Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
As I peek from underneath my covers, I watch the angel’s finger weirdly drip with golden magic, which he then uses to wipe away the sound bubble. My top lip lifts with a silent snarl, and I shake my head at him. He is such a show-off. A normal finger poke would have done the job.
As soon as the bubble drops, sound rushes in, and straightaway there seems to be an issue. There’s a ruckus in the hallway.
“I’ve come to collect my female!” some idiot bellows.
Xander groans and strolls from the room. The man sure knows how to move. If I couldn’t see or I hadn’t personally felt all the bumpy muscles in his torso, then I’d think he didn’t have any. His movement is less like a walk and more like a liquid ooze.
The doctor goes back to his datapad, tapping the screen like a man possessed. I hope he’s deleting my medical history.
Xander’s quiet voice joins the conversation outside, and then the door shudders as something hits it.
I roll my eyes; the angel is so diplomatic.
What’s happening now? I can’t stump up enough fear to be bothered.
I’m all tapped out. Yet self-preservation makes me tilt my head to the side and concentrate, using my hybrid ears to their advantage.
“She’s only just woken up.” Xander’s voice drops to a scary growl. They must be right outside the bedroom now as I don’t have to strain my ears to listen. “You are not permitted to interact with her.” He sounds so ominous.
“I don’t give a fuck what you think. She’s mine. I bit her, so she’s my property now. It’s the law,” the man growls back.
Ah, now I recognise the voice. It’s Frank the freaky shifter from the club. So I am reduced to property now? I huff out a laugh. That guy needs a good kicking.
Suddenly I’m motivated to get out of bed and get dressed. I sit up and look around for something to wear.
The angel responds with a laugh of his own. It’s a creepy, dark chuckle that gives me an entire body shiver. How can one laugh hold so much distaste?
“Listen here, Angel, you have no right to keep me from her. I have permission from the shifter council, so you’d better get out of my way.”
There’s a handily left-out pile of clothing on the dresser, so I spring out of bed, grab the bundle, and hustle past the doctor and into the en suite bathroom.
I don’t trust the angel not to step out of the shifter’s way and let him in.
I slam the door and hit the lock. There.
I feel marginally safer. The fancy white bathroom has nice subway-style tiles, and the big tiles on the floor have speckles of gold—just like Xander’s eyes.
I grunt at my random thought and eye the glass shower wistfully.
I’m magically clean. Even my teeth—I prod them with my tongue—are sparkling.
But nothing makes you feel cleaner than a hot shower.
I pout. Sadly, I have no time, and I don’t feel safe enough to strip naked.
I rifle through the clothes to find underwear, black leggings, and an oversized red hoodie. I quickly dress.
“Well, you’ll have to get in line,” Xander says as I open the bathroom door.
Huh? What does he mean? The doctor has left the bedroom.
In case I have to fight my way out, I lift my arms above my head to stretch, and my wrists click as I roll them.
I feel great. Better than I have in months. Perhaps I just needed sleep? Yep, four days, or was it five? I’m so healthy.
I better plait my hair. As I section my hair, I hear the beep of a phone keypad and then ringing. “It’s Xander. I have something that you might be interested in.” He pauses as someone says something—I can’t hear the other side of the conversation as the phone is spelled. “Yes, she’s here—”
Forgetting my hair for the moment, I shuffle closer to the door and rest my fingers on the white wood.
“—no, not a bitten shifter. She’s an unregistered half pureblood.”
What the what now?
“Yes, a female… the female. I’ll send you a temporary portal code.”
The bloody angel sold me out.
Without thinking too much about it, I yank open the door and stomp towards him. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. My inner voice screams at me to not even attempt to beat up the angel. Even while lost in my temper, I know hitting the angel is not a smart thing to do. Go me.
Instead, I poke his chest.
“Fucking traitor.” Poke. “Sell-out.” Poke. “That was my secret to tell, not yours.” Poke, poke. My finger bends awkwardly each time I prod him.
Bloody rock-hard arsehole.
Still on the phone, the angel eyes shine down at me with humour, and he responses to my poking by lifting a perfect eyebrow. “Yes, she is a handful. I’ll arrange a meeting. See you soon. Stop it.” Xander slaps my hand down and puts his phone away.
My nostrils flare with indignation, and I glare at him as I rub my hand. The ligaments ache. He was like poking a brick wall.
“You’re coming with me,” says a slimy voice. Behind me, a heavy hand thumps down on my shoulder, and what I think is a thumb digs into the joint. Ouch.
I turn my head and glare at the meaty, hairy hand. The fingernails are black with dirt. Underneath my hoodie, my skin crawls.
Shit, I did it again; I left myself exposed. Will I never learn? With a huff, I pull my heavy hair away from my face. Looks like my mind still gets fuzzy when the angel is around. I have to accept some part of me will always be drawn to Xander.
I wiggle my shoulder to dislodge the shifter, and Frank the dickhead digs his fingers in more. I can’t help my wince as he tweaks a nerve. Xander’s eyes harden as Freaky Frank tugs me back into his chest.
The entire situation flicks the angry switch inside me.
I react like a woman possessed, and I respond with every angry part of my body.
I twist away from him. The wooden floor beneath me helps me spin like a dancer in my socks.
I don’t even think. Muscle memory takes over, and once again I smack the shifter’s face.
“That’s for touching me.” I hit his nose and feel the bones underneath crunch.
“That’s for biting me.” I turn and hit his nose with my left fist to get at a different spot.
I grin menacingly as his face crunches underneath my misdirections, and a well-placed knee to the stomach gives a satisfying oof sound from his bloody lips.
Just when I find a good ass-kicking rhythm, I once again find myself airborne, and I’m pressed up against stone-like muscle.
Mmm, bumpy, bumpy abs.
The bloody pretzel move. I’m going to kill him.
“Know that I allowed you to do that, my shadow. I won’t allow you again. You’re a guest in my home. I get you’re frustrated, but violence isn’t the answer.”
“Oh, but allowing this guy to manhandle me is perfectly acceptable? Different rules for everyone, is that what you are saying?” I growl out as I try in vain to wiggle out of his hold. “He chomped the tip of my finger off, and then the dickhead comes to pick me up? I am not a fucking takeaway.”
The shifter steps towards me, wiping his hand across his bloody face. I bare my teeth at him, flashing my itty-bitty fangs.
“Do not take one more step. You know my rules,” Xander says almost conversationally to the shifter.
Of course he completely ignores what I’ve just said.
I realise at that moment my victory over Frank was too easy.
Not once did he try to hit me back… I deflate.
It looks like the angel has him on a tight leash.
Hmm. He’s not the only one.
Xander gives me a little shake and whispers in my ear, “Settle down.”
Settle down?
“HE. TRIED. TO. KILL. ME,” I yell.
Frank stays right where he is, a smirk on his ugly face. I can tell he’s trying to pretend he isn’t affected by my attack, but his chest rapidly moves as he pants. Blood trickles down his face. “I can’t wait till we are alone,” he says.
“Yeah, neither can I, but not for the same reasons. You sick fuck.”
He looks me up and down and his tongue flicks out to lip the blood from his lip.
Ew. I roll my eyes.
Even with my wrists secured in Xander’s one-handed grip, I can still give the shifter both my middle fingers. Fuck you, I mouth in case he didn’t get my point. A low growl rumbles up from his chest, and it’s my turn to smirk back at him.
“What a creepy shit—”
Xander shakes me again in warning.
“He made me bleed, and as you said yourself, if I were human and if his teeth were shifted, he could have killed me.”
“What do you mean if you were human?”
“You’re not very bright, are you, Frank?
” I say through gritted teeth. “Did you not hear the telephone conversation that he just made”—I awkwardly nod my head back to indicate my restrainer and almost brain myself on his pec—“to the vampires? The half shifter, half vampire? He was talking about me. You didn’t turn me you, idiot; I’m a hybrid. ”
The tree-trunk arm around my waist squeezes me with a warning.
“No, I did. You’re a lying whore,” Frank says with a whine.
“Yeah, you believe that, Frank. I’m a lying whore, and you turned the first female in the history of shifters.” I shake my head and curl my lip with disgust. “Fucking idiot,” I finish with a mumble.
Warm breath tickles my ear. “I’m sorry I didn’t protect you and that you were hurt. Please trust me to deal with this.”
“Trust you?” I scoff. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that. Trust is for children and dogs.”
“Are you going to behave?”
“No,” I spit out.
I make it a point to tell this guy the truth what with his sneaky angel tricks. Like hell am I going to behave! I tried that before and almost lost a finger.
The arm that he has around my waist moves. I squeak as Xander places his palm against a sliver of bare skin between the top of my leggings and hoodie, which has ridden up in our struggle. The hand on my side gets warmer, and my skin tingles.
“Sleep, my shadow.”
“Not your fucking shadow.”
Everything goes black.