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Not willing to test our mind-speak.

I grumble and don’t move.

“It kind of hurts lying flat on the tile…”

I raise my head and meet her gaze. She wipes away the leftover tears on her cheeks, and I rise. She uses my shoulder to propel herself up, and I follow her into the large living room.

It doesn’t smell like sex in here either.

Good.

I sniff the bed, along the wall. My instincts have my hackles raised. I don’t like this place and the way the floor shifts slightly under my paws.

She sits on the bed and watches me examine the bedroom, then the other room that has more bulky furniture. I put my front paws on the windowsill and stare out, and my heart thuds harder.

We’re really freaking high up.

Unnatural.

I glance back at Astra, hurrying to her. My urgency to leave pushes through our mind-speak, until she kneels in front of me and shakes her head.

“Where is Kian?” she asks me.

My lips curl, anger reigniting.

“It wasn’t his fault. And you’re saying it yourself—you don’t like this city. But I can’t get you out of here like this. Not in a vampire’s hotel.”

I huff.

She sighs, too, and sits back on her heels. “Take your time, then. I’m going to bed.”

I sit abruptly. She drops the towel that was shielding her body from me. It would be so easy to just bite her with the intent to change her…

No, Kian roars. His control, the force to shift, comes surging back.

But he’s weak, and I bat him away with ease.

I focus back on Astra again. I settle on the floor to watch her. She retrieves the bags and dries off, then finds clothes. She chooses constricting, movement-limiting things. She’s fascinating, though. Her little expressions when she gets lost in her own thoughts. How she sucks her lower lip between her teeth, shimmying and pulling the black fabric up her legs.

We need to talk, Kian says.

I click my teeth, drawing Astra’s attention.

You can’t just take over like that. We were drugged⁠—

The vampire. I agree. And besides, Astra had already said as much.

I’m sorry.

I send him one of his own memories—the one I wasn’t privy to experiencing.

Shame emanates from him.

She belongs to both of us, Kian eventually says.

I am nameless. And sometimes, I am bodiless. But I’m not without emotion, and right now I just want to be hurt. I don’t realize my eyes are closed until I feel a presence at my side.

I crack one eye open to find Astra curling up beside me, in the curve of my body. She has a mirror in her hand, and she leans against my side. The scent of her magic fills my nostrils, and then the mirror’s surface seems to ripple.