I stare into his eyes. “Built to end her. What about you? Does it end you?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” He vanishes after the cryptic comment, taking his coat with him, leaving me shivering and pissed off. I turn on my heel and march back to the HQ, practically kicking the door open to the shop.
Taye is upstairs now, tending to her herbs, and she looks up as I storm inside.
“Did you know?” I spit out. “Did you know that thing could’ve killed me?”
She smiles. “All of the things can kill you, Nyssa.”
“None have come that close.”
“And yet here you are.”
“No thanks to you.”
Her smile grows more mysterious as she takes a step back, fading into the book stacks to a place I can’t follow.
I sigh sharply, but I’m not convinced by her motives. She knows more than she is letting on, but then, so am I. I can’t really bitch about it when I’m doing the same. I turn on my heel and push my way back out into the rain, pissed off, but I only have myself to blame.
Chapter 10
Nyssa
The visitor waiting for me when I get home is not entirely unexpected but is definitely not welcome.
“Fuck off,” I growl at Dastian, who is lounging next to the front door, not getting wet.
I, on the other hand, look like a drowned rat.
He grins, looking infuriatingly dry and comfortable. “You look like you’ve had a rough morning. Want to talk about it?”
“No.” I fish my keys out of my pocket with numb fingers. “I want to get inside, take a hot shower, and pretend that gods don’t exist for at least twenty minutes.”
“Twenty whole minutes? That’s ambitious.” He doesn’t move from his spot blocking my door. “Did the Tidewraith give you trouble?”
“Of course you know about that. Funny how you didn’t swoop in to help, though, isn’t it?”
That knocks the smile off his face for a fraction of a second, and I feel victorious. Until a shiver of dread goes down my spine as my near-death catches up to me.
“Thought you didn’t need my help,” he counters as I push past him and open the door.
“I don’t. I’m good without all of you.” I try to shut the door, but he catches it with his hand, holding it open with seemingly no effort at all.
“Sure you are. That’s why Dreven had to save your arse from getting erased.”
“He didn’t save me. He… intervened.” I toe off my shoes and try to shut the door again, but he is too strong.
“Semantics.” He follows me inside without invitation, which is just perfect.
He closes the door behind him.
“Get out of my house. You aren’t invited.”
“Not a vampire, and a bit late. I’m already inside.”
“Because you barged your way in here. Don’t gods have any sense of boundaries?”
“Who knows?” he says with a shrug.
