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Nova leans back and raises her eyes to mine. Ares goes to pull her from my arms, but she doesn’t move away from me.
“Then trust me, Dragon. You know me. I don’t trust easily either, but I trust Ares. Believe in me like I believed in you protecting me from the Volkov twins. You could have let me get killed down in their dungeon but you moved heaven and earth to help save my sister and me. Use that for now. Can you do that for me?”
Defeat isn’t something I feel often, if ever. But looking into my friend’s eyes makes me surrender the fight. For now. “I honestly don’t know.” She finally goes to her lover. Ares opens his arms and holds her protectively. Silence reigns between us.
Rage’s worried ugly mug is in front of me again. He clasps me around the neck and signals Asena over.
“Help me get him upstairs.”
I stop Rage from trying to move me toward the stairs. “Your answer?”
“I’ll give you the two days and then the Savages do what we do best and go hunting.”
I give him a curt nod and let Rage take over. The Druid will be dead within forty-eight hours and then, if I’m not a body in the morgue too, I’ll take Asena as far away from this seedy place as I can get her.
No matter which way I go, my past lurks around every corner. Asena deserves better. If there was an ounce of decency in me, I would let her be free so she could finally make her own choices.
I feel her body heat brush against mine and the demons inside me growl with hunger.
Keep her close, they whisper.
She’s ours.
Her warm touch skims over me. I’ve never been a holy man, but her soft breath on my face, those sweet eyes holding mine make me want to ask a man of God to cleanse me of all my sins so she might choose to stay instead of being forced.
But there are areas of my past no one knows about. Things that if discovered will ruin me in the eyes of others. The vision I have of myself with Asena is brittle at best. I know I shouldn’t but I allow myself a brief moment to wonder what a life with her would look like. What we could accomplish together. Could I change and grow into the man she needs?
I almost laugh in their faces at the absurdity. Not with the blood of a killer running through my veins and I won’t risk getting her pregnant and passing on my curse.
No. She can’t be anywhere near me. The repulsion on her face once she finds out the kind of monster I am pushes me to drive a wedge between us.
Unaware of my inner torment she looks me dead in the eye and I know what I think doesn’t matter.
I’m lost. The demons win. I’m not letting her go.
Eleven
Asena
Son-of-a-bitch. My heart crawls into my throat and chokes the air from my lungs. Does he know? Did he hear Doc and me talking back at the makeshift hospital?
The way he said he could never trust someone who lied to him felt personal. Like he knew.
Rage takes one side while I move under Hark’s other shoulder. We try not to jostle him too much, but Hark’s size doesn’t make it easy.
“It’s just down the hall. Last door on the left. Up there is Nova and Ares’ room. No one goes up there unless you want shit to hit the fan.” Rage jerks his chin toward the second flight of stairs.
“Understood.” I have no desire to go wandering around a house that is not mine.
We pass several closed doors I assume belong to the other members.
Rage kicks open a charcoal black door. This time, when a door opens, I am not the least bit surprised.
Just like when I broke into his bungalow four years ago, I find Hark’s knack for organization something of a novelty for a man who looks like he would rather destroy his surroundings rather than keep them color-coded. But that is exactly what I see when Rage and I lower Hark to his perfectly made king-sized bed. There’s not a single wrinkle in the black comforter nor is either of the four large pillows stacked along the headboard out of place.
I bet if I were to lift the long sides of the comforter, I’d find each corner tucked and folded. From the few books on his nightstand to the way I spy his clothes through the open closet door, everything is neat and tidy.
Controlled.
