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“Are you insane? You know Sig was here earlier, don’t you?”
He took a step back, so he was no longer pressed against me, but he was still close and still holding me against the wall. He didn’t want me going anywhere.
“I waited until Ingrid took Brigit away before I came in. I’ve been watching. ”
Rio had entered the room, but something about Holden upset her, because she was puffed up to twice her usual size and was making a weird howling noise low in her throat. Coming from a kitten, it sounded like the air being let out of a balloon. Holden ignored her.
“What are you doing here?” I put a hand in between us when he loosened his grip so I could keep my towel together.
“Did you come back to kill me?”
Now that he was here with me, I had the perfect opportunity to get the answers to the questions that had been nagging me for months. “What did you do, Holden? Why do they want me to kill you? Did you really go rogue?”
He snorted and rolled his eyes. “Honestly, Secret. ” But in spite of the cavalier tone, he didn’t relax, and he was wound tighter than a spring. The whole room filled with tension.
“Holden. ”
“Do you think so little of me?”
“Don’t answer a question with a question. ”
He moved back and took the few short steps to my bed, where he sat down and put his head in his hands, raking his fingers through his thick, dark hair.
“I didn’t go rogue,” he said finally.
“Then why are they saying you did? Why did they contract me to kill you?”
“I knew I was in trouble when someone told me you’d gotten the contract. The Tribunal only contracts you when they mean business. But then you left. I didn’t know if I should be waiting for you to help me, or if you were letting me put my defenses down before you came after me. I reached out the only way I knew how. I needed to know what you planned to do. ”
I froze. “You mean by coming here tonight, right?”
“You know what I mean. ”
I pulled the towel tighter and started looking for something else to cover myself with.
“There’s no point, I’ve seen it all already,” he reminded me.
I glared at him and grabbed a robe off the arm of the chair by my door. It smelled like Brigit, but I didn’t care right then. I put it on and let the towel drop.
“You invaded my dreams?”
“It’s only an invasion if the receiving party fights it. You…” he looked right at me, “…didn’t fight at all. You were so open, in fact, I got back in while we were both still awake. ”
So my awkward moment earlier tonight hadn’t been my imagination. I shuddered from the deep feeling of violation. Worse still, according to him, I’d let him in.
“How?” I should have asked why, but it wasn’t what came out.
He shrugged. “I was your warden. Wardens have a pretty unique connection with their wards. Before shit hit the fan, my power increased. I think I was about to advance to sentry. The extra power meant I could take better advantage of our connection. It didn’t hurt when they advanced you to warden. The more power both parties have, the better the connection is. Or so I’m told. Getting into your dream earlier this week was my first attempt. And tonight, well—”
“Never again,” I shouted. “You violated the most private experience. I should kill you for that. ”
“You could try. But you’re unarmed right now. I’d kill you. ”
I couldn’t stop myself. I crossed the room without thinking and punched him as hard as I could right in the face. It made a satisfying crack, and his head snapped back. Then he sat up straight, tentatively touching his nose, and a pinpoint of pain in my hand exploded to a full-blown searing agony. The crack I’d heard had been from one of my knucklebones breaking. I’d never broken my hand punching a vampire before. I was out of practice.
Broken hand or not, I hauled back to punch him again, but this time he saw it coming. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me easily onto the bed. I kept trying to lash out at him, until he climbed on top of me and held both of my hands above my head, sitting on my legs to keep me from attacking him with any well-placed kicks.
“Calm down,” he snarled. “Jesus, Secret, I’m sorry. I opened up the connection with the dream, but I didn’t know it would stay open. It wasn’t intentional. ”
