Forget About Midnight (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #9)(22)

“I’m fine, Jezzy. Really. It’s just going to take some time for me to get my shit together. How are you?”

I stepped back and gave her a studious once over. With her golden ponytail and leggy frame draped in yoga wear, she looked like the Jez I knew and loved. But something was off. It wasn’t just the narcotics. It was the darkness inside her. I could feel it now without even trying. I glanced at Kale to see if he was aware of it, but he gave no indication.

“Been better. Been worse too. It’s all good. God, I’ve missed you.” She hugged me again before turning to punch Kale in the arm. It was hard enough to jostle him, and he gifted her with a scowl. “Would it kill you guys to come hang out or something? Just because I don’t want to run amok with you doesn’t mean you have to shut me out.”

“I wasn’t trying to shut you out,” I said. “It’s been a tough week. The last thing I wanted was to risk hurting you.”

“So?” She shrugged and crossed her arms. “Do you want to hurt me?”

Her question gave me pause. Did I want to? I wasn’t sure. The longer I stood there considering it, the more certain I was that I didn’t want to taste Jez’s blood. Breathing it in, letting it reach inside me to where the bloodlust lay, it did nothing.

It wasn’t just the drugs. It was the fact that there was nothing human about Jez. Her mother was a shifter, but her father was a demon. That’s where the darkness within her came from, a darkness I had yet to tell her about. I’d tasted the blood of a fallen angel, and it had thrown me on my ass. No part of me wanted to taste the blood of a demon’s offspring.

I loved Jez. She was like a sister to me. It came as a great relief that I didn’t want her.

“No,” I said, feeling shitty about what I had yet to share with her. “I don’t. Your blood… it smells different. It doesn’t call to me that way.”

She frowned, managing to look completely offended. “What the hell does that mean? Do I smell nasty to you?” Her gaze darted to Kale, and she said something to him about how he’d enjoyed a taste of her, but I was barely listening.

My senses burned as a cold storm exploded to life inside me. A jolt of panic followed. Arys. He was here. I could feel him.

I took a few steps back, casting a frantic glance around. “Jez, what did you do?”

She pursed her lips and raised both brows, clearly searching for a response. It didn’t matter though because Arys was moving fast.

Before I could decide to run, he was there, stepping into sight and stopping dead in his tracks when his gaze landed on me. I stood there in stunned silence.

“Arys.” His name was a whisper on my lips.

He stood there looking both pained and relieved. With his shock of bedroom-messy, black hair and deep-blue eyes the color of stormy seas, Arys was as gorgeous as ever.

My stomach clenched as the power rose up inside me in response to his presence. It felt like finding that missing puzzle piece long after accepting that it was lost. Like finding the missing link in a vital connection. The part of me that was his exploded with delight. It drove me forward and with a sob lodged in my throat, I hurled myself into his arms.

Chapter Seven

A spark lit up the night around us as our power united, two frenzied energies finding one another again. Arys’s embrace was solid. He held me like he would never let me go. He buried his face in my hair, and I felt him shaking with emotion.

Wanting to give us privacy, Jez grabbed hold of Kale and dragged him away. I sensed his reluctance, and I hated myself for dragging him deeper into my mess.

“You make me f*cking crazy, you know that?” Arys said before kissing me with a burning passion that I happily basked in.

I kissed him back with everything I had, every broken and shattered part of me. The joy and the sorrow mingled in a dance of despair that left me feeling like a volcano about to erupt. Emotion drove me as I aggressively devoured him. With a surge of deep-rooted rage, I pulled away and let my hand fly, smacking him with a viciousness that surprised me.

“That’s for killing me,” I all but shouted. Then I slapped him again, snapping his head from one side to the other. “And that’s for enjoying it so damn much.”

Arys took my violence like he took every part of me, with ease. He looked like he’d been expecting it. “I suppose that’s fair. But you know I had to do it. Hell, you demanded it.”

“I know that. But did you have to enjoy it so f*cking much? I felt the way you loved it. You got off on it.” It hurt. Just being there with him, knowing what he’d felt as he had drained my life away. It wasn’t fair of me to punish Arys for being who he was. Somehow I was still shocked at the depths of his enjoyment at killing me. Perhaps it was naïve, but I had thought part of him might suffer. He had wanted it though and loved every second.

Not willing to let me out of reach, Arys pulled me back into his embrace. Plunging a hand into my blonde locks, he said sadly, “I’ve been worried sick about you, Alexa. Being apart is hurting you more than it’s helping.”

The walls I’d tried to build over the last week had crumbled to dust at the sight of him. Dejected and morose, I mumbled into his shirt, “Is that why you came? To stop me from acting like a vampire? That’s a bit hypocritical coming from you, Arys.”

“No, of course not. I came to stop you from doing things now that you will regret for several lifetimes over.”