Lauv nodded slowly. There was no fear in her eyes, just acceptance, which I didn’t trust at all.
I grabbed my phone from the coat on the ground and handed it to Lauv.
“I want all of your numbers. And when I text, you will answer.”
She nodded again and passed the phone to Meg after entering her number. My distrust grew. They were listening too willingly. Why? Anger curled inside of me at the thought they might be entering fake numbers.
When I got it back, I sent all three of them a text and heard three devices chime with notifications.
Appeased for the moment, I nodded to Fenris to return the vials and grabbed my coat from the ground.
“Tuesday,” I repeated. “Do not fail me…or Ashlyn.”
Chapter Seven
I blinked awaythe black that I knew had crept into my eyes and shrugged into my coat. Though I needed the warmth, I shuddered at what was getting on it. And what was currently sticking to my stomach and back.
Fenris jogged to catch up to me. As he came alongside me, I plucked the other earbud from my ear and handed both of them to him without glancing his way.
“On a scale of ‘hug Fenris because he was right’ and ‘drown him in a sack in the river,’ how mad are you at me?”
“Somewhere close to wishing that knee would have found its mark.”
He hissed a breath through his teeth, then ran ahead so he could jog backward, forcing me to meet his scrutiny. All the anger I felt poured out into my words.
“I hope you run into a tree. How could you do that to me? After seeing my reaction to what happened with Piepen, how did you ever think it would be okay? If I end up with another stain from this, I will kill you.” My voice had changed a little at the end to something truly bloodthirsty and vicious.
Rather than turning tail and running like any sane creature would do, Fenris stopped and opened his arms, enveloping me in a crash-collision hug.
His mouth pressed to the top of my head as he held me tight.
“I did that so you would finally open your eyes, Eliana. You danced, and no one was hurt. The dryads might be a little stunned by the effect you had on them, but do you see them trailing behind us? No. They’re fine. The druids are fine. I’m fine.” He pulled back to look me in the eye. “And you’re fine.”
I seethed up at him for a minute before my anger broke and my bottom lip trembled.
“I’m not fine. I don’t want another mark.”
He rested his forehead against mine.
“It’s on your clothes, not your skin.”
“I can feel it soaking through. I’ve never felt so dirty in my life.” A shuddering breath escaped me. “I just want to go home.”
“Okay.”
He released me and walked at my side as we followed our trail back to the car. I could feel the way he kept looking at me and knew he was worried I was actually angry at him. I wasn’t sure how I felt since my mood seemed to fluctuate from one thought to the next.
I couldn’t truly hold Fenris to blame for what happened. He didn’t force me; he’d encouraged me. There was a difference between the two. Regardless, I’d known what the druids had wanted me to do. I wasn’t a new succubus naive to the results of a seduction. In fact, my initial reluctance had been due to just that.
In the end, Fenris was right, though. No one had been hurt, and the druids now knew about Ashlyn and would start looking for her. What I’d started out to do had been accomplished.
Yet, the cloying scent of earth and rain served as a reminder that, although I wasn’t hurt, I was far from untouched by today’s events.
“You’re still thinking about it, aren’t you?”
“My shirt is sticking to me. It’s impossible not to think about it.”
“Give me your phone.”
