Page 22 of Sound
“Étienne?” When she whispers my name, I finally see what she is holding in her arms. “I … I think … she killed him.”
The cat hangs limp in her hands, the head and tail reaching for the floor. Taking a step closer, I stop when she bumps into the desk again. With great effort, I uncurl my lip, cracking my neck to bring some semblance of sanity to my brain. The need to protect her rides my ass so hard it takes me long moments of staring at my feet to even be able to breathe.You don’t want to scare her,I say over and over, and finally the fangs slide back in my gums.
“I’m a horrible person,” Melody says, sniffing back the tears that glisten in her eyes.
“The witch brings out the predator in me. This is all on me and not your fault.” When I lift my face to look at her, she is frowning at me like I’m talking to her in French. I think I used English …
“Oh, not you.” She shakes her head understanding something that I obviously do not. “She was holding Alto dead and threw him at me, but as soon as she closed the door, I couldn’t stop thinking, ‘thank god she didn’t see my muddy broken boots.’” A tear trickles down her face. “She killed him.” Lifting the cat between us, she holds it like an offering.
My head cocks to the side.
“He is still alive.” The barely-there heartbeat is like butterfly wings to my ears. “Barely.”
“Can you help him?” She looks around to search for something but the room has nothing we can use.
Taking the cat from her hands, I reach in with my power, merging it with the thread of life Alto still clings to. “Healing is not my strong side, but I can keep him alive until Lucien can save his life.”
“Who?” Her hands hover above the cat but she doesn’t touch it.
“My middle brother. He is the strongest healer I know.” Yet I can’t get my feet to move. I can’t leave her.
The indecision must be written all over my face because Melody gives me a sad smile. Lifting on her tiptoes, she brushes a kiss on my cheek, the skin tingling in the wake of it. My gut clenches with the need to pull her into my arms.
“I’ll be fine.” Placing a hand on my forearm, I feel her chilled fingers through the fabric of my shirt. “Please take him to your brother. You can come back after that. It’s not like I can go anywhere. I’ll just wait right here.”
“I can’t.” Shaking my head, I hate that it’ll hurt her when I refuse to leave. “I need to figure out what type of an immortal you are so that we can break the spell tying you to the witch. Your life is more important.”
“How can we do that?” Another fat tear slides over her cheek and lands on the edge of her jaw before splattering on my shirt, the fabric soaking it up greedily. “I have no idea what I am.”
“I was hoping to snoop around here,” I admit gruffly. “There must be something that can at least point us in the right direction.”
“I’ll do it,” she offers eagerly. “I know this place better than you anyway. If I can open that door, I’ll sneak around while you take Alto to your brother. Please, Étienne. If it wasn’t for him, I’d have no hope of escaping. He helped by bringing you here.”
I look at the creature in my hands, still alive but slipping with each second. I do not care about it; the pest has caused enough problems that I’ll have to fight Lucien to get him to heal it. But as much as I hate to admit it, Melody is right. The damn cat brought me to her. That means I owe the thing a debt.
“I’ll need you to stay in this room until I come back.” The hope sparking in her eyes is like a knife in my chest. “No opening doors or sneaking around, Melody. She has you bound with a spell, and we don’t know what she will do if she finds you lurking around the place.” She nods, loosening up the knot at the back of my head.
“I’ll wait.” Her nails dig in the fabric of my shirt. “I won’t move from that bed until you’re back. Just hurry because he looks dead already.”
I startle her by stealing a quick kiss. Her eyes widen and her fingers drift to her lips. With a wink, I turn and walk out of the room. My tongue sneaks out and I lick my lips, tasting the flavor of her skin on it, the pressure of the pillowy softness lingering on my mouth. The smile slips from my face as the darkness of the tunnel surrounds me before my vision flips and the colors burst into life.
“Fuck.”
Cursing under my breath, I take a deep breath. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that by trying to save the cat I may just kill myself. What she is not aware of, what I forget until the moment I step inside the tunnel and feel it pressing on my shoulders, is that the night is gone. The cat is barely hanging on, and I need to get back to the house while the blistering sun shines down on me.
Because it’s daylight outside.
18
Melody
Okay, so I lied. I hear Étienne murmuring something from the other side of the wall while I am holding my breath waiting to hear his footsteps disappearing. I can’t understand the words, but the footsteps mean he is taking Alto to be saved. More tears slide down my face as I stare at my bloody fingers. Alto’s blood is covering my hands.
“What did she do to you, Alto?” I look from my hands laying in my lap to the wall where the tunnel hides.
Picking up the now-muddy shirt Étienne flicked away, I clean my hands the best I can, some dried-out blood flaking off them. That done, I unzip the muddy, broken boots and throw them under the bed, that way if Seraphina walks in she won’t see them. Falling down unconscious in the tunnel soaked my clothing with mud, as well—the same mud I rubbed all over Etienne when I couldn’t keep my hands to myself. It sticks to my skin, but it’ll have to do for what I have in mind.
Looking around, I see the second broken heel on the floor at the foot of the bed. Picking it up, I walk to the door, eyeing the handle and the lock. As thin as it is, the heel still looks too thick to be wedged between the door and the frame. How I wish I had my credit card with me now. That would do the trick for sure.
