Page 21 of Tragic Ink
“No.” Rhys grabbed my leg and pulled me closer, shifting me so that we were knee to knee—and eye to eye. His swirled with emotion. Mine... I wasn’t sure what I looked like now, except that I was terrified and breathless and completely mesmerized by him. Again. I swallowed hard against the pounding in my chest. He could hear it, I was sure of that. “Gwen, that kiss was so much better than any of the times I’d imagined ithappening.”
“You... imaginedit?”
“Of course.” His expression softened. His lips curved into a smile, and I couldn’t tear my gaze away from his mouth. “I’ve wanted you probably since the moment I saw you. Even at ten, when girls weren’t on my radar, you always managed to get my attention. You were my favorite person before the end of that first week at Aelwyn’s house. By high school, I was a lost cause. You were way too skinny, with legs too long for the rest of you. But you had this passion and fire that lit you from the inside out. You were all I thought about. Stillare.”
His hand came up to cup my face, and I tried not to lean into his calloused fingertips as they stroked my cheek. I shuddered as he leanedin.
“What about the oath?” Iwhispered.
“Screw the oath.” His lips were only a breath away now. “I shouldn’t have let it ruin this. I want you back in my life. It’s been hell withoutyou.”
I wasn’t even sure I was breathinganymore.
A sharp cramp in my hip sent me jerking, my spine curving until my entire body was pulled taut. I gasped as one of my tattoos came to life, stretching and growling as it animated against myskin.
“Damn it,” I said between clenchedteeth.
Rhys’s brows dipped, and he leaned away as I spasmed again. “What’swrong?”
“The fucking hellhound.” I shoved to my feet, peeling my shirt back to reveal the canine I suspected would be shifting and shimmering as it moved against the canvas of my right ribcage. I didn’t need to remove my clothes for the ink to break free, but I needed to be sure which tattoo had begun to wakeup.
Rhys stared, eyes wide, and his breath whooshed out as he watched the tattoo come to life on my skin. “Holy shit, Gwen. I mean, I knew you could... that they were... I’ve just never actually seen your ink come to life,” he finallyfinished.
I gritted my teeth against the pain as the hound scratched and tore, trying to break free from where it had been stretched from my side to my back—an exact replica of the one I’d inked on a client almost four years ago now. It was one of the scarier magical tats I’d done before I’d realized how deadly the consequences could be if activated in the wrong hands. There were only a few still floating around unused out there that could actually do serious harm. The rest were either for Ada—and I didn’t like to think about those—or harmless. I’d hoped after this long, maybe the hellhound would never actually beused.
I waswrong.
“What is it?” Rhys asked, his grin vanishing as he took in the horror-struck expression I gavehim.
“I gave that tattoo to Walter Glass a couple of yearsago.”
“Looks like someone pissed him off pretty bad tonight.” Rhys looked back at me, his expression grave. “Will it be like lasttime?”
My body hummed in dread at the thought. “Maybe. We have to go,” I said, grabbing my jacket and heading for thedoor.
Rhys jumped up, and rather than stop me, he followed on my heels. “I’mdriving.”
I steeled myself against the pain, hoping like hell I’d make it outside before this thing peeled away fromme.
“Fine,” I said, breathless with the effort of holding the ink inside my skin. I was too distracted to care when Rhys pressed his hand to the small of my back, leading me though the busy bar and into thenight.
When he steered me to his truck rather than my own, I let him. Mentally, I listed out all the reasons why this time wasn’t the same as last time. There weren’t nearly enough to convince me, though. We were together, we’d been about to kiss, and I was still just as much in love with Rhys Graywalk as I’d ever been. I could only pray history wasn’t about to repeat itself; that whoever was on the receiving end of this hellhound would live throughit.
Inside the truck, Rhys cranked the engine and peeled out, asking, “Whereto?”
“I don’t know yet. The tattoo is going to... peel off my skin,” I said through gritted teeth. “When it does, it will try to find its way to the otherhalf.”
“Will it obey you like the birddoes?”
“No. This one’s different. It doesn’t belong to me, so I don’t control it. I just get a carboncopy.”
“What will it do once it’sfree?”
“It will try to join itself. We need to follow it wherever it goes and try to stop it from hurtingsomeone.”
“Will it be solid?” heasked.
I understood his question and shook my head. “No. It will be life size, but only the original is solid. That’s the one we have to stop.”Kill.I meant kill, but I couldn’t say the word. Not so soon afterAelwyn.
