Marked By Masks and Secrets (Everlasting Possession #1)

45

EVIE

M aybe I should’ve told Kylo about the Whitfields. But something in me had decided against it. I wanted tonight to be about us, not about my lackluster ex or his horrible parents. There was nothing more he could do to protect me than he was already doing.

And to be honest, as much as I wanted to ignore and forget everything Cindy had said, her words induced a sense of shame about who I was that I, frankly, didn’t want Kylo to see.

I held onto Kylo’s arm as we enjoyed a private, after-hours stroll around the art exhibit his friends had been talking about. It was truly unfathomable the wealth and influence Kylo had hidden from me. How easy it was for him to pull strings and get anything he wanted in this city.

I was awestruck by the rooms of sculptures and the different shades of lighting used to accentuate each piece. One room was lit with red light, filled with sculptures of giant tree roots adorned with tiny crystals, multicolored shards of glass and mirror. We’d entered a different dimension, a kaleidoscope of color and feeling that had exploded into art.

Another room with soft blue lighting had giant stalactites and stalagmites, resembling some sort of cave, but the structures were made from pure crystal. Some were clear like icicles, and others were opalescent or in every hue of the rainbow.

“A witch created all of this?” I asked in wonder. I glanced at Kylo, only to see that he was already staring at me.

His dangerously beautiful features were fixated on me in a way that made my stomach flutter. He gazed at me the same way I looked at the art.

Kylo tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Yes, baby. A true creator, just like you.”

I shook my head. It didn’t feel right to be compared to the woman who created all of this. This outpouring of love and mystery and divinity that I didn’t quite have the words for.

“Why would they target someone like her? She’s an artist, not a vampire maker.”

A sudden onslaught of injustice and heartbreak caused my chest to tighten, and the feelings grew stronger the more the room glimmered and sparkled around us.

Kylo brushed a knuckle across my cheek. “They’re not reasonable people, Evie. They’re demons, and they’re furious. Not just at the turned, but at all the mortals of Etherdale. The born have always hated Etherdale’s limitations, institutions, and mortal stronghold. Now they have an excuse to unleash that fury. Their anger at not being able to dominate and use us to their heart’s content—their utter hatred of anyone daring to stand up to them. What better revenge than to destroy our artists, teachers, and healers—those with the power to mend hearts and strengthen minds?”

It wasn’t fair. None of it. That damn lump was back in my throat as I examined more of the exhibit, thinking about how the born had gone after Celeste’s—after me —for making products that helped mortals.

In the final room, we were greeted by walls painted black, the only light coming from tiny flickering stars and constellations. Even below our feet, we followed the paths of galaxies. A deep sense of calm entered my system, and I sensed the artist’s magick ripple through the space. It was a signature filled with passion and hope, someone who looked up at the stars and refused to feel small and meaningless. Someone who looked up and felt grateful to be alive, instead.

When Kylo unexpectedly grabbed me and captured my lips with his, I felt that same fire in his soul—the counterargument to nihilism that expanded like the cosmos against the deep nothingness of space.

“Evie,” he whispered, kissed by starlight, eyes filled with something raw and undeniable.

I ran a finger over that silly little dimple, the evidence of his humanity, the gentleness that made me stay after years of running.

Kylo kissed my hand. “I love you.”

The air left my lungs.

“I’m so deeply in love with you that I can’t go a full minute without you crossing my thoughts. I adore your mind, the way it processes this world and births new ones entirely. Your laugh makes me feel like I’m fucking dying, as if I will never be able to hear enough of it to be content.”

My lips trembled, listening to Kylo describe me in a way that didn’t make sense to me. He couldn’t possibly feel so intensely.

“I loved you before it was rational or reasonable,” he said as the stars glowed brighter. “I’ve loved you for a humiliatingly long while now, but I suspect I’ve always loved you. Like I recognized you the moment I first saw you, and the rest was merely a process of remembering how much you meant to me and always would.”

Rich emotion flooded my body, but the block in my throat fought hard to keep any words from leaving my lips. Kylo watched me in a patient silence, holding my face in his broad hands.

I forced myself to speak through the harsh pounding of my fearful heart. “I love you too.” Tears pooled in my eyes. “I don’t want to, but I do.”

Kylo smiled. “That’s a lie. I think you want to love me very badly.”

“Mena and Idris are the only people who I’ve ever let in,” I said softly, scraping the words out despite every protest from my body. Something loosened and shattered irreversibly. A dam broke, and more words poured through. “I’m in love with you, but I don’t want to be, because the people who were born to love me unconditionally, whose sole purpose was to protect me from harm…” I faltered, tears spilling free.

Kylo frowned deeply, catching the tears with his thumbs.

“They didn’t. They didn’t love me,” I said, a sob building in the back of my throat. “They didn’t protect me. All they did was use me. All they did was throw me and Idris to the wolves. So yes, I apologize for my own existence because that was what I was taught. That love is something strived after endlessly, never freely given. And if I put my trust in someone to protect me, they’re just going to betray me and crush my heart beyond repair.”

The sob left my lips, and I’d never cried like this in front of Kylo before, in front of most people. In this violent, uncontrollable sort of way.

“So of course I don’t want to be in love,” I said. “I don’t want to rely on anyone who might let me down. Because my heart can’t survive that kind of pain again.”

In this room of stars, Kylo sank with me to the floor and held me against him as sob after sob racked through me.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry for ruining your beautiful moment. I’m so sorry.”

“Shhh, baby,” Kylo whispered, stroking my hair. “My love is not contingent upon your behavior. You don’t have to perform for my love. You don’t have to beg for it. Or even ask very politely. I love you for existing. I love you for being you.”

“Sounds fake,” I sobbed into his chest.

Kylo laughed softly. “One day, it won’t feel that way. One day, being loved by me will feel as certain and effortless as breathing. And I am more than happy to show you how much I care for you, how much I would do anything to earn and keep your trust, every day until then.”

My crying reached its tipping point, the violence melting into mournful, lulling waves.

I blinked through my tears, looking around at the shimmering galaxies that hadn’t dimmed a bit. They were steady. Certain.

I moved to lay facing Kylo, on my side, and he mirrored me.

“I always wondered what made me go find you in the library the first time we met,” I said, staring into the blue of his irises as he traced my face with his gentle touch. “I don’t talk to strangers. Especially not ones who acted as unhinged as you did. Nor would I ever dare to pick a fight with a random man, either.”

Kylo smiled. “I thought the same thing. Given I’d already been following you for weeks, and I’d picked up on your people-avoidant behaviors.”

I glared at him, and his grin only widened. “I never understood why I would do something like that. How I had possibly known you were safe. Even when I’d found out you were everything I’d learned to hate. I still knew you were safe. I couldn’t stop myself from falling.”

“Good,” Kylo said, his shadows skating over me in that possessive way they did. “Because I’m here to catch you, always. Especially when you don’t trust me to.”

My face felt red and puffy. Leave it to me to unravel during the most romantic moment of my life.

“If only to wrestle with you in the mud again,” he added.

“I despise you.”

“Is that so?”

He rolled and pinned me beneath him, sliding my wrists above my head. “Don’t pretend my adorable, flower-picking little forest nymph doesn’t enjoy getting hunted, captured, and destroyed in the grass and dirt.”

His breath tickled as it skated across my skin, and I was suddenly alert to everywhere he touched. Especially where his hips met mine.

My chest rose and fell rapidly, the place between my thighs awakened with a sudden pulsing ache.

“I don’t love like a normal person, Evie darling,” he said, low and gravely.

My core tightened in anticipation.

“I don’t do anything like a normal person,” he said with dark humor. “Because I love you, you aren’t merely mine to care for and protect. You’re also mine to torment. Mine to toy with. To possess. To own. To flood with pleasure until you’re begging for relief—relief that will never come. You’re mine to mark and bite and claim and fucking destroy until you’re nothing but a needy mess at my feet, pleading with your God for mercy.”

My breathing became shallower. I didn’t even care what was wrong with me—why I loved Kylo’s depravity as much as his adoration and praise. Because now my thighs were pressing together, my panties already damp with want.

Kylo’s thumb pressed into my mouth, and I lightly sucked. His eyes burned with intensity, a low groan escaping him. Suddenly his hand gripped my throat, and his lips were against mine. His fangs scraped, his shadows squeezed my erect nipples until I whimpered into Kylo’s mouth.

He lifted an inch. “Let’s practice, baby,” he said darkly. “Beg.”

The way he commanded me like I was an obedient pet only made me uncomfortably aroused, my mind melting into blissful surrender as I squirmed and ached for him.

“You can do it, sweet girl,” he praised.

I found my voice again. “Please,” I whispered, feeding off Kylo’s approval. “I want you. All of you.” My heart stuttered. “ Please, Kylo.”

It looked like Kylo was struggling not to let his darkened eyes roll back as he grinned down at me. He squeezed my cheeks between his strong fingers. “Good fucking girl,” he purred.

I squirmed and then paused.

“But, um, maybe not in a missing woman’s art exhibit?”

Kylo nodded. “Fair enough.”