Page 70 of Kentucky Nights
Romeo and I groan in unison at the sound of Lorcan’s voice.
He always finds the worst time to pop in.
I stop brushing Romeo and turn around, crossing my arms over my chest. “What do you want, Lorcan?”
He’s dressed in the cowboy hat and boots again for some reason. Every step he takes, my annoyance grows.
“I’m here checking on my favorite cowboy.” He stops in front of me, brow bones rising when he inhales. “And he’s dying from the smell of it.” Lorcan waves his hand in front of his nose. “What did I tell you, Kentucky?”
I’m surprised by the venom in his voice. Even Romeo turns his head to stare at the Void. His tail flicks back and forth with anxiety. Romeo might be a vampire, but he is also an animal, and animals always know when a predator is nearby.
Lorcan might be happy-go-lucky, funny, and unserious most of the time, but I’ve never been mistaken about the darkness he holds in. I know he keeps it balled up tight in his chest to not scare anyone. Lorcan described his power to me one day. He said the older the Void, the more powerful they are.
And my reaper friend here is one of the oldest. If he unleashed all the power he had, he could wipe out the entire country’s population.
He disperses into smoke, vanishing before our eyes, before popping in front of me. For the first time since I have known him, he shows his sharp rows of teeth.
He’s furious.
“You don’t have enough time left. You’re going to die. I’m here for you, you know that, right? Has that not sunk into your fucking mind?” He presses a finger against my chest, shoving me so hard, I fly backwards.
The air is knocked out of my lungs as I hit the wall, breaking the old wooden slabs with simply the force in Lorcan’s damn index finger.
“I know you’re here for me. You’re a good friend, Lorcan. I need you both to listen to me?—”
Lorcan morphs into dark spots, drifting through the air. When he is close enough, a weight of dread presses against my chest. It’s as if I’m being drowned in a lake with cement blocks chained to my feet.
“Let me be clearer.” He squats down, fire illuminating his orbital sockets. “I am hereforyou. Do you get it now? All this time, I’ve been warning you. You’d think you’d be able to read in between the lines.” He flicks the middle of my forehead.
“Ow.” I rub the sting away. “What the hell was that for?”
“I can’t take your soul yet, and it is taking everything I have not to rip your skin from your body from the pure amount of frustration you make me feel.
“I’m Kentucky. I’m a big, bad loner man who doesn’t need anyone or anything. I’m not even going to tell my mate the truth because she deserves to have control of her own choices.” Lorcan mocks me in a high-pitched voice, prancing around in the cowboy boots. The spurs jingle with every step, and it’s hard to keep a straight face given the circumstances.
“What do you mean you’re here for me?” I stand, crack my back, then dust off my jeans. “I’m not dead yet.”
He pauses, stopping next to Romeo. “Do you think I care about the technicalities when it comes to one of my best friends? I had to beg Death to let me be the one to come here so soon. He was going to send another Void because he thought I was too close to your soul. I couldn’t allow someone else to reap my friend.” He glides across the floor, floating closer to me. “I can feel the pull of death to you, Kentucky. The tug that pulls at mybones every time a soul calls for me to take them to another place, I feel it fromyou.”
He goes to poke me in the chest again, but I take a step away. “No need to throw me like a sack of potatoes. I get the point.”
“Do you? Do you understand what it means for me to be here early? I’m warning you, Kentucky. By tomorrow morning, you won’t be here. You’ll be lucky to make it through the night by the smell of it.” The hatred is venom in every word he speaks. It’s clear he is very upset with me. “Tell her. Now. Or I will.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” I snarl, my hands falling to my sides out of habit to grab my gun for a quick draw.
“You’d be surprised at the lengths I’ll go to make sure my friends stay alive. You’ve come so far. Don’t you care at all about that? You now want to live forever, and you’re leaving it up to the last second? How is that fair to her? You aren’t being the man I know you to be. You’re being a coward.”
Romeo blows out a loud snort, pawing at the ground. He’s agitated. He won’t be able to keep it managed without being set free to run.
“I’m being a coward? How is giving my mate the choice that I didn’t have a cowardly thing to do? If anything, I’m thoughtful. I’m being a good man and a good mate.”
“Coward!” His yell brings force from the pits of Hell, shaking the barn and ground we’re standing on.
Romeo raises on his hind legs, neighing from being scared and confused.
“It’s okay. You’re okay. Lorcan might be a dick, but he won’t let anything happen to you.” I pat Romeo’s neck, stroking the sweat-soaked hide. He is beyond stressed. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Coward,” Lorcan repeats. “You’re already letting something happen to him.You. I think you’re using your mate as an excuse. I think there’s a part of you that still wishes for death, thatthinks you’d be doing Dru a favor by not allowing you two to live. Maybe you’ve even thought about my offer? I can make sure she is in a new dimension with a mate who won’t be terrified of living. Is that it, Kentucky? Scared of a little life?”
