Untouchable Darkness (The Dark Ones Saga, #2)(13)

“You know,” I whispered. “You could try to at least be nice to me while we’re training.”

He frowned. “Am I not being nice?”

“Are you insane?”

“Is that sarcasm?”

Cassius looked genuinely confused, like I’d just shouted that I wanted to ride a zebra in for dinner.

“You aren’t smiling at me, you haven’t even asked what I want in this whole scenario, and you touch me like I’m diseased!” I shouted. “Is that your definition of nice?”

His nostrils flared as he pounded a hand next to my head, a mirror crashed to the floor. “Smiling takes an effort I’m not willing to extend lest it become a habit, especially in your presence! I’m not asking your opinion because frankly I don’t give a shit what you think. And I don’t touch you because the very idea of your skin coming into contact with mine sends this ridiculously human body into flight. And I refuse to run away—from a woman.”

Forget about not wanting to kill him.

I slammed my hands against his chest, his body went flying across the room, landing on my bed, hammering the posts into the wall and creating giant holes I knew Mason was going to be pissed about fixing and hiding from Ethan.

The air in the room fell below zero as ice trickled along my veins. My skin turned a vivid white as my eyes took in every bit of moisture in the air, freezing it to my advantage so I could create an icy stake to plunge through Cassius’s cold, heartless chest.

My hands snapped forward, the ice joined together in front of my eyes. I gripped the makeshift weapon and launched myself into the air, arm raised.

When I landed on the bed, straddling Cassius.

It wasn’t terror, or fear, I found.

But elation.

His smile was huge, beautiful.

I dropped the ice stake and fell backward, my body turning warm again. “What the hell was that?”

“That—” His grin widened. “—is what happens when you piss off a Dark One. Good to know you aren’t defective.”

“I could have killed you.”

“I’m human. Therefore, every second I suck in air, I’m dying. It would have been worth it to see you what you’re capable of.”

“But!” I covered my face with my hands. “I’m dangerous, you said so yourself, in the car, you said to control my emotions, you said—”

“I said a lot of things,” he interrupted. “Listen to what I’m saying now. I’m truly here to help you. Not because I was punished.”

My heart sped up automatically as my head snapped to attention and I sought his gaze. “Really?”

He nodded, his eyes drinking me in. “I’m here out of an intense desire to help you—and to make sure you don’t kill the rest of your family in one of your adolescent mood swings.”

“I’m not a child.”

“Says the little girl who created a spike out of ice with the intent of stabbing me in the chest, all because her feelings were hurt.”

“You were mean.”

“It was necessary.”

“How do you figure?”

“How else am I supposed to help you?” Cassius leaned up on his elbows. “If I don’t allow you to see the darkest parts of yourself?”

“That’s what you want? To see my darkness?”

“No.” His eyes flashed. “I teach you how to fight the darkness—so you can recognize the light.”

My breath hitched.

Warmth trickled throughout my chest as I stared at his mouth. His eyes gave nothing away—and everything at the same time. He kept his expression indifferent, yet I could hear his heart race.

It sounded like mine felt.

I pressed a hand to his chest.

He covered the hand with his.

With a sigh I leaned down and pressed a kiss to his cheek, then brushed my lips against his mouth.

He didn’t kiss me back.

Rejection washed over me. Obviously I’d read the situation completely wrong. His heart was racing but not for me.

“Don’t.” His hoarse voice rattled my confidence even more. “Don’t kiss me—not unless you mean it.”

“What?”

“Kiss me when you’re calm… not when you’ve just come down from what any human would consider the ultimate adrenaline high. Then you’ll mean it. But don’t kiss me out of curiosity, out of thankfulness, or even out of attraction. It doesn’t work that way.”

Ashamed, I looked down, unable to keep eye contact because I hated that he was right. I loved the man.

But he was right.

“And anytime you’d like to get off of me that would be great,” he finished, grinning. “Because as much as I’d like to compliment you on your lithe body—you’re about two minutes away from crushing my liver.”

With a scowl I jumped off him, but when he tried to follow, I pushed him back onto the bed.

He grunted and tumbled over the other side.

I smiled to myself and started walking toward the door. “Hurry up, human. We don’t have all day.”

“You forget,” he said from the floor. “You may be a Dark One, but you gave up your immortality the day you saved my life.”

“I’d conveniently forgotten that part, since it was magically given back to me when you disappeared.”