Death Wish (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #5)(21)

There was silence as the two of them stared into one another. Shaz always rolled with the punches better than I did. Now that he’d accepted what we had told him, he wanted to know more. He stared expectantly at Arys who wore a mask of guilt.

“I wasn’t sure I’d ever tell her,” Arys admitted. “But, some people know about us. And, it’s changing her. Keeping it to myself wasn’t going to stop that. I only wished it would.”

I wasn’t surprised to hear that. “You’ve got to stop that shit, Arys. You can’t hide anything from me. It’s always going to come out.”

“I know. Try to see it from where I’m standing. I never knew if I’d find you, and now that I have, I don’t want to lose you.” To his credit, he had the decency to look chagrined.

His tendency to hide information and criticize my decisions was at the heart of most of our arguments. Seeing the raw emotion in his blue eyes made it hard to be angry.

“I understand. As hard as this is for me, I got the better deal. I can’t imagine what it’s been like for you.”

Arys gazed at me with those entrancing eyes. There was a seductive pull to his energy. It was manipulative, getting under my skin like a metaphysical itch.

A frown graced Shaz’s youthful face. “It’s always about you, Arys. You already had her, and that wasn’t good enough so you blood bonded her. You made her what you are. And now, it’s devouring her. You’re a real piece of work, pal.”

Arys tilted his head to the side and regarded Shaz with bitter amusement. “Watch your mouth, wolf. You were right there encouraging her to accept the blood bond. It was to keep her safe.”

“Safe from everyone but you.” Shaz was fearless, rising to challenge the vampire with his cold stare.

“Wrong!” Arys hissed. In a flash, he was up off the recliner, in Shaz’s face. “Everything I am was already inside of her. You saw signs of that before I ever bonded her. What we share isn’t about blood. It’s beyond life and death. My darkness tempts her, but you keep her wolf alive. You keep her human. But, you’re too busy whoring at The Wicked Kiss to see that.”

Shaz growled and bared fangs. I shoved my way between them, forcing them apart.

“Cut it out! Finger pointing doesn’t do a damn bit of good. I’d like you both to keep in mind that I am not an object. I don’t belong to anybody. I am my own entity, a person joined to you both in different ways but owned by neither. Got it?”

Grudgingly, they each nodded. Arys didn’t believe it. I could see it in his eyes. He believed I was his to claim, and maybe if I’d been in his place, knowing what he knew for so many years, I’d have felt the same way. Still, I wasn’t above handing out an ass kicking to either of them.

Swiping his dropped keys off the table, Shaz headed for the door with an angry stride.

“Shaz, wait.” I hurried after him and grabbed his arm, trying to make him look at me.

He shook me off and flung open the front door. “I can’t do this right now.”

“Please? Don’t leave. Not like this,” I pleaded. Fear gripped my heart as the wall between us grew.

“Sorry, Lex. I just need some time alone.”

I turned away when he disappeared through the doorway. I felt ill every time he left my side. I couldn’t shake the fear that one day it would be the last time. I didn’t want to have that vision etched in my memory forever.

Chapter Seven

I returned to the living room to find Arys settled back into the recliner. He beckoned to me with a crooked finger.

“That went well.” Crawling onto the lounger, I squeezed in beside him. “Why the hell did Shaz come to you of all people?”

His bare chest was slightly cool to the touch. He hadn’t fed recently. I ran my fingers over the hard expanse and down to the thin smattering of hair that disappeared below the waistband of his pants.

“He came to ask me for help.” Arys paused, letting me wrap my brain around that before continuing. “I’m glad he did. It took balls for him to come to me.”

“Agreed. Can you help him? I mean, what can we do?”

“What drew him in was the rush of the power and the excitement of the intimate nature of being bitten. That started with us.” Our eyes met and we shared a look. “Shaz’s problem began when he started seeking out the same thrill without us. We had no way of knowing what was going on with him. He’s too damn stubborn.”

I nodded knowingly. “He didn’t want to admit that he got off on being with you that way.”

“There’s not a damn thing anyone can do for him until he’s ready. If he wants my help, Alexa, you need to be aware of what that might mean. If he were to come to me, if he were to ask for it…”

Arys fell quiet, letting me put the rest of that sentence together. I shook my head. I couldn’t think about this right now. Sleep began to call my name, tugging at my eyelids. I didn’t realize I was drifting off until Arys touched a hand to my face and I jumped.

The chair jerked as he closed the foot extension. Gathering me in his arms, Arys brushed a kiss across the bridge of my nose. It tickled and I laughed sleepily.

“Bedtime,” Arys declared. “You don’t sleep enough.”

“There’s no time to sleep,” I mumbled into his shoulder, my arms clasped around his neck. “My sister is alive, and I’m being investigated for murder by the FPA.”