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The ride back to the Murray mansion was quiet, Rose staring out the window in silence, seeming far younger than her years. And in so many ways, she truly was. Which accounted for a lot of her behavior. Tallak could still recall what he’d been like as a teenager, and to say he was lucky to have made it out alive was an understatement. Demon puberty was hell.
At the mansion, he parked the car in the circular driveway, and Rose spoke up without looking at him.
“Thank you. For…all of it.”
From the way she said it, he knew she didn’t just mean talking sense into her. Seemed like she was starting to acknowledge the risks she’d been taking.
“Don’t mention it, kid.”
She gave a jerky nod, opened the door, and got out. Stumbling just a little, she made her way up the stairs and into the house.
Tallak watched the front door close behind her, feeling strangely hollow and raw inside. When he rubbed his face with one hand, his fingers came away wet, and he stared at the red smears on his palm. Right. He was still covered in fucking demon blood.
The adrenaline rush of the fight had long passed, leaving him…not achy per se, but sore in a way that had nothing to do with muscles. Like he’d rubbed a tender part of himself with sandpaper. The prospect of going home to his empty apartment and showering off all the blood before falling into bed made something clench in his chest.
His eyes flicked back to the front door. That twinge in his chest pulled him toward that door, like one of those locator spells of hers on a pendulum.
She might still be awake.
Bad idea. Really bad idea. He couldn’t show up like this, covered in blood and gore. She’d have a conniption.
But maybe…maybe if she was asleep, he could just check on her. Maybe if he saw her peacefully lying in her bed, that hollow ache in his chest would fill up some. He needed to see her, needed to soothe the part of him that wanted to make sure she was well and comfortable. Just one look, and then he could go home and take that feeling of reassurance with him.
Exhaling a ragged breath, he got out of the car and went into the house before reason could intrude and whack him over the head with how stupid he was.
His steps were soft on the carpet of the upstairs hallway as he approached her door. No light spilling out from underneath it. Pausing for a few heartbeats, he listened, his demon hearing still at its most sensitive, as the night wasn’t over yet. Her breaths were deep and regular, no sound of her turning and tossing. As luck would have it, she was asleep.
He’d made sure to wash his hands first in the downstairs bathroom so he wouldn’t leave bloody smears on her door, and now he grabbed the knob and turned it ever so carefully. The door gave way, and he slipped into the dark room, his eyes adjusting like a cat’s to the lack of light.
Hazel lay on her side facing away from the door, her luscious body half-covered by her blanket. Quiet like a hunter in the woods, he prowled around her bed, his eyes drinking her in. Her hair was pulled back in a now messed-up braid, a few strands having come loose and caressing her face. Her mouth was slightly open, her lips soft and her features gentle in sleep.
Deep inside him, the tight knot he’d carried unraveled with a sigh. Warmth trickled into the gaping emptiness in his chest, filling the hollow places with content peace.
Now. Now he could go home, and this feeling would last him until he fell asleep himself.
He was turning for the door, ignoring the screech of the mating urge telling him to slip into bed with her, nudge her awake, and claim her, when her voice stopped him cold.
“Tallak?”
Shit.
CHAPTER 30
Hazel squinted into the semidarkness, barely making out the shape lingering near her bed, but she didn’t need to see him to know it was Tallak. His energy—potent yet, as it was still night—brushed against her senses, teased her own half-slumbering powers into waking all the way up.
“What are you doing here?” she asked as she sat up, her voice still a little sleep-drenched, her brain just shaking the remnants of her last dream.
He muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, “Being an idiot.”
Out loud, he gently said, “Sorry I woke you up, love. Go back to sleep.”
He started moving toward the door, and that was when she smelled the blood.
“Tallak,” she rasped and swung her legs over the side of the mattress, fully awake within seconds.
Pulse racing, she was at his side just as he went to reach for the door. Grabbing his arm to stop him, she felt the wetness there… This close to him, the metallic smell of blood hit her full-on, making her heart stutter.
She sucked in a breath. “Are you injured?”
