Page 15 of Dark Embers

I turned around and ripped into my gryphon form before she could see anything else, then leapt into the sky without a second glance.

When I got high enough up past the glare of the street lights, I hovered and watched her leave the alley. She’d already been attacked once tonight—and another time by a fucking vampire apparently!—so I couldn’t leave her unguarded. I followed her until she made it to the bus station, and only then could I finally pull myself away from her.

What the hell was wrong with me? For fuck sake. If I was being totally honest with myself, I’d given her my number not strictly for her protection.

If I couldn’t get this witch out of my system, I was going to get us both in a lot of trouble.

Chapter 6

Tobias

Now that I had accepted my imprint on Arya, I was constantly aware of her presence—and the lack thereof. A fact I was currently wrestling with as I prepared myself for our impending date.

When she wasn’t in my line of sight, I physically ached. Even now, standing in my bathroom putting product in my hair, it hurt not to be close to her. There was this incessant, nagging compulsion to go to her, whether I was in class, in the shower, and especially while I tried to sleep.

Last night had been the most restless night I could remember, not only because I was worked up over her getting locked in the Simulation Room and almost dying, but because my every nerve fiber longed for her closeness. I found myself spooning my pillow multiple times throughout the night, startling awake in frustration at realizing it wasn’t her.

It was a ridiculous notion. Arya and I had never been together like that, and yet I missed it as if it were a long-standing arrangement that suddenly stopped. I told myself it was because I’d held her last night after I stopped the sim. That had felt so right. Even though I was terrified for her safety at the time, I looked back on that moment with a strange fondness and a deep longing.

I leaned with my palms on the edge of my vanity in front of the mirror and blew out a breath.

“We’re totally fucked,” I whispered to my reflection. He just looked back at me like the dumbass we were.

All of these feelings, they were just physical. I had imprinted. That was a physical condition due to chemistry. It didn’t mean I had tolikeher, and it certainly didn’t mean I had toloveher. I could enjoy the chemical benefits of dopamine and serotonin while I was in her company. I just had to always remember that these sensations were purely physical. I couldn’t allow them to influence my emotions or my heart.

She was basically a drug to me. A heroin addict doesn’t fall in love with the substance, much less the syringe that delivers it or the dealer that supplies it. This had to remain a transaction. Nothing more.

My phonepinged, forcing me to look away from my reflection and down at the device where it sat on the counter beside the faucet. There was a message on the screen.

From Arthur.

Good luck on your date. I’m proud of you, son.

Rolling my eyes, I swiped away the message and shoved the phone in my back pocket.

Of course, I’d told Arthur about the date. He had expected results, and such news would satisfy him against his threat to take me out of school and enlist me in the military. But that didn’t mean I didn’t feel slimy doing it. Seeing that text now made me think of so many things that I just didn’t want to dwell on.

I had a date to meet up for.

I grabbed my wallet and left the room, heading through the halls to the school’s entrance. Each step that brought me closer mademe more anxious, almost giddy. My calves sizzled with nervous energy, making each stride longer, faster. All other thoughts fell away. My singular thought was,I’m going to see her. Ineedto see her.

I pushed the vault-style door open with more force than necessary, then froze in the entrance when I saw her standing on the platform.

She literally took my breath away. And, for a split second, my heartbeat.

She was wearing a simple pink sweater dress that was simultaneously anything but ordinary. Though it covered her arms, torso, and upper thighs completely, it hugged every dip and curve of her lithe form, making her just about the sexiest thing on two legs—or tail, for that matter.

The creamy skin of her legs peeked out from beneath her ruffled skirt a few modest inches above her knee-high suede boots, and the sight made my dick swell with hunger. My mouth watered, and I was helpless not to imagine licking those perfect thighs, up and up, and finally feasting on her undoubtedly delicious center.

Stop it!

She turned at the sound of the door clanking open and smiled at me, her black waves swaying over her shoulders with the motion.

“Hi,” she said, brushing her hair behind her ear in what seemed to be a timid gesture.

Her greeting restarted my heart and respiratory system, and I stepped over the threshold toward her. “Hi.”

We stood side-by-side in awkward silence as we waited for the train to come. I wanted so badly to press her up against the wallof the tunnel and claim her right here. The struggle to restrain myself kept me entirely too distracted to think of anything to say.

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