Page 61 of To Crave Darkly
He looked back down at me and his wicked grin crawled to the surface. “Not yet. Now back to sleep with you.”
He leaned down to place a soft kiss against my forehead.
“No. Not again. Don’t you dare…” But the dream faded, and he was gone.
***
Sunlight streaming through my window brought me back to the land of the living with a gentle sense of calm. There was no rude awakening, no jolt of fear. Just the warmth on my face pulling me from my slumber.
“You’re finally awake.”
Or maybe not. My eyes flew open and landed on a silhouette in the corner. He sat in the shadows, but his eyes reflected the sun like two chips of cold, hard ice.
Cassian.
“What are you doing here?” I coughed, my voice was hoarse and my throat dry. How long had I been out?
“Watching you.”
Was it me or did the temperature just drop?
“How’s Fenris?” I asked, nervous over the answer. I knew he was alive when I left him but hearing someone tell me he was doing ok would make me feel a whole lot better.
“He’s fine.”Thank God.“No thanks to you.” Cassian’s voice dropped to a menacing whisper.
“What?” The word came out as a breathy exhale as my stomach fell through the floor.
Cassian unfolded his long limbs from the chair and strode towards me, each lethal step he took towards me felt like a nail in my coffin. Fuck, he was intimidating, and I suddenly felt like I was about to lose the contents of my stomach.
“Since you came here you’ve caused nothing but trouble.”
I swallowed. I knew the guy didn’t like me, but from the way he stared at me at the foot of my bed, I got the impression that it was a deeper hatred than mere dislike. I didn’t understand what I had done to deserve such disdain.
“Why do you hate me so much?”
He threw me a derisive look and folded his arms across his chest. “You’ve got Jasper so disoriented that he can’t lead a mission, Alec can barely keep it in his pants around you and Fenris follows you around like a lost puppy. You don’t deserve to be here. You’re a distraction. Nothing more.”
I’d been telling myself that I wanted to go home, that I wasn’t worthy to be here, but hearing some else say it just pissed me off.
I glared up at him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
He rolled his eyes at me, arrogance rolling off him in waves. “Look at you. You can’t even control your demon, let alone prove useful in a fight.”
I resented that. I may not have exactly kicked ass, but I came out of that fight alive. “Hey! I stood my ground, I saved Fenris.”
“Yes, but at what cost? Fenris died! He was a fucking fool, and he tried to protect you, and hedied. I get that you brought him back, but it was your fucking fault he was there in the first place.” He spat the words at me, like the mere mention of me was poison in his mouth. “If he wants to follow you into trouble then that’s fine. But I won’t make the same mistake.”
“I’m not asking you too,” I seethed.
“Good, because you shouldn’t be out there. I don’t know what Fenris was thinking taking you off the base. It turned out to be a fucking disaster. He should have just called Levi for an update if he was so desperate to impress you. I will not place my life in the hands of someone so untrained and utterly useless.” His words flew at me like arrows.
His obnoxious, dismissive tone had my anger rising. I jumped out of the bed and marched towards him. “Look, I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t wake up one morning and think, todays the day I’m going to bring about a prophecy. I’m doing the best I can Cassian, whether you believe that or not.”
He smirked. “Oh, I believe you think you are, Princess. But you’re still walking around like a human. Do you know why your demon won’t show up?” He leant down towards me; his mouth twisted in a sneer. “Because even she doesn’t think you’re worthy.”
His words felt like a slap in my face and I took a small step back from him. He was wrong. My demon and I may not have got off on the right foot to begin with, but I knew she had my back when I needed her, and she liked to piss people off. Something inside me told me she’d like pissing Cassian off. I felt her stirring at the thought and a smile crossed my lips as she slithered into my skin. Before I knew it, my arm had pulled backwards, and my fist had connected with his jaw, wiping that fucking grin clean off his face.
Take that motherfucker. I rolled my shoulder back as my demon settled back down. Cassian straightened up and wiped his thumb across his bottom lip, cleaning away a little trickle of blood. Holy shit. I’d made him bleed. In all our training sessions, I had never been able to get close enough to touch him, let alone do him harm. I could have jumped for joy, but I didn’t. One punch did not make me a master of combat, and I was very much aware that I was staring at a very angry, very pissed off dragon.
