Page 44 of Hunted
I ignored the fact that we were clinging to each other, both of us desperate to preserve this odd moment of connection and belonging.A sliver of guilt wedged its way between my ribs.I used to lie with Josh this way every night before we were forced into slavery with the vampires.And I’d held him this way most nights after we came here to the rebel court...until he was turned.
I shoved the guilt away.I wasn’t replacing Josh.I never could.Dusek was his own unique treasure.I let my serpent tongue flick out, fluttering across the base of Dusek’s throat.Scenting.Tasting.Committing him to memory.
If anyone was the stand-in here, it was probably me.I was a safter option than his own alpha.
“Go to sleep, snake,” he said again, as he batted my flicking tongue away.But there was a definite twitch of humor flitting across his features again.
A sudden, disturbing jolt of reality flashed through my mind as I lay there reveling in his scent and making sure to cover him in my own...
Shit.I groaned internally.This man wasn’t mine.He wasn’tmygamma.Not part of my clan or court.He belonged to Robin.And that was going to be a big problem sometime soon.Because...mine.
The insistent pulse of instinct inside me was not a good sign.I’d gotten carried away.Again. Like I always did.But terrifying, stoic, broody gamma who absolutely didn’t belong to me curled into me as he drifted off to sleep, taking comfort in my presence.And for the first time in weeks, I slept through the night.
Chapter 15
Josh
The cold, gray daymatched my mood.The smell of fall leaves and rain had filled my senses the moment I stepped outside of The Fox.It clung to my skin even now, as I leaned my forehead against the car window and tried not to think about Cicely’s delicious fae blood, hot and powerful on my tongue.About the way my body had moved without my permission when I attacked him.About how close I’d come to murdering someone I cared for.
He must hate me now.Theyallhad cause to resent me.But Cicely and Ruya especially.My heart ached with that knowledge.And I hatedmyselfon their behalf.
And even feeling so much remorse...a dark part of me secretly yearned to taste the faun again.To taste them all.To glut myself on the power and beauty of the lifeforce inside them.I really was a monster.
“You know,” Richard said as he glanced at me in the rearview mirror, “if you keep brooding that hard, your face is going to stick like that.Waste of magic being practically immortal if you’re gonna spend eternity with wrinkles.”
Sanka snorted.But I didn’t answer.It was best not to encourage “Dickhead Richard” when he was on his nonsense.One lesson I’d learned in my time with the vampire coven that was actually useful.
“Seriously,” he carried on, unaffected by my lack of response.“You’ll end up like one of those oil paintings with the haunted eyes.So gothic.Sotragic.People will write poems about your angst.Emo teenagers everywhere will go on and on about how only Josh the Gloomy understands them.”
I stopped staring out the window long enough to glare at him, hoping he’d get the end of his yammering and shut up.My tolerance for...well,everything...was very limited these days.And while the dhampir’s blood didn’t call to me the way others’ did, I had a feeling the beast inside me would be happy to make do, if it shut him up for good.
He might have been part of this whole fangy world longer than I had, but he was only half vampire, while Acacia had cursed me with the full measure of strength and ferocity of a real vampire...I was more powerful than him.I could silence him with ease.
He raised an eyebrow at me, but finally stopped trying to get me to smile, thank all that was unholy.He kept driving like nothing in the world could bother him, one hand on the wheel, one elbow out the window, letting the crisp fall air stream inside.The car—a black SUV with darkly tinted windows and no distinguishing markings—jolted over the uneven asphalt of a long-forgotten road somewhere north of Toledo.
Sanka sat in the back seat, arms folded, boots braced against the opposite door.He hadn’t spoken in half an hour.But every so often, I could feel his gaze slide over me, checking my aura like a pressure gauge.
