Page 119 of The Reveal
“If everything goes according to plan,” Savi says, “we’ll get up there easily enough. Winter, you and your grandmother and Augie will all go. We’ll see if that much oracle blood in one place helps boost the visions and keep us on track. I’ll make sure it’s nice and cloudy. We’ll have werewolves and vampires ready to fight, but hopefully none of that will be necessary. I’ll cast the spell, she’ll be trapped anew, and we’ll get back to our lives.”
“That sounds simple enough,” I say optimistically.
Ty belts out a laugh. “That’s if it goes well. It won’t. Nothing ever does.”
“She was put away once,” Savi reminds him. “It can be done. It gives us an edge to know that it not onlycanbe done, itwasdone before.”
We talk about a few other details. Samuel volunteers to drive up in his truck, transporting the humans.
Augie and I exchange a look, but it seems easy enough to agree.
The meeting breaks up. Augie’s vampire lady appears, and they wander around the side of the house. Ty and Maddox lope off into the woods. He throws that big arm over her shoulders, and I catch the way she looks at him, like he’s all the galaxies she needs.
When I look back, Samuel has followed Savi over to where she parks her SUV and appears to be making a case for ... something.
I don’t care enough to try to eavesdrop.
Ariel simply waits. He’s wearing dark trousers, which I know aren’t his gi pants only because they cling to his form that much better, and another black T-shirt. In case I was having withdrawal from the sight of his biceps.
“What do you think our chances are?” I ask him.
“You could mean that question any number of ways. Pick one.”
I don’t really like his tone, so dark and edgy, but I don’t argue about it. “You’re the one who knew her. Do you think we can keep her trapped?”
“Can we? Yes. Without question. Will we?” He shrugs. “That very much depends. Some wars are won by superior strength and strategy. Others by trickery. And still others because one side simply would not fall. I cannot say what this particular group will do. We are not an army.”
“Thank you. What a stellar pep talk that was. You should consider becoming a motivational speaker.”
He regards me for too long, and I have no doubt that it’s deliberate. It’s meant to make me feel ... unwieldy in my own skin. It does.
Or maybe it’s the memory of him moving me up and down on his cock, like his own little fuck toy, that makes me feel as close to twitchy as I get.
“I am a fighter,” he tells me in a low voice. “All I have ever known is war. I’m good at it. Give me a battlefield and I don’t need any oracle to predict what will happen.”
He reaches over and brushes his cool fingers over my cheek. What I want to feel is that it’s too cold for vampire nonsense. What Iwantto feel is that anything that cold on a chilly fall night is too frigid for me.
But I’m not cold at all. And when he touches me, I ignite.
It would be so easy to let him in. Take him by the hand and invite him inside, then lead him up into my attic, where I could lock us both away until tomorrow.
It would be so, so easy.
“Tell me what war I’m fighting here,” he urges me in that same low voice, his silver eyes on mine.
All I want to do is melt.
Instead, I step back, as if I hear something. For a moment, I think I onlywishthat I heard something, but then I see Samuel’s truck head down the drive.
I can’t tell what he might have seen from where he was.
Was he standing there, watching us? That’s creepy, but I shake it off.
“Sounds like we have a big day tomorrow,” I say, far more brightly than the situation warrants. Or I feel. “You’re not used to daytimes, are you?” I smile, then I haul the door open, and I think we’re both completely aware that I’m deliberately putting that gate between us. “You probably want to get your beauty sleep before you run into your ex.”
Ariel only smiles. He reaches around the gate between us and pulls me toward him, gently enough. But there’s no possibility that I won’t do exactly what he wants me to. There’s no room to do anything but what he wants.
I tell myself that’s why I do it.
