Wild and Free (The Three #3)(46)

“The thing you just did.”

He stopped and focused on me, eyes blank.

Carefully blank.

“Drink blood, Delilah.”

“I know, Abel.”

“Have to do it, but I’ll do it quick so you don’t have to watch.”

I closed the fridge and faced off with him. “Honey, you’ve drawn from me.”

“I know, I was there,” he returned, his tone threaded with a sudden stiffness.

“And you left our beer and bullshitting fest upstairs yesterday to have your real lunch,” I reminded him.

“Your point?” he asked.

“My point is you’re you. That’s what you do. What you need. Why would it matter if I saw you doing it or not?”

“It’s not something humans do,” he told me as if I didn’t know.

“And?” I prompted.

“And, I saw your reaction the first time I did it. So I’ll save you from bein’ disgusted by it by not doin’ it in front of you, or if I have to, doin’ it quick.”

Oh my God.

“Honey, I’m not disgusted by it,” I said gently.

“Saw your reaction, Delilah,” he returned, no thread now, his tone was full-on stiff.

I threw out a hand. “Well, you know, it was my first time. Cut me some slack for that. But now, things are different.”

“How are they different?” he shot back. “I still drink blood.”

“It’s different because I know you better.”

“Again, that makes it different how?” he asked.

“I don’t know, it just does. It’s a part of you. And I’m a part of you,” I returned. “You’ve kissed me. You’ve held me. You’ve f*cked me. You’ve made love to me. You’ve met my dad. You’ve met members of my family. You’ve slept beside me. You’ve come inside me, repeatedly. We’re connected.”

“Maybe we should quit talking about this,” he suggested, and I did not like that.

I didn’t because he clearly had some issue with this, an issue with something that might not be natural to me, but was not only natural but essential to him, he’d told me he thought he was a monster, and there was no way the things I was saying shouldn’t be getting in.

Unless he’d built a wall to letting them in.

“Abel—”

“We’re movin’,” he declared.

“No, we need to talk about—”

“What I mean is, we’re movin’. From Serpentine Bay. Just you and me. Not my family. Yours can escort us, act as guard close to wherever I find for us to settle that’s out of the way and safe, but we’re goin’. And I’m sorry, Lilah, but that means you gotta leave your life behind and you need to start doin’ that while I look into finding us a place that’s safe.”

I stared at him, my throat getting tight.

It got tighter when he finished, “We’ll also leave behind your dad and his boys when we get to a place we can do that. It won’t be safe for them to know where we are either. But the way your dad is with you, he’s gonna have to have a part in gettin’ you where you’re goin’ and I gotta give him that. But he won’t be goin’ all the way.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked on a horrified whisper.

“This shit that’s goin’ down, it isn’t a surprise,” he explained. “I’ve had decades of premonitions that something like this was gonna happen. Now it’s happening. And the target isn’t my family. It’s you and it’s me. As much as I love them, as much as I owe them, as much as they’re a part of me, somethin’ in me knows I got one priority. You. I gotta focus on keepin’ you safe. I cannot focus on keepin’ everyone safe. But I gotta find a way to make them safe, and turn my focus solely to you, which means getting them out of danger. And that means us out of their lives.”

I couldn’t believe this.

“But that…that…” I shook my head. “That will destroy them.”

All of them. Jian-Li and my father especially.

His jaw got tight even as he replied, “Yeah, I know. Didn’t say I liked it, but it has to happen. They may be destroyed, but they’ll be it breathin’.”

“Abel, I don’t think—”

“Need you at my back with this, Lilah.”

I threw out both hands. “But I’m not sure I agree with you.”

“They’ll be back,” he whispered, his voice nearly a hiss, the sound crawling up my spine. “Not four of them. Not six. More. A lot more. My brothers, they can take care of themselves one-on-one. Two-on-one, that’ll get dicey. More? No f*ckin’ way. These f*ckers have power and speed, but they also got skill. I want my brothers to find women. I want them to make babies. I want them to live lives where they aren’t movin’ around every few years, protectin’ me so no one will notice them age, but me not. I want them settled. I want them happy. I want them alive.”

Oh God, I got him.

I so got him.

And what I got broke my heart because he was right.

We had to go to keep the people we loved safe.

“Okay, baby,” I said quietly.

“You’ll have my back?” he asked tersely.