Page 49 of Hybrid Heroics

“What’s eating at you? And don’t say nothing. We both know that’s a lie.”

He cut his glare at me. “I don’t want to talk—”

“Yes, you do,” I interrupted. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be standing here, where it was so easy to find you. If you really didn’t want to talk about it, you would have disappeared into the shadows and laughed when I couldn’t find you.”

“You have a point.”

“I know. Now, talk.”

He sighed. “I don’t really know how to start.”

“Would you like me to?” I suggested.

“I know what you’re going to start with…”

“Do you?”

“You want to know about my reaction to your aunt.”

That was a statement, not a question. And he wasn’t entirely wrong.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I understand that you want to protect Sloane, but I’m a little confused by how intense you were.”

“She tried to kill our mate,” he reasoned.

“Right. But that wasn’t her.”

He glanced at me before looking back out the window. “I don’t know what to tell you. A part of me still wants to kill her for hurting Sloane, regardless of the curse. I know she had no control, but what’s to say it won’t happen again? We can’t stop and rifle through every single person’s mind that we come across.”

“I was just shocked by your vehemence.”

“Why?”

I shrugged. “Because you didn’t have issues with your family. Not like Vaughn or Palmer... I would expect that kind of reaction from them. But not the demon with the even temper.”

“It doesn’t have anything to do with what my family experience was.”

“Then what is it?” I asked, mumbling, “It’s like pulling teeth to get you to talk.”

Stone chuckled, then shook his head. “You weren’t in the bedroom after the fiasco with the hookers. You didn’t hear what was said.”

“That wasn’t your brightest moment,” I informed him.

“No.” He snorted. “It wasn’t. But Sloane wasn’t acting herself, and someone had to push her. I could have chosen a better way to go about it, but I seized a moment. That’s not really my point, though.”

“What is your point?”

“She said that if we pushed each other as hard as we pushed her, then I would see what she sees.”

I tipped my head. “Probably true.”

“She was mad because she feels like she’s been put on a pedestal. That I put her there. And then I act like I can’t achieve her. She wanted to know why I was there if I couldn’t see that we were on the same playing field.”

“What did you say?”

“What?”

I frowned, repeating, “What did you say?”