Well, shiiit. I guess when he put itthatway, my story definitely had a couple of holes in it.
His eyes tapered as he cocked his head to the side, studying me. “What I don’t know iswhy?” he said softly as his hand came up to my face and caressed my cheek with the back of his knuckles.
My eyes slipped shut at his touch like it was the remedy to an ailment that only he could treat. Despite all my injuries and the aching pain still wracking my body, for that brief second, there wasn’t anything wrong with me. There wasn’t anything wrong in the entire world.
And then his hand was gone, and everything bad came hurdling back.
“What are you hiding, angel?”
I looked up and met his narrowed eyes as he searched my face for the answer. For the truth.
In the past, my default setting had always been to lie first and ask for forgiveness later. To hide the truth until I knew what to do with it. Basically, to deny until the cows came home. But I didn’t feel that way with Dominic. With Dominic,the lie never felt necessary, and the truth was seldom as scary as it seemed without him.
It was easy to take off my mask and lay my cards on the table for him. To show him all of the parts that made me who I was. Even when those parts were rotten and ugly and frightening. Because deep down, I knew it wouldn’t scare him off. He wouldn’t run away from it or from me. He never did.
“Fine. You’re right, okay? I lied. I didn’t vanquish any Hellhounds,” I admitted as I took a step back and sat down on the bed, already feeling a weight lift off my chest as I relinquished my burden. “I wasn’t even close.”
His jaw tensed as he folded his arms across his chest and waited.
“I think I managed to vanquish one whole Revenant—one,” I repeated pointedly, because even then, I couldn’t believe how badly I’d performed, “before they all swarmed me at the same time. They weren’t feral. They were coordinated and working together. I could’ve probably taken them if it was one on one, maybe even a two on one, you know, if I wasn’t so tired from magic-training all day. But not all seven. I was basically done for the minute my back hit the floor and the first Revenant sank his fangs into me. Believe me, I tried to keep fighting—”
“I beg your pardon?” he cut in, momentarily halting my rant. “Say that again.”
“Which part?”
“The part about fangs sinking into you. Are you implying you were bitten by one of them?” he verified, sounding doubtful, because he knew as well as I did that that meant I should have been dead.
The first and only rule of slaying vampires was you never under any circumstances let them bite you. Ever.
“By both of them, actually.” I smiled wryly. “They double-teamed me.”
His hard, stoic expression cracked, giving way to something that looked a lot like rage, but it was quickly swallowed up by the confusion that soon followed. “How is that possible? How exactly did you make it out of there?”
“Well, that’s the thing,” I laughed, but there was really no humor behind it. It was more of a nervous tick. “I’m not even sure of it myself.”
“Explain.Now.”
“I was basically dead. The two of them were on me and I couldn’t even crack my eyes open let alone fight them off. But then something strange happened,” I went on, glancing down as I twiddled my fingers, struggling to put the disjointed pieces together in a way that made sense. “I mean, Ithinkit happened. I was mostly out of it so I can’t even really be sure that it happened exactly the way I think it happened, but I can’t seem to come up with any other explanation that makes sense either, so—” I met his eyes and sighed. “So, I guess it happened.”
“And what is it that youguesshappened?” he asked, his shoulders and jaw still tense.
“That…the Hellhounds…saved my life,” I answered quietly.
He watched me for what felt like an eternity, as though I had uttered the words in some foreign language and he was wracking his brain for the proper translation. “You think theHellhoundssaved your life?” he repeated slowly, as if needing to test the words out in his own mouth. As if the idea was so outlandish and implausible that he couldn’t even trust that his own perfect-vampire-hearing ears had heard me right the first time around.
I shrugged. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“How exactly doesthatmake any sense at all?”he countered; the question almost mocking. “They were attacking you, were they not?”
I nodded.
“And then what? They simply changed their mind and decided to attack the Revenants instead?” he offered sarcastically.
“I mean, basically.” I knew he wasn’t being serious about it, but it still didn’t make it any less true. “Look, I know it sounds crazy. I didn’t even believe it myself at first. But what else am I supposed to think? One minute they’re all on me and then next, there’s vampire body parts scattered all around the room and four Hellhounds just sitting there, bowing their freaking heads to me.”
“Bowing?” he repeated incredulously, as though I’d just tipped the scale from implausible to completely deranged. “Angel, are you certain you didn’t…dream the event? You said two Revenants were feeding on you. I imagine you lost a significant amount of blood.”
“I don’t know. Maybe I did.” I couldn’t really deny that it was a possibility. Ihadlost a lot of blood. “But that doesn’t explain how I’m still alive right nowand alsonot being hunted by the Hellhounds.”