Page 313 of Flirting with Darkness

Nova was up so fast it actually made him blink in surprise. “She did.” Wiping her cheeks, she walked back to the living room and Dex rolled over onto his stomach so she couldn’t see his eyes.

Holding her had helped, but adrenaline was still coursing through his veins and now he wanted to hunt down a demon that wasn’t even alive anymore.

“Fuck!” she yelled.

He growled into the pillow, feeling his demon practically cackle in anticipation.

This girl was going to fucking kill him.

20

NOVA

This couldn’t be right.

How the fuck was it already the day?

Nova shoved the broken coffee table aside and grabbed her boots from under the couch. Where was her jacket?

“Anything I can help with?” Dex asked.

She looked up to see him watching her with narrowed eyes, arms crossed over his bare chest. Those sweatpants should be illegal.

“It’s three o’clock.” Where was her phone?

The panic she felt made her heart race and she used every trick she’d been taught to keep it at bay, but she’d fucked up bad.

“And?”

“It’s the middle of the day!”

She shouldn’t have stayed up to watch the entire season, but Dex had looked so cute asleep on the couch. Nova couldn’t just leave while he was sleeping. That had felt rude after all he’d gone through to try to make this friend shit work.

“I thought you don’t have work.”

“That’s not the point!” She threw a boot at him and he caught it without even looking. “I shouldn’t still be here.”

At some point, she’d fallen asleep with him. Nova vividly remembered because of the way he smelled. She should have woken him up instead, but she hadn’t because she was weak.

“This is all your fault,” she hissed, pointing a finger at him. “If you hadn’t…” Nova cut herself off, deciding that was not the route to go down if they were going to stay friends.

His eyes flashed and suddenly he was standing right in front of her, fucking furious. “If I hadn’t what?”

She shouldn’t have pushed him. Nova was so mentally fucked up right now, she had pushed him when she knew he was still on edge after the way he’d reacted.

“Nova, I swear to all the fucking gods that I’m going to shake the shit out of you.” His hands wrapped around her biceps and she didn’t know what to do, because she absolutely deserved this. “If I hadn’t what?”

“I should never have let myself fall asleep,” she whispered, knowing she owed him an answer, at the very least. “It’s daylight outside and now I’m somewhere that’s not my own apartment like a fucking idiot. Like I don’t know any better.”

She wanted to shove him away, but something told her if she did, he might actually kill her, and her sense of self-preservation was kicking in.

“I don’t understand,” he growled. The words vibrated in the room with a sound she’d never heard from a shifter.

Nova owed him as much of the truth as she could give him after all she’d put him through. “I’m demon-touched. Whatever happened when my magic settled in my eye…I think—somehow, I took some of his powers. I have no control over it.”

Dex went so still she wasn’t even sure he was breathing.

“There was so much blood I thought I would never see out of this eye again, but I vividly remember the flash of sunlight as I fell. It was so bright.” Nova pushed his arms gently and they fell to his sides. “If I’m not prepared, midday sun triggers my fight-or-flight reflexes.”

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