I reach up to smear the blood on River’s face. He’d tried to wipe it off in the car, but a streak still remains.
“This is such a good look on you,” I say. “Keep the blood, River.”
“He’s got how many gallons in him?” Blaze says as he wraps his hand around my other arm. “I’m sure you’ll see more of it sometime soon.”
“We can make sure of it,” Asch murmurs.
River looks at him, but he doesn’t protest. Instead, he kisses me again. “Five minutes, Pandora,” he promises. “They’ll make sure you don’t get bored.”
I whine when he pulls away.
It isn’t fair.
Wasn’t he fighting for me?
The college fight was fine, I guess. Very controlled.
Mostly boring.
But the street fight… All that energy in the room, the crowd chanting, the heat of all the bodies, and the raw violence as River and Reaper drew blood. I’d gotten chills.
River disappears into the bathroom, and I turn so I can cling to Asch.
“I’d better get the hardest pounding of my life tonight,” I say to him.
Asch smirks at me. “I think that can be arranged,” he replies, and he leans in to kiss me hard. His fingers tangle in my hair, and he pulls me close to him.
“How long do you think River’s been doing the fights?” Blaze says while he pulls his shirt off. “It explains the bruising, at least.”
“At least a few weeks,” Asch murmurs, his hold loosening on my hair as he strokes it instead. “Fenrir was willing to talk to us about it, for fuck’s sake.”
“Does it matter?” I ask. I reach down to unbutton my jeans. “I need to find the street fighting scene in New Bristol. It’ll be bigger than this tiny display. You two should join as well.” I bite my lip as I imagine all of them getting sweaty and pounding the shit out of opponents, the blood and the violence and all that fucking energy.
“Hard pass,” Blaze answers. He runs a finger along my spine, and I shiver with goosebumps.
Then I process what he said.
“What?” I look over my shoulder at him. “You don’t want to do fights? You love violence. You destroyed Tate’s face.”
“Yeah, I like it when I’ve got a reason to do it,” Blaze answers. “If I’m not terrorizing somebody, why bother?”
“I like my teeth where they are,” Asch replies. “Some rules are a good thing.” He glances in the direction of the bathroom.“You do realize that what he’s doing is really fucking dangerous, right?”
He’s killing the mood, not making sure I don’t get bored.
“Everything we do is dangerous,” I growl. “That’s the point. There’s no high if it’s safe.”
“I’m pretty sure your biochemistry exams aren’t dangerous,” Blaze points out. “And you’ve been studying hard for that?—”
I shove my elbow into Blaze’s stomach. He grunts but doesn’t back up.
“God, shut up about that. It’ll be dangerous once I’ve learned everything and can cut people up with even more precision.” I can feel my good mood slipping away.
Weren’t we going to do a fun date tonight?
Why are they focusing on not-fun things?
Asch snorts. “Serial killer in training,” he mutters. “Good thing you have Blaze to bail you out of jail.”
