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He didn’t speak, and yet the tension inside him made me want to scoot farther down on the couch.
He waited for me to give every detail, to tell him everything that had happened before he answered. Finally, he set his arm on the back of the couch and frowned. “You should not have agreed.”
“You could have died.”
“Trust me, I know. I have never encountered a banshee before. It feels as though your brain is dissolving. I could not move my body, couldn’t think or see. Even still, you should not have agreed. Who knows what Lucifer wants from you?”
His words were strange in that they were honest. He would have rather I left them to die just to avoid becoming entangled with Lucifer?
What an idiot.
I shifted to my knees and shoved his shoulder. “If you really think I was going to just sit there and let youdie, then you really are a fucking moron.”
He tilted his head, that blank expression he wore when he thought I were being entirely irrational. “You have no idea what Lucifer will ask of you, and you’re now obligated to comply. Do you not recognize how dangerous that is?”
“Irecognizethat if you all died, I’d have been—”Alone.
The word made me freeze as I realized how true it was and how stupid it would have been to answer.
Not speaking it aloud didn’t change the truth, though. If they’d died, I’d have been alone. Not just to figure out the spirits, the shadow, how to escape hell. No, I’d have been on my own after finally finding something that made me feel as if I belonged.
The thought was worse than death, worse than anything Lucifer could do to me.
Kase stared at me, his eyes still as he seemed to read my face.
I shoved him again, as if that would explain the things I couldn’t say.
He caught my wrist and tugged me forward, into his lap. “You are a foolish woman, Ava, and you take too many risks.”
“And you’re an idiot who doesn’t understand women at all.”
“Perhaps.” He pulled me closer, but I leaned back and gestured to a spot of red still on him. There was no way I’d kiss him, not with another woman’s blood painting his lips.
He wiped it clear. “I wish I didn’t have to feed from others,” he admitted.
Instead of answering—I couldn’t say anything that would make either of us feel better about it—I leaned in and brushed my lips to his.
His breath was warm when he exhaled, that tiny release he always did, as if he couldn’t quite believe I was there.
Still, he kissed me back, and I kept my hands from grabbing at him, no matter how difficult I found that level of restraint.
He broke the kiss too fast, though. “There isn’t time.”
“I can be quick.”
He chuckled lowly, a rare sound I cherished, before shaking his head. Even still, he didn’t move me off his lap.
I peered around. “Where is everyone?”
“Hunter is trying to find information about the creature for tomorrow. We knew about the banshee in round two because that what’s what Persephone let slip, which was why Grant could prepare for it and have the spell ready. With any luck, he gets information again.”
“And Grant?”
“Sleeping. Without knowing what we’re facing tomorrow, he needed to try to recuperate as much of his magic as possible.”
I smothered my disappointment. The last thing I wanted was to risk them not being at their best because I was being overly needy and didn’t let him recover. Still, it was hard, because what I really wanted was to reassure myself that he was fine. I recalled the blood that had leaked from his ears, the way he’d been thrown to the ground.
Grant was tough—I couldn’t deny that—but he wasn’t quite like the others. He could be killed far more easily.
