Chapter 26
Iris
Idescend the three marble stairs after him.
But I’m not prepared to collide with a wall of muscle as Kaiden blinks into existence in front of me.
I’m ashamed to admit that I lose my balance.
He stops my fall by wrapping a hand on my waist. “You okay, angel?” His touch is a live wire that electrifies my skin and knocks the air out of my lungs for a few seconds.
It feels so good to be near him again that I almost throw myself into his arms.
I don’t.
However, I indulge in a few moments of basking in the delicious heat rolling from his body.
Only a few seconds in his presence and the frostbite that burrowed to the marrow of my bones is gone.
Damn him and his intoxicating scent that I can’t stop inhaling like a heroin addict.
It takes everything I have in me to shake his hold as though he’s radioactive—mainly because it feels like my very soul is purring in his presence.
Shit. I’m more concussed than I thought.
Or I’m just pathetic.
Probably both.
“Don’t touch me,” I sputter, refusing to look into his mesmerizing eyes.
Or at his annoyingly perfect face. I’m afraid if I do, my resolve will shatter like fragile glass.
Of course, he looks like sin wrapped in a deadly package, wearing his usual black attire: straight jeans, a simple tee, and worn motorcycle boots.
And those tattoos that are a constant reminder that he carries a part of me with him forever, etched on his skin.
“And how many times do I have to repeat myself? Don’t. Call. Me. That.”
Kaiden ignores my barbed words. “Fuck, you’re bleeding.
Who did this to you?” he seethes. I might not be looking at his face to see his expression, but I almost choke on the fury emanating from his pores.
It’s so potent that I feel it bubbling beneath my skin.
Weird. He reaches a tattooed hand toward my throat, where I probably have a big fat imprint from when Cain grabbed me.
It stops mid-air when I flinch away. Heaving a weighted sigh, he closes the hand in a tight fist, which he drops to his side.
“Cain, the enforcer,” I retort flippantly. “The blood is not all mine. Actually, maybe only ten percent is mine. The spray hit me when I sliced his carotid.”
“Good.”
Like every time he is near, everything fades away.
Being this close to him is equal parts heaven and hell—my insides are being torn to pieces while my soul sings.
I need to escape this bubble we have immersed ourselves into to check on Emily.
“Yeah, I killed another lightborn. Yay me. They’ll probably burn me at the stake,” I mutter mostly to myself as I push past Kaiden, careful not to brush against him.
There’s also the fact that I’m covered in blood and sweat. Not only mine but Emily’s, too. I probably smell worse than a sewage pipe in Victorian London during a cholera outbreak.
Ugh.
“I don’t know how he got his hands on a gun with silver bullets dipped in aconite since they’re so rare, but I did my best to shield Emily. He still got her in the shoulder, though. The bullet almost pierced her heart.” My voice wavers. “I’m afraid the infection has spread too much.”
“She’s going to be all right. Malik will heal her,” Kaiden reassures me from my back.
In front of me, Malik is kneeling on the ground over Emily, who lies on a raised marble tomb, a blood-drawn pentagram beneath her. Dark magic flows in the air at the rhythm of Malik’s incantation while his fingers are wrapped around her injured arm.
Silent tears carve a path down Ava’s cheeks. Her voice cracks when she grits out, “You have to fight, Em, you hear me?!? My babies need their aunt. And I need my best friend.” She’s hanging to her other hand like to a lifeline, kneeling opposite Malik on the grass.
A blistering silence stretches between us as we all wait on pins and needles for a sign that Emily is going to make it. The only sound is that of Logan’s frantic steps. He resembles a wolf locked in a cage, pacing at the head of the tombstone amidst whole body shakes.
C’mon, Em. Don’t give up!
A few more torturous minutes pass. Then, the spindly black vines on her chest retreat as if vanishing into thin air. There’s a collective sigh when Emily sucks in a serrated breath. She hasn’t opened her eyes yet, but she’s safe. Malik got the infection out of her bloodstream.
The toll the dark magic took on his body is evident, though, in the lines at the corners of his cat-like eyes and sunken cheekbones when he stands with sagged shoulders.
Even his hair, normally the color of lively silver, is now limp and lackluster.
Malik flicks his gaze to Logan. “She’s going to be okay, but she needs to rest. She won’t wake up for a few days. ”
Logan tips his head skyward. Relieved tears stream down his face.
He murmurs something, then blows out a heavy exhale while raking a hand through his ash-brown curls.
“Thank you,” he rasps. He bends to place a kiss atop his sister’s forehead.
“You’re lucky Mom is on a beach in Bermuda sipping on cocktails right now; otherwise, she would have killed us both. ”
Completely absorbed by the emotional scene in front of me, I’m taken by surprise when Ava flings herself at me.
I let out an oomf that transforms into a pained groan when she squeezes the bejesus out of me, pregnant belly and all.
She’s much stronger than she looks. “Words are not enough to express our gratitude for what you did. Eres familia. You’re family now.
You will always be welcome in our pack no matter what. ”
“Ava, you’re hurting her,” Kaiden warns under his breath.
Her cheeks take a pink hue when she pulls back. “Sorry about that.”
Needles stab the back of my eyes. Aside from Sam, no one has ever said anything like this to me before. It means more than she knows—more than she can ever imagine. My voice trembles when I tell her, “I—um, yeah. You don’t have to thank me.”
Topaz green eyes lock with mine. “I do.” Then she wrinkles her nose. “Man, you stink. You really need a shower.”
We all break out in laughter at the startling levity. “Yeah. I know. I’m a walking dumpster fire. Thanks for reminding me, though.”
“That’s what friends are for. I’ll see you around.” She beams at me before turning on her heel to follow Logan on the winding path through the marble tombstones.
Malik ambles toward me. His gaze rakes over my body as if cataloging each one of my injuries. “Hey, sweets. You look like shit.”
I snort a laugh. “Thanks. I’ll add that to the dumpster fire.”
“You know, I’ve never met someone so prone to dying before. You’re a magnet for bad luck.”
“Yeah, tell me about it,” I mutter.
“Are you ready?” he asks. “Kaiden, I need to pull some juice from you, man.”
Kaiden appears next to Malik.
“What are you doing?” I ask when he places a taupe hand to the center of my chest.
He raises an amused eyebrow. “What does it look like? I’m healing you.”
“No offense, but you also look like shit, Malik. I can’t possibly ask you to do more. I’ll be fine.”
“Well, tough luck because you’re one of us, and we take care of our own.” He drops his head in between his shoulders and starts chanting when Kaiden’s hand wraps around his upper arm.
Dark magic engulfs me completely while the physical pain seeps out of my shoulder, my head, and my sore muscles in small increments.
I revel in its absence as I swallow a lungful of air.
If only his abilities would go further—to the emotional welts that bleed akin to an overflowing river in the presence of a certain Elite demon.
My vision clears when Malik steps back, breaking our connection. He sways slightly on his feet.
Kaiden catches him by the elbow. “Pull more from me.”
I don’t know how, but in the span of a few minutes, Malik has become so haggard that I swear his leather duster hangs on him two sizes too big. A hunted shadow passes over his eyes before he says, resolute, “You know I can’t.”
“You can barely stand. Take more.”
Malik only glares at him, but that look conveys so much more. “I’m fine. I’ll go. Logan and Ava are waiting for me.”
A muscle jumps in Kaiden’s cheek, but he drops the hold on Malik’s elbow. I wonder at that bizarre exchange, but I don’t ask. It’s pretty clear it’s personal.
“Bye, sweets. Try not to get into mortal danger for another week. Or at least until my power is back fully,” Malik says, his lips curving in a rakish smile. The bravado he’s trying to hide under is so thin we can see right through it. Though, neither I nor Kaiden say anything about it.
I smile back. “I’ll try. Thank you so much, Malik.”
He winks. “My pleasure. Besides, you’re a badass. You’ve made me a lot of money.” Malik chuckles at the confused look on my face. “I placed a bet with Dominic on how long it would take you to get Emily out.”
“And, who won?”
“I did, of course.”
My eyebrows knit. “Where is he, by the way?”
“Did you forget he’s a vampire? The sun’s still up.”
“Oh yeah,” I say and shake my head at my stupidity.
“Also, he’s undercover, working to find the vampire den responsible for the fae kidnappings. But we’re keeping him informed.”
“I’ll meet you at Ava and Logan’s. We’ll have the Conclave meeting there,” Kaiden chimes in.
Malik nods in response and trudges down the same path Ava and Logan disappeared down earlier.
To prolong the moment before having to meet Kaiden’s gaze, I take in my surroundings.
Cottony clouds float in the azure sky while the sun casts streaks of golden light that glitter through weathered tombstones and overgrown blades of grass.
Even the bird songs are uplifting. It seems wrong on so many levels to be shot at and covered in blood during the day.
Let’s not even mention killing someone. If I dare say, the atmosphere is creepily idyllic.
If only there wasn’t the same strange feeling crawling beneath my skin every time I’m in a cemetery—a foreign energy that calls to me from below.
Kaiden’s voice snaps me out of it.
“Iris, I’m dying here. Would you look at me?” He sucks in a sharp breath. “Please.”
I pretend I didn’t hear him. “Since my work here is done, I’m gonna go.” I take a step before a strong hand wraps around my wrist and whirls me around. Kaiden’s touch singes me.
“Please come back home,” he rasps.
Home.
These four letters slice through me like a serrated blade.
I meet his gaze. There’s so much pain etched on his beautiful face that it makes my hands tremble.
I swallow past the knot lodged in my throat to clip out, “What home? You got this idea in your head that we were somehow living together, but you and I were on borrowed time anyway. It was never meant to happen, so it’s better it ended sooner than later.
” I hike a nonchalant shoulder. “You should move on because I already have.”
“You’re lying.” His jaw is an iron bar of tension, his eyes fire and brimstone as they bore into mine. “You and I are meant for forever, angel. There’s no one else. Only you. It’s always been you.”
His words start a riot beneath my ribcage.
I grasp that mask of indifference with broken fingers and bloody nails to force it on my face.
It’s too tight and uncomfortable, but I need it because I’m on the edge of folding like a cheap suit.
I blow out a heavy exhale. “I understand, okay? Why you can’t tell me about my past. I went with Sam to see a dark witch and—”
Panic ripples through his features. “What did you do?”
“Calm down. She just inspected the barrier. And told me the same things you did. But while you see a future for us, I can’t—because you can’t build one on top of lies.
That’s not the kind of relationship I want.
I can’t be with someone I can’t trust…I’m tired, and I desperately need a shower.
Goodbye, Kaiden. Have a nice life.” I turn on my heel and traipse down the path toward the exit.
“And stop sending me flowers. I’m running out of women’s shelters to drop them at. ”