Page 173 of Hunters and Prey

When another explosion rocked the street not far away, Black gripped me tighter, wrapping his light into me even deeper. That time, those lower structures in his light coiled so far into me, I clutched at his arms, even as my light began to react to him in other ways.

“It happens when you’re stressed,” he said, his voice still a growl. “Have you noticed that, Miri? It happens when you hit some kind of peak stress.”

Thinking about that, as if something had just occurred to him, he frowned.

“I shouldn’t have been yelling at you,” he said, gruff.

Looking up at him, I couldn’t help it––I laughed.

He glared back at me, but I only shook my head, smiling at him.

“Gaos,Black,” I said. “Yes, you should have been yelling at me. You have every reason to be yelling at me right now.”

He grunted, clicking under his breath, seer-fashion.

“I’ve got you swearing in Prexci now,” he muttered, referring to the seer’s native tongue. He was still holding me tightly––now by the waist as well as my arm. “Great. Another thing to randomly turn me on for no reason.”

I laughed again.

I couldn’t help it.

Wrapping both of my arms around him, I hugged him, without thinking too much about whether he was ready for me to do that yet, either––not until I was already doing it. Maybe in the same way he couldn’t help feeling bad at yelling at me once he realized what it had done to my light, I couldn’t help wanting to touch him, even when he was furious with me.

He didn’t resist the hug.

Instead, he fell into it with almost as much relief as I did.

I felt the part of him that wanted to yell at me anyway.

“I know,” I told him, my voice a murmur against his chest. “I know, Black.”

“I thought we weren’t going to lie to each other anymore, Miri.” His voice remained low, rumbling through his chest as I leaned my face against him. He wrapped his arms around me, tighter when I didn’t let him go. “You lied to me.”

I sighed. I still didn’t loosen my grip on him.

Looking down at the street––at the burning van, at the red and black-masked kids I could see down there, a different group this time, smashing storefront windows with tire irons and bricks––I exhaled again.

“I know.” I felt my jaw harden as I watched the Purity gang run up the block, calling out gleefully to one another over the last explosion. “But I’m not letting you join… that. Not for me, Quentin.”

Black didn’t answer.

Well, he didn’t answer right away.

I glanced up from where we held each other, and saw his gold eyes scanning the scene directly below the building, probably trying to decide if he should send some of his people down there. I felt him scanning my uncle’s so-called “Purity soldiers,” too.

I saw the scowl that tilted the edges of his perfectly sculpted lips.

I gripped him harder, still watching his face.

“You don’t like me calling Brick,” I said. “Or going to the vampires behind your back. I get that, I really do. But you need to hear me on this. I’m not letting you sell your soul to my uncle because you want revenge for what one vampire did to me. I’d do a lot worse to prevent that, Black. A lot worse.”

Black turned at that, staring at me with narrow eyes.

Seeing the incredulity in his expression, I looked away.

When I started to pull away from him slightly, he gripped me tighter, pulling me back up against his muscular body.

“You’re really not going to talk to me about this?” he said, gruff. “About what the fuck you just did? About this vanishing thing you keep doing? Or teleporting? Or whatever the hell it is?”

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