Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 53656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
He shook his head. “No one touches you without your consent,” he said, and it sounded more like a threat than a suggestion. “No one can touch you,” he said again, sounding like he was speaking more to himself than me.
“Okay,” I said. “No one touches me.”
He sighed, and then, countering everything he’d just said, he slid his hands around my waist and dipped his forehead down to lean against my chest.
It took me a moment to return the embrace, shock rippling down every inch of my body.
Every time we touched prior had been during training or after fighting. But this?
This was different.
This was gentle.
And even though I knew it was only a small facet of the many that made up who Talon was, I went with it.
I stroked my fingers through his hair, standing there holding him like that until every one of his muscles unclenched and his breathing evened out. And after some time, he looked up at me, his eyes completely blue again. Riddled with confusion, but perfectly blue.
“We should sleep,” he said, breaking away from me and walking out of the bathroom and to his side of the bed.
I stood in the bathroom, completely flabbergasted before shaking my head. I didn't bother telling him I was going to take a shower, instead just stripped down and stepped underneath the hot water. I couldn't help but mourn the loss of gentle Talon, but considered myself lucky I'd seen it at all. I highly doubted anybody ever did. And I was quite certain that when I stepped out of this bathroom, he’d be back to his normal self...barely tolerating my existence.
CHAPTER 9
Talon
“If you're planning on killing me, could you please get it over with,” I said, my paws growing tired from traipsing through the thick jungle on the island.
Cassandra paused the hike, glancing over her shoulder with a look that was equal parts hurt and playful. “How many times have I told you? If I wanted to kill you, I would’ve done it already,” she assured me. “And besides,” she continued. “You're the one who was complaining about being bored stuck in the house.”
“You know you're getting stir-crazy too,” I said, huffing and following her as she continued an upward climb that seemed like it had no plateau in sight. “I may have been in stasis for five hundred years, but even my dreams were more entertaining than your mother’s endless prattling. And at least you get to be in your true form most of the time.”
“True,” she said, shifting some vegetation out of her way and continuing upward. “But you truly are a fantastic cat. I'm not sure which version of you I prefer more. This one or the one that has that delicious blood flowing through his veins. It’s true what they say about aged blood. Gods, it’s divine.”
I growled, low and possessive at her mentioning drinking from me.
It's been hard to think about anything since. Killing that nonconsenting piece of shit vampire yesterday had definitely helped distract me a little from the instincts begging me to bite her again. She’d graciously not mentioned the kill when we’d awoken, or in the time since. She also somehow hadn’t mentioned what happened afterward, which I could barely explain myself.
I’d reacted purely on instinct as I watched the handsy vampire corner her. Waited as long as I possibly could for her to take matters into her own hands. And the second I saw her unable to push him off and his fangs going for her neck, I struck. There was no thought behind it except he was trying to take what was mine.
But she wasn't mine. So where the fuck did that come from?
It didn't matter, because afterward I’d relished that kill in a way I hadn't relished a kill in a very long time. It’d felt justified in my heart, and the aftershocks following it kept me in thermal primal mode for longer than made sense.
I wanted to rip into not only him but also her mother, the mysterious brother that we couldn't get information on, and anyone else who wanted to treat her like garbage when she was a fucking queen of a vampire. She’d undergone phycological torture from her family for decades and still offered herself up to come back to the source of all her pain for just a chance at helping save innocent lives.
I wanted to kill them all.
I'd wanted to gorge myself on their blood and rip out their spines after days and days of listening to them talk down to her.
I’d been ready to. I'd been standing there contemplating it in her room. I might very well have if she hadn't spoken to me so softly, without judgment, with nothing but understanding in her eyes.
Those damn brown eyes had looked into me. Had somehow managed to make me feel vulnerable in a way I never had before. I’d clung to her last night. Clung to the way she made me feel—whole.