window in the ladies' room and ran away! What part of that didn’t he understand?

Okay, this wasn’t the most mature thing I’d ever done, granted. But what was I supposed to do? Had I not left, hell knew what would have happened?

And why did I have to think about him and me doing it anyway?

Ignoring the wave of heat welling up inside me, I ran some more. My body was nothing but a horny traitor. And why had I put on this dress again? The damn thing in which I had been all over him at Sparky’s wedding, years ago.

No idea why exactly I had kissed him that day. Lots of drama had happened shortly before. And after dinner I'd felt so useless and raw that I had desperately needed to be alone before anyone saw me crying. So I’d escaped into one of the empty rooms upstairs. Better to cry alone for a while — get the weak bullshit out of my system — before someone overheard and started to ask questions.

I was not weak. I was never weak. Being strong was my thing. Crying didn't fit the image. But sometimes it happened anyway. And every time I made sure to be alone. Never had anyone caught me crying. Not my friends, not my jerk colleagues from the precinct. Not even Claudio, who knew me longer than most people.

And then, at the worst moment possible, with me crouching red-faced on that stupid chaise longue, Yuri had appeared. And had seen me like this. Weak and open and… well, crying like a little girl. And my brain had failed me, and my body had thought "fuck it" and when he’d been all over me I had kissed him back.

And things had escalated.

Another wave of treacherous heat crashed through me, almost throwing me off balance. I dug my heels in the ground and stopped, frantically sucking air into my lungs. The wet grass was sagging between my naked toes. I threw a glance back over my shoulder.

Kalinin pushed his massive figure across the park. He ran straight at me, yelling something again. He was maybe two-hundred meters or so away and looked mighty angry.

I huffed with a twinge of schadenfreude at successfully pissing him off, and fell back into my run. It didn't matter much where to. The getting away part — putting as much distance as possible between me and him — was much more important. Before I broke the rest of his nose, too. Or ended up doing something very, very stupid again.

The lawn was running up a small hill. To my annoyance I was starting to pant. Apparently, my stamina had also gone out the window along with my powers. My leg muscles burned. And the mystery wound between my shoulders was flaming up in a sudden burst of pain.

Damn, what was wrong with me?

"McKenn! Stop!" Kalinin's roar behind me was damn close.

Groaning, I kept struggling up the hill, gasping and panting, but when I eventually made it to the crest I just couldn’t run anymore. I stopped, holding my aching side, sucking in air and turning to face my pursuer who came running up the hill without any visible effort.

"Can't you just leave me alone already?" I yelled at him.

"Get back in the house now," Kalinin roared, running toward me.

"Do you seriously think you can talk to me like that?"

"You don't understand, you are-"

He didn't get to tell me what I was, exactly, because out of the clear blue sky a black bolt of lightning struck him down.

I was so stunned that I didn't even scream. He didn’t, either. He just gaped at me, ultra surprised, as the lightning punched him to the ground like a giant stapler.

No, no lightning.

Sticking out of Kalinin's shoulder, pinning him to the wet manicured lawn like a particularly thick bug, was a gigantic, pitch-black spear. The thing was almost twice as long as he was tall, quivering deadly like an overgrown porcupine needle.

I stared.

"McKenn! Get out of here," Kalinin roared from the ground, a panicked glint in his eyes. I couldn’t retort, because the sky came crashing down on my head. A raging cloud of midnight-black feathers enveloped me, smothering any reaction I might have had.

"Gotcha, Fae-scum!" a dark voice boomed and the curse I was about to utter was torn from my lips, along with the air from my lungs, as iron-hard claws bored around my waist and yanked me up into the air.

Yuri

Things happened at breakneck speed.And I could just stare, pinned down by that fucking spear. A storm of inky blackness burst from the clouds, swooping down on Kai. Her piercing scream ripped through the park.

Fuck!

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