Page 5 of Tainted Gifts
You can leave too.
I release my hold on the pillow as he sighs out, and then I lie back down, face first in my clutched pillow, my back to the ceiling.
“Aria, I really want to talk to you. This can’t be it. This can’t really be the end of us. I mean… my title shouldn’t bear this much weight."
Your title doesn’t. Your lies do.
“Please speak to me… out loud,” he grumbles.
“What’s the point? You’re simply reading my mind while I’m talking," I sardonically release, my voice muffled by the pillow.
I feel his cool hands sliding up my waist as he lies down beside me, and his face nestles into the crook of my neck to flood my body with those delicious chills his intoxicatingly cool breath still offers. Amazingly, it banishes my headache.
“I love you. I’m sorry.”
I climb free from his ensnaring touch, and I shake my head vigorously while throwing my shit out of my drawers and into my bag.
“Just leave me alone. I really don’t want to discuss this now or ever. Just move on. You’re a full blood. It’s not likely we would have lasted very long anyway."
He stands up, pain etching itself into his every intake of breath.
“You can’t mean that,” he strains out.
“You know I’m right. We were just delaying the inevitable.”
My icy tone makes his chilled breath feel as hot as hell’s fire in comparison. I keep my eyes down because I know I can’t look at him right now, knowing I'll fall apart.
“I hate it when you say one thing and think another,” he utters through tight lips.
“I’m not thinking anything any different. I just can’t look at you right now. I’m tired, my head is killing me, and I’m about to go out on the road again.”
“You need blood for a headache. I’ll get you some.”
I huff out, and then shake my head.
“I’ve already had ten packs today. Just go away.”
My mind stays blank until I’m too exhausted to keep it up. Instead of showing him anything of any value, I think of the grass whipping in the wind, the flowers of spring blooming and finding the beauty winter forced them to abandon, and I think of water running down a stream as it tries to catch up with the waterfall ahead.
“Very well then. I’ll see you when we go out.”
My head pops up so quickly that I feel a forceful blow, almost like a three-hundred-pound weight crushing the front of my skull. I grip it tightly, and then I growl under my breath for that foolish move.
“Aria, you need to have that seen about. I don’t like you having such a severe headache after consuming so much blood. That’s almost too human, and you are full hybrid… well, you know what I mean.”
I almost want to scream right now. I’m so fucking irritated, and he won’t leave. My mother is here, on a damn mission for penance. Uncle Brazen is still defending Jase. I’m sure Uncle Grayson and Aunt Angelica are here as well, and I don’t have the energy to blast them the way the fully deserve.
“Just go away!” I scream too loudly, glass shattering as my dormant gift decides to come out and play - destroying my hotel room.
There goes my damn deposit.
He wants to say something else as he dismisses the sarcastic remark made in my mind, but he refrains before walking out. He hesitates to close the door, and I hold my breath until I finally hear it click shut.
Fucking mind reader.
Then my secret phone rings, and I dive over my bed to grab it - juggling it several times while trying to answer the mystery man.
“Hey! Where the hell have you been for so long?” I bark, and that smug asshole starts laughing at me the moment my scolding unleashes.
