Page 22 of Fake Dating a Human 101

“Getmeback? The reason we came here was to bringyouback with us,” Lily objected.

Shayne released a raspy sound. “Though I do love to whack a wasp’s nest and then leave, I’m not going back…” He paused, then said, “unless you beg.”

There it was. He smiled.

Lily caught herself staring at it; the easy curl of his closed-mouth grin. That infectious smile that sent a tiny ripple through her abdomen. It had been easy to ignore his smiles back in the city, back when she was around him more and saw his grins every day. It felt different seeing one now; like she’d become addicted to them at some point and didn’t know how much she’d craved the sight of one until it was happening right in front of her.

She realized she was standing way too close to Shayne’s face to be staring at his mouth, of all things.

It was too late though. He noticed. And when his grin grew, she blushed.

“It’s alright, ugly Human. I have that effect on females,” he bragged. “Sometimes it’s a burden to be gorgeous all the time without even trying.”

Lily made a noise in the back of her throat. “You should shove your face into these healing waters a little longer before you say things like that,” she advised, eyeing his busted chin.

“Hmm.”

He let her go—no, hepushedher.

Lily fell back into the pool, and warm liquid rushed in. She splashed until she regained her footing and stood with the new weight of water saturating her hair and whatever parts of her sweater that had stayed dry up until now.

Shayne laid back on the slanted poolside, the hem of his red coat floating around him. He closed his eyes.

“Seriously?!” Lily folded her arms.

“Shhhh. I’m healing.”

Lily shook her head as she waded toward a stone ledge beside him. She grabbed the grass above to keep balance as she lifted herself onto it. She almost took a step out of the pool, almost escaped to the forest, when a hand wrapped around her ankle. She shrieked as she was yanked.

“Nope.” Shayne dragged her back into the pool, then grabbed a handful of her sweater and tugged her over. “Nice try.” He tucked her in nicely beside him, then he laid his head back and closed his eyes again.

Lily took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She stared up at the sky beginning to glow and interlace with prismed colours. Even if she wasn’t too tired to fight back against Shayne’s rapidly rejuvenating strength, she had to admit the serene woods were relaxing. The water was warm, and the view was remarkable, too. She glanced over at Shayne when she heard the slow, steady rhythm of his breathing. His lips peeled apart and his head rolled gently to the side, shifting his white hair. She wondered how long it had been since he’d gotten any real sleep. How many nights he’d been forcefully kept awake to end up in this kind of condition. But most of all, she wondered how she’d been lucky enough to get him back. To have him right beside her, alive and breathing, and sleeping peacefully.

“You lunatic,” she whispered.

What if he’d never woken up after Luc arrived with him? What if she’d really lost him? For over a day they’d been waiting for Shayne to wake up so they could go home. Dranian had practically turned into a nurse.

Lily raised a hand to cover her mouth when her eyes grew hot with tears. A sob threatened to slip out, but she stifled it, taking another deep breath and blowing it out quietly. She’d die before she let someone see her crying over Shayne, of all people.

She’d come to this terrifying place on a search and rescue mission. Shayne had been rescued. Now all she had to do was get him out of here, and everything could go back to normal.

Lily found Dranian sitting on an open hillside before a view of rolling hills, golden vineyards, and distant blue mountains. Luc laid flat on his back with his eyes closed beside him like he was napping. Dranian said nothing, but he stared particularly hard at the hills as if waiting for something to pop out of them.

Lily still wasn’t comfortable leaving Dranian alone with Luc, regardless of whatever heroic act Luc had found within his warped, serial-kidnapping personality to do. But Dranian didn’t seem afraid. In fact, his body language had only improved since Luc had shown up. It had gotten better when Mycra had first shown up too, though neither the bright-eyed, goddess-faced girl or the savage, secret-stealing sociopath had provided Lily with enough details about themselves or their motives to leave her completely relaxed in their presence. She was also still pretty stumped about how Dranian and Mycra knew each other, and why they understood each other without saying anything at all.

When Lily reached the duo on the hill, she wedged her way in between them, nudging Luc over so she could fit. Luc snorted and peeked one eye open. When he saw Lily, he rolled his one eye and closed it again.

Lily studied the nine tailed fox for suspicious tells. Not everything she’d read about creatures like him fit Luc’s description. Some people considered nine tailed foxes to be gods. But apart from having a god-complex, Luc was far from that. Only now did Lily notice he wore a long black coat that looked like a combination of something an English prince might wear and Count Dracula’s go-to hunting outfit.

“What happened to your hands?” she asked Luc when she spotted lacerations over his knuckles and wrists. The cuts were thin like whatever had caused them was sharp, although bruising above his left thumb told her he’d also had a collision with a blunt object.

Luc’s mouth pinched a little. He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his Dracula coat and didn’t answer.

“Has Shayne awakened?” Dranian asked.

Lily shook her head. She’d watched for nearly an hour as the bruises on Shayne’s face disappeared and his cuts closed up before she’d crawled out of the water. During that time, she’d made a short study of the crystal-clear turquoise pool. A pool of water thathealed peoplecould have changed the whole human realm.

The human realm.

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