Page 31 of Vengeance and Vipers
He turns and goes back into the bathroom. ‘The water’s hot,’ he calls.
If I could prance across the room in excitement, I would, but I get up and walk calmly, my hands shaking a little.
How nuts is it to be this excited over a shower?
When I get inside, the room is already steamy. Krase has his hand in the water, checking the temperature for me. What is his deal?
He turns around and finds me watching him.
‘It’s ready.’
He doesn’t move, and I jerk my head towards the door.
He smirks. ‘I’ve already seen you.’
I give him a look. ‘Dreamland doesn’t count, incubus.’
With a grin, he leaves, closing the door behind him, and I don’t wait. I tear off my clothes and enter the large cubicle, moaning at the heat of the water that warms my body. My body has been constantly on the cusp of cold for months, so this is heaven. I bask in it, feel it pummeling the dirt from my skin. I wash my hair until the run-off is clean, and it takes three shampoos. The rest of my body is soaped and exfoliated with a convenient sea sponge on a rope until my skin is pink, and I grab a razor from by the sink to get rid of the body hair that’s been plaguing me. When that’s all done, I lean into the spray and cry tears of relief. Not because my pits don’t resemble a sasquatch anymore, but because I’m alive, and I really didn’t think I was going to make it quite a few times over the past weeks, months,years.
Sure, things aren’t perfect, but they rarely are, and sadly, being in this shower might actually be the closest I’ve felt to safe in two years. I’ve lived this way for such a long time. I hadn’t realized that I’d been trying so hard to stay a step ahead of my past that I’d stopped living for the future. I’ve been in a limbo of the present, moment to moment. And I know it’s not really the shower.
For some inexplicable reason, I feel the kind of safe with Krase that I did when I was Axel and Jayce in prison, the kind of safe I felt on this estate when I was last here, and I don’t understand. My nature hasn’t been trusting in a long time, so why do I keep finding it so easy to let this clan of incubi in, to relax in their house? Krase tried to kill me, and now I’m bruised and naked in his shower, hanging out in his room like he’s not a psycho demon killer who either wants me dead … or for dinner.
Can this place, these men, really be as safe as they feel? I mean, no one has come looking for me as far as I know. Unless they’ve stopped trying to find me, which is highly doubtful, something here must be acting like the wards of the Mountain, keeping me invisible to magick.
I try to count how many days I’ve been out of the Mountain without a conjure. It’s got to be coming up to a week at least. There has to be some magick here that’s keeping me safe, I decide. There’s no other explanation that I’d accept. He’d never have stopped looking. I was an important possession, even if I never knew why.
The irony isn’t lost on me. If I’d been able to stay here two years ago, I might actually have been safe. I might never have needed to buy another conjure to stay hidden. I wouldn’t have had to to steal from the clan in the first place.
I heave a sigh and turn off the water. I wrap myself up in a towel, take a breath, and leave the steamy sanctuary of bliss, hoping I’m going out there to face a Jekyll, not a Hyde.
I regret leaving the heat of the bathroom almost immediately anyway, the cold of the outside room making me shiver as I locate Krase lounging on his bed.
He’s watching me.
‘I’m not going to pretend that I don’t love seeing my marks on your neck,’ he growls, eying the bruises that have begun to appear around my throat.
I try not to flinch, wondering if he’s lost control again already.
‘You about to Mr. Hyde-up?’ I inquire with a lot more calm than I feel.
He shakes his head. ‘No. I don’t think that’s going to happen again. I feel better. Stronger.’
He looks at me like I should know what’s going on.
‘What’s different?’ I ask.
‘Pardon?’
‘You said before that things are different. What’s different? You wanted me dead less than an hour ago. Has that much really changed?’
I touch the bruises around my neck, and his expression darkens.
‘Yes. Things are very different than they were earlier. I don’t understand it myself, but I give you my word that you’re safe here in this room from me. From the others, too. There’s a conjure on it. They could come straight through the door and not even know we’re here unless we leave.’
‘So, I’m basically still in prison?’
He snorts. ‘At least this one comes with a bathroom and not a bucket.’
