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KATHERINE
Islid to the floor of my apartment with my hand covering my mouth and Gabriel’s overcoat clenched tightly in my arms.
It’s like the last hour has been a dream, nearly getting killed, then saved by the man who has been haunting my thoughts for over four months. He came for me… he actually fucking came for me!
“So I guess this means no potion?”
My head snaps to where I hear Xenia’s voice and I jump to my feet to greet her. “Xen!”
We embrace one another, then she pulls away and looks at me. “He couldn’t keep his hands off you, hmm?” she says, lifting her eyebrow at my torn shirt. “Big bad Vampire King wanted some lamb stew tonight.”
“Hey, I didn’t tell you what he calls me so you can use it against me, you know!”
“But it’s so, so easy to mock,” she chuckles, taking my arm and leading me to the kitchen. “Now, I’m about to pour us some wine while you explain why the fuck you have a bruised eye and blood on your face.”
“I don’t have wine,”
“Really! That’s the part you choose to hear?!” She looks at me incredulously as she opens my refrigerator and pulls out two bottles of wine. “Sorted. Now, spill.”
If I thought Gabriel got angry at what my father has done, Xenia is on another level.
“That fucking shady ass cunt!” she cries out, dangerously close to smashing my only wineglass on the floor. “We gave our fucking lives to that guild and this is how he repays us?! Bullshit!”
“I know,” I say. I still haven't processed anything that happened tonight, much less the fact that I am now a wanted woman. “By the way, how did you get in here?”
She grins. “You don’t have an alarm system; anyone could have broken in. You’re just lucky it was me,” she says, then bites her bottom lip. “So the two of you…”
“After this, yeah… And you?”
She pulls something out of her back jeans pocket and holds it up. “I can’t bring myself to do it,” she says, placing the red vial on the counter. “And I don’t know where I will go from here. I mean, if your father put a bounty out on you, who's to say that he didn’t do the same to me?”
I never even thought about that. “You’re right. But then you’ll need to stay with me–”
“Kat, I can’t do that. Church is…” she trails off and sighs. “I can’t be close to him.”
I reach for her hand over the kitchen island and give it a squeeze. “Did you forget what Gabriel is, Xen? The safest place to be right now is close to him since the hunters won’t touch anyone in government or part of law enforcement.”
Her lips are a thin line as she seems to ponder what I’ve just said. Even if it’s not for Church, she should stay with me so she can be safe since I don’t want anything bad to happen to her.
If she’s caught, my father will make an example of her since I know what he does to people who think of leaving Death’s Temple.
Sighing, she nods and downs her glass of wine. “Okay but only because you asked me and you’re right,” she says, obviously lying to herself. It will be fun to watch Church win her over, then perhaps I can tease her like she constantly teases me.
“Are you ready for all this, though? Becoming one of them, being with a man who is, quite literally, King of the Vampires and changing everything about who you are,” she says as a concerned look flickers in her eyes.
I pour some wine into my teacup and brace it in my hands. “I don’t know, but it’s something I will have to get used to if I’m going to be with him. You know me, I’ve never been scared of a challenge,” I say, smiling.
She nods at my answer. “Well, if you need me to kick his butt at any time, let me know. I pumped all those arrows into him last time, remember?” she says, grinning and wriggling her eyebrows at me.
“Ugh, I knew that was your work! I was the one who removed them from his chest and it’s the reason I got his blood in my mouth.”
“Both of you are so welcome. I better be a maid of honor or I won’t miss next time,” she winks, then drinks straight from the bottle. “But seriously, I have never seen you this happy before and I love it.”
“Thanks, Xen,” I say, grinning and feeling my ears flare up with embarrassment.
Gosh, I have missed this and love how we’ve gone back to being able to talk about anything. Saying I’ve missed her is an understatement; she’s like my sister and I wouldn’t want to spend this time with anyone else but her.
I went to bed, and my dreams were filled with Gabriel’s naked body. When I woke up to find my bed empty the next morning, I could have kicked myself for sending him away last night.
