Darker (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #6)(54)

A cool breeze lifted my hair. I felt Arys before he entered the building. We hadn’t spoken since I left him standing outside Shya’s house. My anger had long since faded. After everything that had taken place since last night, I had no interest in fighting with him.

“Arys is here.” I glanced anxiously toward the door. “I don’t want him to see me like this.”

“You two need to talk,” Jez said, giving my arm an affectionate pat. “We’ll go sit down. You talk to Arys, and if you need us, we’ll be right here.”

“Whatever you do,” Willow added. “Don’t lose your temper. You could burn the whole building down.”

Don’t lose my temper? That was easier said than done as far as Arys was concerned. Willow and Jez left me standing there feeling helpless, though I was far from it. I didn’t want Arys to see me there, amid the partygoers, filled to capacity with power that didn’t belong to me. Drifting into the corner behind the bar, I waited.

He strode into The Wicked Kiss looking like an animal on the prowl. With his perfectly messed black hair and tight black jeans, Arys never ceased to make my knees weak. It seemed the more he drove me nuts, the more I wanted him. I anticipated the moment he would look my way.

Those midnight blue eyes landed upon me lurking in the corner. My stomach clenched when he came my way. Were we destined to always be this way? Growing more desperately in love with one another as the conflict between us also grew.

“What happened to you, beautiful wolf?” Arys took my face in his hands and gazed into my eyes. “I can feel your wolf’s unrest.”

His mention of my wolf brought forth a sadness I thought I’d buried. I shook my head and searched for the right words.

“It’s my fault. I underestimated Falon.” I went on to explain my poor attempt to manipulate information out of the fallen angel. I wanted to tell him what I’d learned about my wolf but couldn’t bring myself to put it into words. Not yet.

“I’m sorry, Alexa.” Arys pressed his lips to mine in a tender kiss. “About Shya. I shouldn’t hide things from you. I just want to protect you.”

“Look at me, Arys.” I kissed him back, nibbling his bottom lip. “You can’t protect me from everything. You can’t even protect me from yourself.”

He stiffened and pulled away. “I can damn well try.”

Irritation took hold, and I huffed in annoyance. Arys needed to accept that I could handle myself. His insecurities were not my weaknesses. They were his. I grabbed a candle from the closest empty table and blew out the flame. Concentrating on the foreign entity inside me, I waved a hand over the candle, and the wick ignited.

Arys’s eyes widened, and he appeared mildly impressed. I couldn’t be too self-satisfied; that simple use of Falon’s power had my head throbbing.

“I hate to say it, but I’m kind of glad it was you and not me,” Arys admitted with a grin. “I’ve entertained the thought of sinking fangs into him more than once. How bad does it hurt?”

I had to pull out the tissue Jez had given me and dab the blood from my nose again. “Like a bitch.”

Then, I noticed that I hadn’t detected the slightest thought from him since his arrival. I stared at him, trying to pull something from him. Nothing.

“I can hear the thoughts of most of the people in here, but I can’t hear yours.”

“That’s the plan. I keep my thoughts guarded. Many things can read minds, and I take no chances. You should do the same. It’s no different than when you close me out of your mind. Same idea.”

“Why are we not superheroes with abilities like this?” I joked. “Seems to me, we’d be pretty close to unstoppable.”

Arys dropped his gaze, but not before I saw the worry flash through his eyes. Taking the tissue from me, he gently dabbed the blood that dripped from my nose. Maybe it was a very good thing that I couldn’t hear his thoughts. I didn’t think I wanted to know what was going on in his head right then.

“Some people think we are just about unstoppable. They may be right.” He pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead. Reaching to touch me metaphysically, I felt him shudder in response to what he felt thundering inside me. “You smell like wolf, but you feel like him. That f**king useless angel.”

I didn’t need to be inside Arys’s head to know he would never stop blaming himself for condemning me to a future I now dreaded with every part of me. I needed him to know and to understand that it wasn’t his fault. He had to accept it. Until he did, he would forever hold us both hostage to his misery.

A couple sat a few tables away, the only other people in the darkened corner. They were both human. Their hands were clasped across the table. Very clearly, I heard him wonder if she were really in love with the vampire she’d been shacking up with here or if she was under his influence. She stared at their hands and wondered why he had to make this so difficult; couldn’t he just accept her choice?

She was breaking up with him, and I had to listen to her selfish thoughts as she did so. He was human. What could he offer her that would compare to the promise of eternity? Maybe some people were happy to settle for a “normal” life, but she had the chance to discover something extraordinary. Her mind was made up.

“You’re making a huge mistake,” I whispered beneath my breath. I wanted to grab her, to shake her and tell her she didn’t know what she was getting into. Get out while you still can.