Page 18 of Shadowkissed

Instead, I take her home.

My loft is reinforced, shielded, and silent. No windows anyone can peek through, no wards she’ll trip unless I let her. It’s where I go to disappear. Which makes it the only place I trust with something I don’t understand.

I lay her on the couch, then clean the wound best I can. She stirs once, hissing in her sleep, her hand twitching toward magic—but I murmur, low and steady, “You’re safe.”

Her magic calms. Her breathing evens out.

I watch her. Too long. Too close.

There’s something almost… unholy about her stillness. Like even in unconsciousness she’s coiled, waiting. Her tattoos shift like storm clouds beneath her skin. Her beauty’s the kind that unsettles. Dangerous. Impossible. Not meant for this world.

And yet here she is.

She wakes two hours later.

Not gently.

She jolts up, already conjuring a blade of shadow. I stay still.

“Easy,” I say. “You’re not dying. Yet.”

“Why the hell am I not on a sidewalk bleeding out?”

“Because I caught you.”

She eyes the room, gaze sharp, breath uneven. “And your brilliant solution was tokidnapme?”

“Call it what you want,” I say. “You needed help. I gave it.”

“You’re lucky I didn’t vaporize you.”

“Yeah, I’m shaking.”

Her eyes flash. “You’re a real charmer, wolf.”

She says it like she already figured me out. Like she knows the weight I carry just by existing. Alpha without a pack. Shifter with guardian blood. Lone and lethal and unwanted.

“You’re welcome,” I add.

“Didn’t say thank you.”

“No, you didn’t.”

Silence stretches between us, thick and humming.

“I’m Dante,” I say finally, voice low. “Since you’ve been bleeding on my couch for two hours, figured names might be appropriate.”

She blinks, startled by the shift in tone.

Then she smirks. “Nightshade.”

“Bullshit.”

She lifts her chin. “That’s what they call me.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“Then you asked the wrong question.”

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