"Hey," I said. "How are you?" Although I don't know why I even asked. The female shone from the inside out like she had her own personal sun in there.
"I'm good." She smiled. "How are you?"
That was a loaded question. "I'm good." I stood up, hoping to make a quick exit.
"Jamal, wait."
Fuckin' A...almost made it. Turning back toward my friend, I lifted one eyebrow in question. "Sup?"
"'Sup?' That's all you have to say?"
I shrugged, playing it cool. "Is there something else you want to talk about?"
She gave me a disbelieving look for a second, then sat down behind the desk and gave a pointed look at the chair I'd just vacated. With a deep sigh, I retook my seat. Leaning back, I spread my hands wide. "What?"
"You were almost killed last night, that's what."
I waved away her concern. "Nah. It wasn't that bad."
"That's not what I heard." Her dark eyes appeared larger than normal through the lenses of her black-rimmed glasses. Or maybe it was just my own guilt that made me squirm on my chair.
"Well, you heard wrong."
"I heard you got into a fight with a djinn trying to save a certain witch, but you lost, and that you got impaled in the process." She gave me the same look my momma used to give me when she knew I was full of shit. "Is that not what happened?"
I released the breath I'd been holding and gave it up. I couldn't lie to Kenya. I never could. "Yeah, that's what happened."
Satisfied, she logged into the computer, her attention on the screen as she asked, "Why the hell are you going off and doing something stupid like that?"
My eyes on the floor, I said, "I don't know. Lizzy asked me to help find her, and you know I can't say no to her." When I looked up, she was watching me. "What?"
"You know, being mated isn't so bad--"
I launched myself out of my chair. "Ah, Jesus fucking Christ! Not you, too. That's not what happened!"
"Jamal." Now she even had the "mom tone" in her voice. "There's no sense in fighting it."
"I'm not fighting anything!" I yelled, throwing my arms in the air. Then I stopped. Took a breath. "It didn't happen," I repeated, emphasizing my words by slicing my hand through the air. "I was hurt. I was bleeding out. She offered to feed me, and I took it. Maybe I was a little overzealous. I hadn't fed in a while, I was trying to heal, and I had to stop drinking before I was ready. That's all."
"Have you fed again since then?"
"No. I plan to do that tonight."
"Have youwantedto feed again?"
An odd sensation crept up my spine. "Why would I? You know I don't need blood that often. Honestly, I don't even need it tonight. I'm just going to do it to prove my point."
One eyebrow went up, but she pressed her lips together and gave her head a little shake.
"What are you getting at, Kenya?"
She scrolled through whatever she was looking at on the screen, all casual-like. "I'm just saying that the first time I drank from Alex, I knew. I just knew. And now even just the thought of drinking from someone else makes me gag."
"Yeah, well, I don't know nothin' like that."Liar.
Her hand stilled on the mouse and her eyes swung my way, her expression drawn in with concern. "What are you so afraid of, Jamal? Other than knowing that if something happened to them, you'd follow right along shortly after?"
I pointed at her. "That. That right there. I spent my entire human life in chains, passed from one owner to the other. And when I finally managed to escape this godforsaken life, I woke up again only to find out I had a new owner. This time a vampire who was so lonely for a friend, and still is, that he denied me my peace." I slapped my chest. "My CHOICE. It was my choice to live or die, and Killian took that from me. And I don't even have the balls to destroy the monster he made me into..." My words faded away, along with my indignation. "I know he thinks he did the right thing by me. That he 'saved' me." I made air quotes with my fingers.
