CHAPTER 10 #3
“I know. Just give me a second. Logic can’t hold a candle to bonding instincts.”
He chuckled, low and dark. “Yes, I’m learning that myself.”
I lost a few moments trying to get my anger under control, coming back to myself when Michael stopped us by the door and checked his watch.
“The sun just set,” he said. “With the vampires rising, the witches will be pulling back. The risk to their health is too great to linger outside their territory at night. Unlike witches, vampires can’t cloak their whereabouts, so their power draws our soldiers like a beacon when they enter our territory. We shouldn’t encounter any trouble.”
“Our first stress-free evening together,” I said.
He nodded and reached for the door handle. “Are you ready?”
I shrank the cage on my power. “Ready.”
He pulled the door open and led us into the night beyond.
I expected there to be fewer people out and about. With the nearby shops closed and rush hour over, it wasn’t a bad assumption, but I’d forgotten that it was a Friday, and that Boston’s nightlife was so active.
The sound wave punched into me, and I let out a pained “Oof.”
Michael closed the door behind us, then surprised me by slipping his hand into mine. It did wonders to distract me from the dissonance roaring in from the surrounding streets. Hard to zero in on the wail of an ambulance when the sound of my mate’s pulse was suddenly deafening.
I looked over at him, both grateful that he’d grabbed my hand and curious as to why he’d done it.
“We need to acclimate to physical touch,” he said as we started walking. “The current level of distraction it causes is a weakness. One that someone might find a way to use against us.”
How? By stripping us naked and tying us together? I wanted to ask, then immediately started panicking when my brain supplied me with a mental image to accompany the words.
Michael ran his thumb over the back of my hand, sending shivers in its wake and doing nothing to help my dirty thoughts.
“About what you said a moment ago. I want to reiterate my previous offer to you. I can shift my work schedule around until we gain greater mastery over the bond, and we can spend weekends in New Hampshire.”
I glanced at him. “You’d really do that for me?”
He nodded.
My gaze dropped to his full lips. I wanted to lean over and kiss him in thanks. Clamping down on that sudden urge, I turned back to the street. “Thank you. I think that would really help.”
“No doubt it will help us both. The city can be a taxing place for our kind. I grew up here, and even I am not immune to its stressors. With all the upheaval of the past few days, you’re not the only one in need of a break.”
I let out a shaky laugh. “Has it really only been a few days?”
“Somehow, yes.”
We emerged from the narrow lane onto a wider boulevard a few minutes later.
People turned to look at us as we passed.
I caught our reflection in a shop window.
We looked good together. Like a matched set.
Our strides were the same. We had similar coloring.
The bond brought us together in small, subtle ways that made us move down the sidewalk like we shared a hive mind.
Because we did, I realized. In all the chaos, I hadn’t gotten a chance to freak out about how weird it was that I now shared my emotions with a near stranger.
I’d skipped right over it and gone straight to damage control.
Digging deep, I tried to drum up some angst about it now, but nothing happened.
I must already be over it. Either that or I’d suffered so many back-to-back shocks that weirdness didn’t register anymore.
Or—and I was a little worried this was the real reason—I liked the feel of Michael in the back of my mind.
“So, where are we going?” I asked.
“To a hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant that serves the best Kashmiri food in the city,” he answered.
“Good. I’m starving. Can we get a corner table or a secluded booth so I don’t freak out the humans with how much I eat?”
The amusement I felt through the bond didn’t register on his face. Not out here where there were other people to see it. He squeezed my hand instead. “Of course.”
Metaphysical electricity surged between us. I sucked in a breath. “My skin still feels like it’s on fire.”
“Mine, too. But I’m not going to let a little discomfort get the better of me.” He looked my way, a brow arched in challenge. “Are you?”
“Of course no—”
I came to a dead stop. I’d been so distracted by our touch that at first, I didn’t hear it.
“Layla?”
I shushed him and craned my head. From several alleys away came the unmistakable sounds of a struggle.
I loosened the bars that caged my power.
The sound of a whimper reached my ears. The whisper-soft snick of sharp teeth puncturing flesh.
A muffled cry of pain. I dragged in a breath and scented the dry, brittle scent of buried things and a coppery tang suffused with aether.
A vampire had just spilled a witch’s blood.
I dropped Michael’s hand and rushed toward them.