Page 91 of Claimed
I stalk from the room and consider clawing Tanner’s fucking eyes out, but Nisha looks up at me from his lap, her face tight. “I’m so sorry, Caine,” she says, her voice cracking. “Lilah was already planning on coming out after the other night, and I just met them at the airport when T called. I’m sorry.”
I sigh and scrub my face. “It’s okay.”
It’s so not.
She droops and T rubs her back in slow circles. “It’s okay, kitten,” he murmurs. “None of us expected to pass out like we did. We would have all been up and waiting otherwise.”
Lilah steps up to me, her face very careful. “Is she angry?”
“No,” I admit. “Not angry.” I lean down and kiss her on the forehead then pull back to get a drink. “She’s worried.”
“About me.” There is no question in Lilah’s voice. Nor is there arrogance. She knows how I feel, and now, so does Onyx.
“She overheard some of your call last night,” I say, pouring myself a scotch. “I talked to her about it. She agreed to try.”
“And now we’re here, interfering,” Nisha says.
“Perhaps this is a good thing,” Gage remarks. I peer at him where he sits with Amoret curled into his side on the sofa. “If you wish to have her in your life, they would have to meet at some point.”
“Maybe. But she isn’t going to feel comfortable with me around,” Lilah says, crossing her arms. “I don’t want to cause problems. But Nisha said she collapsed. What happened?”
“She is Asmodean,” I say.
That settles over the room and you could hear a bomb going off four states over.
“Are you sure?” Lilah asks. “I thought she was human.”
“She is,” I say, “in all the ways that it matters. But she has enough Asmodean blood that when I fed from her, her body tried to feed from mine. But her system was too depleted. So what she gave was not enough to replace what she expended.”
“That was complicated,” Tanner mutters. Nisha sinks her elbow into his gut, but he doesn’t make a sound.
“Regardless, she is still weak and now you all are here,” I say. “So, as nice as it is to see you … Leave.” I take a sip from my scotch.
Lilah glares at me. “Let us help, Caine.”
I choke. “What?”
She walks closer, her blue eyes soft. “You can feed from us, right? Then feed. And give Onyx back whatever she needs.”
Ruin takes a step closer behind her, his jaw mottled. “Baby girl—”
Her hand raises, cutting him off. But her eyes never leave mine. “Not directly from me, Ruin. From us.”
His head cants and he looks at her. “I don’t follow.”
“Like he did from me and Nisha,” Tanner breathes.
Ruin whips his head over, staring at the shifter. “At Silver Rock?”
T nods. “He was able to take from both of us. Didn’t you, Caine?”
“Tanner …” I trail off. “Even if I agreed, and that is a very large fuckingif, I don’t know that Onyx would.”
“Onyx would what?” Onyx’s voice is clear. Steady.
I turn.
She is standing in the doorway, the silk bottoms of the pajamas I bought her back on, and one of my shirts knotted at her hip. The effect borders on naughty college roommate and it sparks all kinds of interesting fantasies.
