Page 33 of To Crave Darkly
She looked up at me with relief in her eyes. She had been worried about me.
She brought her fingers up to my cheek. “I thought I’d hurt you.”
“It’ll take more than that to get rid of me.” I felt a smile creep up my face and I realised I was happy that she was ok.
“What’s a Sin Reaper?”
My blood ran cold at those words. How did she know about them? They were fucking scary. I had never met one, but they were the monsters in the tales you told your kids.Don’t be naughty or the Sin Reaper will find you and devour your mind. Even I feared the Sin Reapers, but there hadn’t been any for centuries. I figured they were either really rare or never left anyone behind to tell the tale.
“Where did you hear about those?”
“Orion. He told me to ask about them when I woke up.”
Motherfucker. Who was this demon that kept playing with her, tormenting her? I didn’t like it. “You saw him again?”
She bolted upright and scowled at me. “Do you think I had a choice? Do you think I wanted him to invade my mind and use his demon mojo on me?”
I scrubbed my hand down my face. She was so infuriating. Why did she have to go into defensive mode all the time?
“No, I don’t think that. I do think we need to find a way to keep him out of there though.”
She folded her arms across her chest, making her look very much like a petulant brat, but it was hard to take her seriously when all I could think about was how tight that top was across her figure. I could see everything, and boy, did she have some curves. My mouth watered as I lost focus for a second. Man, she was distracting. I tore my gaze away from her chest which was a bad move. How had I not noticed the leather pants? Fuck. They looked like they had been spray painted on and I suddenly wanted to know what her leather clad legs would feel like wrapped around my hips.
“How do we do that?”
Lori’s snarky voice snapped me back to reality. “I know a guy. He’s a mage, and a very powerful one. He may be able to help train your mind.”
“You don’t sound hopeful.”
I wasn’t. I’d asked Fenris to look into late manifestations in mages and what he had discovered so far was anything but hopeful. But she didn’t need to know that. I didn’t want to worry her if I didn’t have to. “It’s a long shot, but he’s the best person I know when it comes to powers of the mind.”
She huffed. “Are you going to tell me what a Sin Reaper is?”
I levelled my gaze at her. I didn’t know with any great certainty what they were, but I bet Levi did. “Let me make a call.”
She slumped back against the wall, defeat written in her features. I dialled Levi and prayed he didn’t have his nose stuck in a book. He answered on the third ring.
“Jasper, what do you want? I am right in the middle of something.” His tone was exasperated and I could tell I had indeed interrupted him.
“Lori asked about Sin Reapers.”
I was met with stunned silence. “I’ll be there in five.” He clicked off. I guess I’d piqued his interest. I turned back to Lori and found her deep in thought. Her eyes were staring off into the distance, and she was trailing her finger across her bottom lip.
“Lori,” I called, making her jump. “A friend of mine is going to come and ask you some questions. You can trust him.”
She looked warily up at me. “How am I supposed to trust anyone? I can’t even trust myself.”
I turned my body towards her and took her hands in mine. “Levi will have some answers and whatever he doesn’t know, he’ll find out. He’s happiest when he has a puzzle to solve and trust me, he’s going to love solving you.”
She raised her eyebrows. “He’s not a mad scientist, is he? Will he cart me off to his secret laboratory and perform experiments on me to see what makes me tick?”
I laughed, something I seemed to be doing a lot more since Lori walked into my life. “No. He can be a little bit peculiar, but he has one of the most brilliant minds I have ever seen. You can trust him, Lori, and you can trust me. You have my word; I will protect you.”
She stared deeply into my eyes, probably looking to see if what I had said was true. I held her stare. I may be many terrible things, but I was a man of my word. She exhaled deeply and gave me one short nod.
I let go of a breath I didn’t even realise I was holding. She trusted me. My heart jumped in my chest. She trusted me to help her and keep her safe. For the first time in a long time, I felt something other than the need to take life. I wanted to save her. This feisty woman who burst into my life unwanted, suddenly had power over me in a way I had yet to understand, and that fucking scared me. But in this moment, I was grateful. She’d given me a gift and I bet she didn’t even realise what she had done.
I brought one of her hands up to my lips. “Thank you,” I whispered against her skin. Surprise flared in her eyes, and she made to pull her hand away, but my fingers tightened around her wrist. It was like a switch had flipped somewhere deep inside of me and I couldn’t stop myself. The moment she nodded a flicker of something burned hot and bright in my chest. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it was there because of her.
