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I climbed to my feet and sneered at the hunter. Letting her get any closer to me was a bad idea. Drinking from her had been disastrous. She flipped through my thoughts as I rifled through hers. If I knew it would cause that connection I wouldn't have done it, I've never had that happen in the past.
"We need to close the portal, it is the only way for them to stop traveling here," I explained. It was the reason I went home.
"But you just said you were the prince, and they would listen to you," she reminded me.
A soft huff left me as I turned away from her. If I was Tristan, they might listen to me, but not asBellamy the spare. "I lied. Demons do that." I narrowed my icy stare at her over my shoulder. Maybe if I kept her at arm's length, I would stopwhatever we had put into motion tonight. I could prevent these emotions from billowing out and overflowing. She only arched a perfectly sculpted brow at me and propped her hand on her hip, near that dagger that could kill me.
That had been my goal of getting close to her in the first place. An end had been within my grasp until I ruined it by giving into just the taste of her. I worked my jaw as I bit back more words. We weren't friends. I didn't have to explain anything else.
"I've got to go." Without a backward glance, I said, "I'll find you." I left her standing in the middle of the woods with leaves still in her hair. She didn't come chasing after me or call out, all that was behind me was silence, so deafening I wasn't sure I would ever escape it. But what else did I expect from my track record?
Obsession always came first, followed closely by self-destruction. Anything that made me happy had to be destroyed because I knew I didn't deserve it. Not since I was little and my brother disappeared, then I clung to fucking Alastor like a lost puppy, until he got sick of me. My life had been full of a string of feeding with empty sex since my powers developed. It was almost a chore. Something I had to do but didn't necessarily enjoy anymore.
Then, finally, Tristan came back; he escaped the human world, and although he wasn't exactly who I remembered as a kid, our bond hadn't changed. We were going to rule the world. Make the witch that trapped him pay. Until he fell in love with her, or maybe he had always been in love with her, and he lied to himself and me the whole time. Either way, he left us all for her, used some loophole to get out of being next in line for King, leaving me holding all the weighty expectations of our father.
Now, the hunter was here challenging all of my recent beliefs. She made me feel connected to someone in the most intimateway, and it made me hate her. Maybe I should just let the horde pour into this realm and destroy it. Hell, I could even help.
"Where have you been?" Alastor snapped at me the moment the elevator opened to his penthouse suite.
"I would say I missed you too, but I didn't," I replied as I stepped inside the pristine hotel room that was more like a mini-apartment.
Dropping onto the couch, I kicked my filthy boots up on the coffee table, making dirt fall to the surface. Oops. Cerberus growled but didn't lift any of his heads.
"We need your help," he said, ignoring my words and actions as he folded into the chair across from me. His elbows propped on his knees as he leaned forward, his face serious. Although, his face was normally serious.
"We?" I drawled out the question, mocking his voice. "Did the hunter fall for your charms?"
The thought of that got under my skin, and I wanted to crow all about my recent encounter with her. If she fell for his charms, why would she kiss me back immediately? And her thoughts about them all wouldn't be so muddled. It made me feel better. No, none of them had won her heart fully yet. She wouldn't give it to someone that didn't love her too, and I was positive she didn't know any of them cared to the extent that they did.
His jaw worked, and he leaned back in the chair. "I'm wooing her."
A flash of a memory filtered into my head. Samantha smiling and laughing at me, or really Alastor. I could feel how he did for the girl in the brief glimpse inside his mind, before I slammed my walls into place. They had been slipping more and more recently. Reading others was useful, but it was also exhausting, if they wanted me to know something they could tell me.
"Wooing her?" I snickered. "That girl likes it hard and fast and dirty."
"Is that what her heart likes, Bellamy?" He lifted his eyes to me, and something twinged inside my chest that was a little uncomfortable, but I dismissed it.
"I guess you have to stand in line. Everyone is in love with her. She will never belong to one person. The hunter is made of fire and can't be contained. She spreads to anyone that comes near. You are just lucky if she doesn't burn you when you touch her," I murmured my thoughts, going back to how soft her body was touching mine pressed against that tree as I drank from her and received the nourishment her body provided. One time and I was addicted to the taste of her. She had burned me, branded my soul with her kisses, with her nectar. Made me want tolive.
"Sounds like you may have gotten too close to the flame yourself," Alastor retorted, and it pulled me back to the present.
I snorted. Even if I had, I would never share it with him. "I just want to see the pointy side of her dagger."
"She will not kill you. That would start a war, and she knows it." His fingers tapped the arm of the chair as he eyed me. "You have a lot to live for, Bell."
"Don't talk to me like you know me," I growled, but it lacked heat. He knew me. He had been my obsession for years. I told him every silly thought that popped into my head, even if he didn't want to hear it.
He sighed, and I could see him shake his head out of the side of my eye. "Fine. I need your help to close the portal."
"What if I like it being open?" I was being difficult and snarky to him, and he hadn't thrown me out on my ass the moment I arrived. I didn't have anywhere else to go. His hotel room had been the first place to come to mind when I left her.
He pinched the bridge of his nose as he inhaled slowly. Flowers sprouted in the plant by the window, and I snickered. I had gotten under his skin.
"Bell, the portal can't stay open. They are hunting Samantha in groups. They are working together for the first time to kill her. You can hide behind your cold exterior, but I can smell her on you. If you didn't care, she would already be dead."
A cramp seized my clamped jaw, and I realized I was clenching my teeth together. I worked the tenseness out as his words rolled over me. "So, do I care for all the girls I have fucked since coming here? I don't see a pile of bodies."
He laughed, his face transformed with it. "No, but how many of them did you go back to?"
