AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He opened his mouth to refuse, but as he studied me, the thick walls around him faltered.
“Just this once, Fane. I don’t want to be alone.”
His resistance crumbled to ash, and he strode to the other side of the bed, crawling in next to me. His warmth spread over me as I stretched out, and I dared to scoot closer, pushing the boundaries even more. Instead of resisting, Fane’s arm wrapped around my side, and he dragged me the rest of the way into his body, curling around my back like a protective barrier against the horrors that still gripped me.
* * *
When I wokeup in the darkened room, fear didn’t claw my insides like it usually did in unfamiliar settings. That probably had something to do with Fane’s scent and presence permeating the room. He wasn’t in the bed, but he hadn’t gone far.
I rolled over and found him leaning against the wall, staring out the window like a guard on duty, his shoulders tense. The crimson streetlights outside tinted his face red, and I tried not to think about the blood that covered me earlier.
“Couldn’t sleep?” I asked, my voice barely more than a rough whisper.
He shook his head. “Too many thoughts.”
“Want to talk about it?” I hadn’t expected him to oblige me, so I was caught off guard when he twisted in my direction.
“Why did you kill Warin?” Instead of the usual rage simmering in his words when he spoke about his brother, uncertainty coiled between each syllable. “The witch who gave me this bloodstone talisman only saw the last few minutes of his death where you two fought, and then you decapitated him.”
I struggled into a sitting position, baring my teeth at the fireworks exploding through my body. The memories of that night would not stay buried in their grave anymore. Ever since meeting Fane, they’d been unearthed and left open to rot in the burning summer sun.
Reliving this was the last thing I wanted to do, especially after being tortured by Karn, but I could feel Fane’s need for answers. He’d never once asked me to explain what happened, and I couldn’t refuse him now.
“I… He… When I left…” My throat closed while images of Jayla’s corpse flashed over my vision. Mike, Josh, Shelly, and Van’s dead forms were there too. “I haven’t spoken much about this since that night.”
Fane angled his back toward the window, giving me his undivided attention as he patiently waited. Pain rolled off him as if the shield he usually kept up had momentarily fallen. He’d never been so vulnerable before.
Could I feel this because of the mental link? Did he forget to block me?
I resisted the urge to touch the tattoo on my neck. “I ran away again and was living on the streets when this kid, Jayla, started coming around.” A ghost of a smile crossed my lips. “She bugged the hell out of me, but I knew what could happen to a thirteen-year-old girl, so I started looking after her. Before I knew it, she was my family, like a little sister. I would have died to protect her. And I thought I would that night.”
In a rush of words, some incoherent, I divulged what happened when I returned to the warehouse and found that the demon, Warin, had murdered my friends and was in the midst of killing Jayla.
“I didn’t know what he was. I’d never seen anything like that. Black eyes, pale face, and talons. Fucking talons.” I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear with trembling fingers. “I just fought and fought, knowing I would die and hoping to take the monster that killed her with me. Only I didn’t die. And I have to live every day knowing I failed her.”
“You didn’t fail her.” Fane’s coarse voice penetrated the dim room and slid over my shoulders like a familiar embrace. “You couldn’t have known that a demon would stumble onto your friends.”
“It could have been a demon or just a human creep.” I shook my head. “Either way, I should have known better. I shouldn’t have left her alone for that long.”
Silence stretched between us while Fane digested the story of his brother’s death. He didn’t argue or call me a liar, but I knew he struggled with the picture I’d painted of Warin.
“I just don’t understand.” He dragged his fingers through his hair, tugging on the roots. “Warin wasn’t a killer. Even taking a little bit of soul, barely enough for anyone to feel, bothered him, but he preferred Earth more than the Underworld. He never would have killed anyone, much less a bunch of teens and a kid.”
I pulled my knees to my chest, ignoring the shards of pain dancing around the stab wound in my side and leg. “Maybe Logan was right about your brother getting involved in something dangerous, or maybe someone put a spell on him. When we fought, there was nothing in him except violence and bloodlust. That doesn’t seem like the guy you knew.”
“It wasn’t. Warin was kind.Iwas the monster brother.” Fane gazed out the window framed in sheer cream drapes, lost in thought as he clenched his hands. “If someone enchanted him, Iwillfind out.”
I pitied the nightworlder who had anything to do with Warin’s death. The only reason Fane hadn’t killed me was because of the Infernal Sol. But now that he knew—and believed—that I didn’t go after his brother in cold blood, did he still want me dead?
A strange sensation rippled through my muscles, and I suddenly stood next to the demon shifter while my actual body remained on the bed. I placed my hand on his arm.“I’m sorry about your brother.”
Fane tore his gaze away from the window to meet mine. The link between us must have intensified since we could now see each other when we slipped out of our bodies.
“It feels like you’re really here instead of on the bed.” He rested his hand over mine and squeezed before releasing his grip to wrap his finger around a lock of my hair. “This doesn’t feel any different.”
My scalp tingled from his touch. “How is this possible?”
“No idea.” His thumb ran over the strands, making me tremble.
