Page 80 of The Reveal
He also has his hands spread in a way that makes me wonder if he might sprout claws at any second. He looks like he’s considering it.
This is the moment when I should find him repulsive. This is the moment when I should remind myself that these little fantasies I’ve been toying with will be the death of me. The actual death of me.
It will look like this. Like this monster most reasonable people have nightmares about.
Yet ... I do not find him repulsive at all.
Even now, when I’m not entirely convinced my internal organs are in the right place.
“Now you’re concerned about risking her?” Ty grits back, and I’m fascinated. “That’s fucking hilarious. You’re so concerned that you send her off to wander around the valley with your mark all over her but no protection?”
Ariel seems to expand, silver gone dark. “My mark is, by definition, protection.”
“It’s only protection against those who give a shit if they piss you off.” Ty belts that at him like a punch from one of his massive fists. “It’s stupid as fuck. What it’s not isconcern.”
Ariel’s eyes seem to glow a dark, tarnished, scary sort of silver now. “At the very least you should have called in reinforcements the moment you knew what was happening here. We all made these agreements for a reason.”
“I’ve never much believed in oracles, asshole,” Ty shoots back. “It’s you undead fuckers who like messages and signs. Werewolves don’t need magic. We don’t get our paws read. We have teeth and claws, and we take care of ourselves.”
Ariel leans in, looking more like a walking, talking nightmare than ever. And I can’t seem to look away. “And when you say you take care of yourselves, is that how you would describe installing your lover in the oracle’s yard?”
Ty growls. They close in on each other. Two night terrors in a field of blood and broken bodies who look a lot like they’re about to start tearing each other into pieces.
“Myfated mate,” Ty corrects him in a deadly tone, “is notinstalledanywhere. She makes her own choices and her own rules. I know you bloodsuckers hate that shit. You like them messed up on blood, too fucked in the head to do anything but worship at your feet.”
Beside me, I feel Maddox stiffen, but I can’t tell if it’s because she liked what Ty said ... or didn’t.
Then I don’t wonder about anything. I think maybe I pass out. Everything seems to swirl around and around in a drunken sort of narrow circle, and then there’s nothing.
Until there is again.
Mostly pain.
Through the haze of that, I remember where I am. And who’s talking.
“There are treaties in place,” Ariel is saying, his voice a whole dark, cold winter. “Are you declaring them null and void with this stunt? You know what will happen.”
Ty only laughs. “You want to go back to how it used to be? I was under the impression your creepy little leech boys like their heads on their necks, but I can always—”
“Hey.”
Both of them look over at Maddox, as if surprised to find she’s still there. Ariel’s dark gaze finds me, and holds, and I really should question why I have the urge to runtowardhim—
Though I can’t do any such thing. The pain is like a tide, the waves are getting higher, and I have the terrible suspicion that I am not okay.
Like . . .reallynot okay.
“If you two want to burn down the valley tonight, be my guest,” Maddox is saying in her best bored tone. Like they’re nothing but dumb boys in the high school parking lot, pretending they’re fighters. Clearly, neither one of them enjoys her tone, but that doesn’t stop her. “But please remember that the treaties you’re talking about don’t mean just the two of you and your cute little bromance. You want to change things up? You know who else needs to be here.”
“I fucking hate sorcery,” Ty growls.
Ariel looks like he agrees, but he only inclines his head at Maddox. His eyes flash silver, and I realize that what I’m watching is that vampire magic. Or vampire tricks. Whatever you call it, he’s doing it.
I struggle to sit up again, shaking Maddox’s hand off me when she tries to keep me from doing it, but I only manage to move a little. It’s enough to make me wheeze in agony, as everything inside me seems to revolt.
The night goes gray around me. My ears ring, loud.
“You’re very weak,” Maddox tells me, her gaze smoky and direct.
