Page 71 of The Midnight Order
“Tell me about you,” she says, dropping her hand from my face. “I’ve been learning bits and pieces from each of the others, but I know nothing about you.”
There it is.
The truth I can’t give is the one that chokes me each time I try to speak it to life.
“I can’t do that, Silver. Not yet.”
“You said you were going to give this your all,” she points out.
I’m so distracted by the glow of her eyes that I don’t realize that her hand has drifted up the front of my shirt.
When her palm grazes over the scars beneath my shirt, the ones she’ll immediately ask about, I grab her wrist a bit too hastily.
She hisses, her eyes filling with fear. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Don’t.”
“What? I was just…”
“Just don’t.”
Don’t ask. Don’t touch. Don’t look.
“Lowell, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to push you.”
“But you did. And the broken don’t like that, Silver.”
“The broken?” she whispers, reaching for me as I back away.
“Come. Let’s get you home and back to bed.” Turning, I storm off, keeping my ears open for her footsteps in time with mine a few feet back, but not speaking another word until we get back to the manor.
She follows me as I trudge into her room, and she softly clicks the door closed, hovering there.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, I drop my head into my hands.
I see her standing before me, stoic and waiting, hopeful of my next words.
“Why do you call yourself broken?” she finally whispers when I say nothing.
“Because I am, Silver. It’s why I watched you from a distance and never approached. I don’t deserve to have my curse broken. Death should’ve come for me long ago.”
“Don’t say that.” She drops to her knees between my thighs, and I look up at her, my hands splaying on the bed as I take in the sincerity in her bright blue eyes.
“Why? Like you said, you don’t know me. For all you know, my words, my assessment is accurate.”
“Living in the city, I have developed a keen sense of stranger danger. I want to think so anyhow. I don’t get any bad vibes from you.”
“With all due respect, Silver, your stranger meter is broken. You’re in a coven of vampires who’ve done far worse things than pick some pockets in the city’s dark.”
“If you think that’s all that happens in the dark of the city streets of New York, you haven’t been there in quite some time,” she says.
“Touché.” Unwillingly, a smirk curls my lips.
“One day, I’ll tell you about me. But that’s the day you’ll look at me differently, and I don’t know if I can stomach that day coming soon, Silver.”
My admission hangs heavy between us, and I don’t think she will speak or move for a while, but she finally gets off the floor and crawls into bed, pulling the covers back and patting the space next to her.
“You want me to stay?” I quirk a brow, kicking off my boots while the question lingers between us.
