Page 10 of Cry of the Damned
Maki considered for a moment, and I had a feeling he was thinking about the heated moment Bethel and Novuk had just shared. Who knew that cutting a guy’s hair could be so erotic?
“Too badIdon’t need a haircut,” Kall commented, his green eyes flashing in my direction.
It was my turn to blush. I stood at the same time as Maki. While he took Novuk’s place on the stool, I walked out to the small balcony and looked out at what was essentially an alley. I focused with my shifter senses, wondering if those guards were out there, spying on us, but I didn’t sense anything.
Kall approached and reclined against the doorjamb, staying safe from view from below. The sun shone on the rooftops and warmed my skin.
“The sun is lucky,” Kall whispered, low enough that only I could hear him. “It gets to kiss your beautiful skin, while all I can do is wish to do the same.”
My breath caught as his raspy voice felt like a caress over my skin. Little did he know he didn’t need to touch me to make me feel much more than the sun ever could. Stubbornly, I stared straight ahead at a passing cloud.
“Forgive me. I know I shouldn’t say such things.” He inhaled deeply, then changed directions. “Are we still going out there tonight?” He gestured in the general direction of the Academy.
“We are,” I said, feeling much more capable of handling my vendetta against the Academy than this thing with Kall.
I was trying hard to focus on our mission here, but something told me I wasn’t going to be able to hold back whatever was between us for much longer.
CHAPTER 3
Thatnightthroughoutdinner,I stared at Maki and his new haircut.
He seemed discontent with it, never mind the fact that we all had told him he looked good. Ila had gotten rid of most of his blond locks, yet his style wasn’t nearly as short as Kall’s or Novuk’s. The beads were gone and the longer strands reached his jawline. But best of all, my sister had teased out all the knots, leaving his hair looking silky.
As he picked at the spaghetti in his bowl, he ran his fingers through the blond strands, brushing them away from his forehead, flicking them from side to side, and making no effort to hide his dissatisfaction, which from the way he kept furtively glancing at Ila, I was starting to suspect had nothing to do with the new hairdo. Maybe he was disappointed with the way Ila had kept her stylist duties strictly professional. There had been no caressing of his locks, no heated glances, and definitely no almost-kiss.
“Spaghetti is interesting,” Novuk said after he finished slurping a long noodle. “I think I like it.”
Hallelujah!It was the first time he’d said he liked anything since we’d arrived.
“Spaghetti is cheap,” I said, “and I suspect you’ll soon get sick of it. I bought several pounds of it.”
Kall grunted in disapproval. “I don’t care much for the sauce.”
“We’ll try a white sauce tomorrow. You may like it better.”
“I’d rather go hunting.”
The guys had talked about going out at night in their wolf forms and running off into the woods to find them a juicy deer, but I didn’t like the thought of them traipsing through Lux City’s streets either as wolves or humans. It wasn’t safe, and it was best not to take unnecessary risks.
Maki remained uncharacteristically quiet, and after he took his last bite of spaghetti, he walked to the small sink and washed his bowl and fork. After that, he went into his bedroom, dragging his feet. Kall and Novuk gave Ila disapproving glances as if blaming her for Maki’s downtrodden mood.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she protested, surprising me. “If he has a problem, he should talk to me about it.”
She wasn’t normally the kind to lay things out in the open. It had taken me a while to realize she had feelings for Maki since she’d gone through painstaking efforts to hide them from everyone in the pack. But since we got here, her attitude had shifted somewhat. Maybe it was the closed quarters or the fact that there wasn’t a pack to speak of anymore—no one to really hide things from.
“I didn’t say anything.” Novuk also picked up his plate, cleaned after himself, and retreated into the bedroom after Maki.
We wouldn’t leave until midnight, so we had some time to rest and do whatever we wanted.
Soon, Ila and Bethel also retreated to our room, leaving Kall and me behind. Across the table, he sat very still, twirling the fork in his hand, his green eyes set on me with that predatory intensity he had. A shiver went across my back even as I tried to focus on chewing.
I glanced toward the stove where a tall pot simmered while cooking Bethel’s potion. It had been bubbling for days now, and she said it was almost ready.
Avoiding Kall’s gaze, I took a small bite of food. “I wish we had cheese, but we can’t afford it.”
He said nothing.
Clearly, the man had never tried cheese, or he would’ve agreed with me. That, or maybe he thought I would taste just as good as a block of aged Parmesan. I frowned at the thought.
