Page 53 of Sweethearts and Savages
The sadness in his voice tugged at me. I could see how big and wet Enit’s eyes were in the reflection of her face in the perspex. She shook her head.
“Not yet,” I murmured, then I could have kicked myself when they both stiffened. “I mean, he let Enit go. We mostly just wanted her back.”
Mostly. The vampires weren’t likely to just let it go, neither were Eden.
Frost’s eyes travelled over Enit’s face. “I can see why. You look like a lamb to slaughter—he wouldn’t have been able to hurt you if he tried. Bet he was mad.” A sad smile crept over his face, like Kell Arborson was already dead, and he was remembering the lost.
She drew in a deep breath. “Can’t speak good. He was unhappy.” Her words were as slow and modulated as she could make them, and I was impressed by how far she’d come. She was a fucking miracle, and I loved her so much that sometimes I thought my heart would explode in my chest.
Frost looked at me, seeking explanation. “Enit was in a car accident and suffered brain damage. She’s had to learn how to talk again.”
Enit pointed to the scar, her face still sad. Frost tilted his head and stepped closer to the perspex, so there was only a foot and a three inch thick slab of plastic between them. “Ah, you would have been his kryptonite. A broken little bird for him to save, even when he was meant to be the villain.”
She tugged her lip between her teeth. “Kaboom. Thinks Frost dead. Let me go.”
Frost shook his head, his floppy hair falling over his eyes. “Does he? Was he sad?”
Enit nodded. “Yes. Loves you.”
Frost snorted. “That’d be right. Probably not the way I loved him though.” It had been entirely obvious to everyone that Frost had a crush, at the very least, on this Kell guy. He was fiercely loyal, even though he seemed to be a good person who knew that kidnapping nice girls wasn’t the right thing to do.
But he’d never outed his friend.
Enit just shrugged, not willing to speak for their mutual acquaintance. Frost put his hands on the perspex and leaned forward. “He’s really a good guy, you know, under all that gruffness. He wouldn’t have hurt you.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want him to die.”
Enit’s face dragged down but she raised her hand to his. “Me either.”
Frost slumped forward, his head resting on the plastic. “Then you’re the only one who can save him.”
Tears tracked down Enit’s cheeks, and I pulled her away from Frost and back into my arms. She cried softly against my chest, and I held her tightly.
“If he’s lucky, he’ll continue to run and never come back,” I said, but for the first time, it didn’t feel like a threat. I hoped I was right. Because supernaturals had long memories and I had a feeling that one more thing inside my girl would break, should Kell Arborson die.
27
Kell - Three Months Later
Somewhere in Eastern Europe
In my dreams, she is on her knees, looking up at me with those brilliant blue eyes filled with pleading lust. I’d wrap my hand around her throat, collar her with my fingers, but she wouldn’t look at me with fear in her eyes. No, instead she’d part her pretty pink lips and beg me to kiss her.
But every time I’d squeeze just too hard, and her face would turn this godawful blue, almost the same blue as her eyes. I wouldn’t be able to open my hand, no matter how much I’d yell and scream, or how much she’d struggle beneath me. Then she’d die and it would be my fault.
I rocketed up in bed, the chill of the air fogging my breath in the moonlight coming through the window, and breathed through the nightmare. Every night she came to me. Every night I woke in a cold sweat. Frost would say that it was my guilty subconscious, and I was pretty sure he’d be correct. All my greatest regrets centered around Enit.
“Hello Kell.”
I went for the gun I kept under my pillow, but there was suddenly a vampire over me, his fangs bared as he gripped my wrists easily. His eyes reflected my painful death, and my body froze.
Another vampire sauntered over, and he looked exactly the same as the one holding me. Twins.
The one who spoke looked less monstrous, but his eyes still promised my death.
“I am Nico. This is my twin, Lucius. You may have been acquainted with our daughter, Enit.”
