Page 52 of Mortal Shift
I shivered, an image of Thaden’s fangs sinking into my flesh flashing through my mind. I rounded on my friend. “How can you even say that? I hate it. I hate every second of it, and I hate every time he touches me. I thought you knew me better than.”
“I do,” she said. “And I’m not suggesting you like it, or you want it. But you know how it feels. Surely you can at least understand why some humans might crave that feeling?”
“So they’re addicts?”
And me? Was I an addict, too? I pushed the thought quickly from my mind. Couldn’t be addicted to something you despised.
Ling groaned. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“Seeing as how I almost ended up as a snack for a dozen hungry vamps, no.”
“Yeah, how did you end up there, anyway?”
“Oh.” I felt a flush of red creeping up my neck. “Kallan tricked me. I haven’t actually worked out if he was hoping they’d kill me, or that I’d just die of embarrassment.”
And that was without even mentioning how Thaden had treated me after he ‘rescued’ me, because every time I so much as thought of it, I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. And, preferably, kill him with the aftershocks.
“This is getting out of hand. You need to ask Cole for help.”
“I need to do what now?”
She exhaled in exasperation. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I mean. Like it or not, Cole is your fated mate—”
“I’m going with not,” I muttered under my breath.
“And that,” she continued, completely ignoring me, “means he’s your best chance round here.”
“I think you’re woefully overestimating how much of a crap he gives about me.”
“And I think you’re underestimating it because you don’t like how you feel about him,” she countered, and I felt a flash of hot anger boil through me.
“And what would you know about how I feel about him?” I demanded. “What, I’m supposed to throw myself at his feet because some mystical wolfy connection says I’m meant to be his damn love slave? Because fuck that, and fuck anyone who thinks it.”
“You know I don’t think that,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But I’ve had a lot more time to study this than you, and a lot more time to study you than you think, so maybe just hear me out?”
“Why?” I asked.
She frowned. “Because ranting and raving is probably just going to get you killed?”
I waved off her admittedly logical point, because that wasn’t what had caught my attention. “Why have you had so much time to study this, and me? And why do you care so much?”
“It’s…tough to explain,” she said, ducking my eye, then turning to the bookcases and trailing her fingertips along the spines. I let her walk a moment, but she didn’t say anything else.
“Perhaps you’d like to try?” I suggested coolly. “Who are you working for, Ling?”
She barked a laugh and shot a startled look my way.
“You think I’m working for someone? Some kind of spy?”
“You’re not exactly denying it,” I pointed out, my temper simmering under my cool words.
“I didn’t think I’d have to.” Her forehead creased into a frown, and I felt unease stirring in my gut. I hadn’t believed it, not really, but now… After all, I didn’t know what kind of creature she was, and high fae couldn’t lie. So maybe there was a reason she wouldn’t deny it—that reason being that shecouldn’t. That she’d been going behind my back this whole time.
“Still not a denial,” I ground out.
“Fine.” She threw her hands up. “I deny it. I, Ling, am not working for any of the sectors, or factions, or houses, or whatever else you need to hear me call them. I’m just trying to help you. Is that so hard to believe?” Her voice softened. “Is it, Cali?”
I swallowed hard.
