Darker (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #6)(83)

I didn’t argue. Hell, he had a point. Until I walked into Lilah’s, I just had to pass the time. Sleep would be a necessary factor in readying myself… after exhausting myself with my dark lover, of course.

Chapter Twenty

“Arys, get your ass out of that shower before I’m forced to flush the toilet and scald you out.”

I swiped a hand through the steam layering the mirror, but my reflection was still hazy. I saw calm brown eyes staring back at me. My hair was long and loose, falling down my back in a wave of ash blonde. Smoky black liner and mascara was all the makeup I wore. It created a dramatic cat eye effect, just the start of the drama for the evening.

“Why don’t you get your ass in here and soap up my… back?” he chuckled. “Don’t make me rub one out without you.”

“Alright, that’s it.” I reached over and flushed the toilet, giggling when Arys shouted a litany of curses.

“Not cool, Alexa.”

Ignoring him, I left the bathroom and rifled through my closet. Yoga pants and a simple black tank top made up my casual but easy to move in outfit. I knew I’d be fighting for my life in a matter of hours and couldn’t shake the sense of urgency. Having to wait until midnight to hit up Lilah’s party of mayhem and doom was making me impatient. I wanted to rush in and save my sister. Unfortunately, it couldn’t be that easy.

I took a slow, steady breath. Remaining calm and focused was in my best interest. It was just so damn tough.

Arys’s notebook lay on the bedside table. I had woken up to the sound of a pencil scratching against paper. Arys’s long buried artistic flare had recently come back to life. It was good for him; he needed an outlet that wasn’t blood and death.

Curious, I picked up his notebook. He’d been drawing a wolf. It stared off into the distance, seeing something beyond the boundary of the page. The wistful expression it wore was painfully familiar. The wolf wasn’t me; it was clearly Shaz.

“It’s not my best work,” Arys’s voice came from behind me.

I turned to him with a smile. “It’s beautiful. Really.” And, it was. It also caused a pang of longing so fierce my chest ached.

Arys readied himself as I watched. In jeans and a t-shirt, he looked comfortable but prepared to fight. His wet hair had dried into the sexy mess it always was. The few silver piercings he often wore were absent, the jewellery left on the bathroom counter. I drank in the sight of him, wanting to hold on to one of our last moments alone together until this was all over.

“We have time for a quickie,” he teased, poking the ticklish spot in my side until I laughed. He pulled me into his arms and kissed the top of my head. “Are you ready? I don’t want to send you in there alone.”

“Yeah, I’m ready. The wait is killing me. Besides, I won’t be alone. Jez will be with me.” I hugged him extra tight, and a small sigh escaped me.

The drive to the city was tense. I was tightly wound; the anxious energy building in my core had me vibrating with the need to unleash it on anyone who dared to harm my sister.

Jez and Willow were waiting for us outside The Wicked Kiss. Arys tentatively suggested that we go inside and find ourselves a willing victim, something to take the edge off, but I liked my edge right where it was. I wasn’t hungry for blood tonight, only for vengeance.

“Should we say anything to Kale?” Jez asked, gesturing to his car in the lot.

“No,” I shook my head and regarded the door cautiously. “He’s got his own problems to deal with. I think he would be more of a liability than anything.”

A shadow of absolute hate passed over Arys’s face at the mention of Kale. I would definitely be doing all I could to keep them from having a further encounter.

I opened the Charger’s trunk and stared at my dagger. The Dragon Claw, just a nick, was exactly what I needed to take out Lilah.

“There’s no way she’ll let me get in there with this,” I mused.

“I’m going to try getting past her guards with this.” Jez slid the hairpin out of her golden locks, showing me the blade attached. “It’s pure silver.”

“Nice.” I nodded, regarding her with curiosity. “Does it hurt you at all?” I couldn’t help but wonder. It would take some time to adjust to the idea of Jez being half demon.

Jez tucked the hairpin back into place and smoothed out a few loose tendrils. “Nope. That’s the beauty of being mortal.”

Sure she was mortal, but if someone got a hold of that thing and plunged it into her, what would it do then? I wasn’t going to undermine Jez’s choice to bring it; I just hoped that no one would use it against her.

“I can get that in to you.” Willow pointed to the Dragon Claw. He had been relatively quiet. I wondered if it was because he was also relatively sober.

“Really? You can bring something like that when you do your little teleportation thing?” I wasn’t sure if there was a more accurate term for what angels and demons did. They could pop from place to place and lurk unseen. Teleportation just didn’t seem to fit.

Willow laughed, a musical sound that produced a sense of peace. “There are many terms for it, most of them fabricated or incorrect. Let’s just call it a translocation jump. Seems to be the best way to describe it. And yes, I can take objects with me. Unfortunately, that’s about all I can take. No live beings or anything like that.”