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Her eyes widened in surprise before narrowing with disgust as she tossed the useless item aside and held the stake higher. “I don’t want to have to hurt you, Christofer, but if you don’t let me go I’ll-”
“Give me a splinter?” he finished for her as he absently reached up and scratched the back of his neck. He nearly cringed when he realized that except for washing up quickly in the hotel sink this morning, he hadn’t showered or shaved in days.
“I don’t want to have to hurt you, Christofer!” she repeated, licking her lips nervously as she gave the stake a little jab in his direction. She didn’t even come close to his chest, which surprised him considering everything that happened.
He scented the air around them and frowned. He didn’t smell anger coming off her. The only thing that he could detect was her anxiety and fear and even that had gone down since he’d opened the closet door. If anything it should have gone up with him in the room. He’d attacked her, destroyed her entire world and instead of attacking him like she had every right in the world to do, he could smell her fear diminishing and her heart rate slowing down to a normal tempo.
It had to be the f**king blood exchange, he thought with a sigh as he reached back and grabbed the back of his shirt. He yanked it off and tossed it aside.
“W-what are you doing?” Cloe demanded, shifting anxiously as she moved her gaze from his bare chest to the closed door.
“Getting out of these dirty clothes so that I can take a shower,” he said, toeing off his shoes as he undid his pants.
“Well stop!” Cloe said, waving her sad little stick even as her eyes ate up every inch of him.
“Yeah, I’ll get right on that,” he said around a yawn, wondering if he should try to get her to drink some bagged blood before her bath or just go straight to plan B, and she was definitely taking a bath.
He needed her relaxed, very relaxed if he was going to convince her to eat. She needed to eat soon or she’d lose control and that would only make things worse for her. There was nothing quite like losing control of your mind, your actions and giving into rage and need. It left you feeling helpless, weak and frightened of doing something, anything that would make it happen again.
At some point it would happen to Cloe. It was inevitable, but he didn’t want it to happen when she was still struggling to deal with everything else that happened to her. She needed to get strong, learn to control her reactions, learn to feed and learn to hide what she was, especially since their kind apparently held the number one spot on some f**ked up wish list.
He’d planned on leaving her education on her new life in the hands of Ephraim and the ragtag group that had brought them here since they obviously knew more about their world than him, but seriously? Who in their right mind starts off by telling someone that they’d heal from absolutely everything, especially to a woman as pigheaded as Cloe?
As soon as Ephraim made that little announcement, Cloe, obviously curious and eager to see if it was true, had stopped listening to Ephraim as he’d tried to explain her new abilities and walked over to the kitchen island to see for herself. It had taken everything he had in him to continue sitting there when all he wanted to do was to tackle the woman and kick the shit out of Ephraim.
He’d also wanted to kick the shit out of Chris for rushing after her and making a grab for the knife, startling Cloe and making the cut a hell of a lot worse than she’d probably intended. At least one good thing came from this experience. Cloe now knew that she wasn’t invincible and that she could still experience pain. It would hopefully stop her from doing something stupid like climbing to the roof and doing a header in an attempt to escape. She’d survive, yes, but by the time she’d hit the ground below she’d be wishing that she hadn’t.
“Seriously, what are you doing?” Cloe asked, absently waving that stake at him as she ran her eyes, hungry eyes, he noted, down his body.
He ignored her question as he shoved his pants, along with his boxers, down and stepped out of them. “Come on,” he said, reaching out and taking her empty hand into his. With his other hand, he reached over and gently plucked the stake that was more splinters than anything, out of her hand and tossed it aside.
“I don’t want a shower,” she protested even as she allowed him to lead her into the bathroom. “I just want to leave.”
“You don’t think you’ll be noticed dressed like that?” he asked, pointedly looking at her blood stained shirt and pants.
She frowned down at herself. “But I don’t have anything else to change into,” she murmured, sounding a little lost.
“Ephraim had our stuff sent here while we were recovering,” he told her, pushing the bathroom door open and flicking on the light, making sure that she followed him inside before he closed the door behind them.
“He did?” she mumbled with a frown, looking deep in thought and a little confused as she asked, “What do you mean by when ‘we’ were recovering?”
Deciding that now was not the time to inform her that Ephraim had been forced to shoot him in the back of the head to stop him from killing his son because he’d lost control, he instead gestured towards the shower. When she threw a hesitant glance at the door, he knew that she was worried about the others coming in.
“They’ve already left,” he gently explained, lying his ass off, but he knew that one of the Pytes in the other room would hear him and take the hint.
He knew that they were eager to continue explaining things to Cloe, but not tonight. Tonight she needed a break, some time to relax and accept what happened to her. Tomorrow……
Tomorrow they could finish destroying what was left of her world.
Chapter 27
“Tell me that you really didn’t start with the whole, ‘you’ll heal from anything,’ bullshit,” Caine grumbled, rubbing his palms down his face while Danni wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned into him.
He dropped his arm around his mate’s shoulders and kissed the top of her head as he closed his eyes and savored her touch, welcoming the peace that just being near her gave him. The last couple of days had been grueling and he was starting to feel it. Right after they’d come back from patrol on Monday morning, the ass**le, a.k.a. Kale, had barked orders for them to hurry their asses up and get in the van.
After telling the bastard to go f**k himself and he’d finished explaining exactly where the shifter could shove his orders, he’d taken Danni, who’d been dragging ass by that point, inside. He’d badgered her until she’d finally given in and drank the demon blood the Council supplied her with. Once he’d made sure that she’d consumed enough demon blood and he’d managed to consume five bags of bagged blood, he’d pulled her into his arms and held her while she took what she needed from him.
